Confidential files reveal McGrady was opposed to Hume-Adams peace talks

Confidential files reveal McGrady was opposed to Hume-Adams peace talks

31 August 2016

FORMER South Down MP Eddie McGrady was opposed to the Hume-Adams talks and believed the Republican movement could not be persuaded to give up violence, it has emerged.

The thoughts of the SDLP veteran — who passed away in November 2013 — surfaced in confidential files released last week by the Province’s Public Record Office.

In a memo to then Secretary of State, Tom King, in September 14, 1988, EC Hallett of the Northern Ireland Office’s (NIO) Political Affairs Division reported on a meeting with Mr McGrady in Downpatrick.

It notes how the MP was “clearly relieved” that the SDLP/Sinn Fein talks had stalled.

“He [Mr McGrady] made it clear that he never had any faith in this exercise and he refused to be part of the SDLP team for the talks,” the declassified papers state. In his view, there had never been any prospect of persuading Sinn Fein to abandon the armed struggle. Sinn Fein’s lack of sincerity had been demonstrated by the fact that violence had escalated while the talks were going on.”

Mr McGrady was also dismissive of a potential split in the Republican movement between the political and military wings.

The NIO official informed the Secretary of State that in contrast to party colleague Seamus Mallon, Mr McGrady believed the only conceivable way in which progress could be made in the immediate future was through talks between the north’s political parties about devolution.

“He is under no illusions [unlike some of his colleagues] that the unionists can be persuaded to talk to Dublin,” the official notes. “McGrady feels that it is for the SDLP to take the initiative and is doing his best to persuade his executive of this.”