SDLP leader John Hume meets the IRA – Remembering the Past

BY ART Mac EOIN

ON 31 JANUARY 1985, a debate took place on BBC Radio between Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and the then SDLP leader, John Hume.

The purpose of the programme was to elaborate on a possible interaction between Sinn Féin and the SDLP after local elections in the Six Counties, which were due the following May.

The debate, however, did not become memorable for any of the important issues raised. Towards the end of the discussion, Adams told Hume that Sinn Féin would issue an invitation to the SDLP for talks. It was Hume’s startled reaction that made the headlines.

Hume claimed that it was the leadership of the IRA which made all the important decisions within republicanism. Impervious to explanations that it was Sinn Féin’s Ard Chomhairle which made decisions on behalf of the party, Hume insisted that he would only talk to the IRA.

On Friday 1 February, the leadership of the IRA accepted Hume’s request for talks, saying:

“We welcome this opportunity to rebut the disastrous consequences for the nationalist community of the SDLP’s stance.”

For years the SDLP – by its weakness on the British presence, the loyalist veto and Irish reunification – had allowed the British state to continue trying to enforce internal solutions, the IRA said, adding: “We have plenty to discuss. We are also confident that Mr Hume can take adequate security precautions for the meeting. We await his response and will be in contact.”

Hume dismissed a further invitation to talks from Sinn Féin, labelling the party “mere surrogates”.

Meanwhile, Hume’s impending meeting with the IRA was perceived by the political elite in Dublin as a breach of the anti-republican alliance within constitutional nationalism.

● Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – FitzGerald told RTÉ he wanted any IRA meeting with Hume broken up

The then Taoiseach, Fine Gael’s Garret FitzGerald, went live on RTÉ Radio to read a prepared statement in which he said that any meeting between Hume and the IRA should be “broken up” and he warned that members of the Army Council, if identified, would be arrested.

In contrast, Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey expressed “full support” for Hume’s “initiative”.

On Saturday 23 February, Hume met three representatives of the IRA leadership, including an escapee from the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. He was familiar with the other two IRA representatives and was quite satisfied with their seniority.

The talks collapsed before they could begin when Hume objected to an IRA proposal to video-record the opening and closing statements. The reason for the filming — so that a true record of the meeting would guarantee no misrepresentation and would allow the IRA some balance of media coverage — was explained to Hume but he refused. He suggested the issuing of a joint statement which was to be drafted after the meeting, the contents of which, he said, he would subsequently deviate from in interviews. The IRA rejected this proposal.

Hume’s IRA distraction from meeting with Sinn Féin merely postponed the inevitability of SDLP talks with the republican party and the first, tentative steps in a slow gradual search towards a peace process in Ireland.