Page 3 - State Archive News Today

The Irish Government examined the possibility of redrawing the border in the 1970s, taking up to 60% of Northern Ireland’s territory and up to 500,000 its citizens.

US president George W Bush warned Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that Russian president Vladimir Putin’s mentality remained that of someone who worked in the KGB.

The Irish government was determined to honour Princess Grace of Monaco and her proud commitment to her Irish heritage by having President Patrick Hillery and a strong Irish delegation attend her funeral in September 1982.

President Mary Robinson was inundated with letters from people outraged by the X Case in early 1992, with US and UK groups raising human rights concerns and accusing Ireland of “exporting its problems”.

Aer Rianta sought a Government contribution towards the IR£100,000 cost of lavishly hosting Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at Shannon Airport in 1989.

A brutal “gay bashing” attack in Sligo which left a well-known US author with brain damage and requiring the use of a wheelchair threatened to prove “a public and media embarrassment” for Ireland.

The government was worried that a decision by President Patrick Hillery to decline an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer could be “misinterpreted” both domestically and internationally at a time of strained ­Anglo-Irish relations.

President John F Kennedy’s wife Jackie phoned the Irish embassy in Washington DC from the White House just hours after the assassination of her husband in Dallas to personally ask if the Defence Forces’ cadets could play a role in his state funeral procession.

Irish officials were warned that any name change to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) would have to take into consideration unionist concerns.

In early 1993 the then justice minister Máire Geoghegan-­Quinn vowed that Ireland would urgently legislate to decriminalise homosexuality amid a threat of European sanction.