The Department of Foreign Affairs has returned a file to the National Archives that included a letter from a senior Garda describing Sinn Féin figure Gerry Kelly as a senior IRA leader in 1996.
However, assertions by Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee that the withdrawal was “normal” have been sharply rejected by history professor Diarmaid Ferriter.
The withdrawal of the file by the department was reported by The Irish Times last Saturday, three days after it was withdrawn. It prompted concern from historians that records relating to the Troubles were being interfered with.
The file included a letter that was written in May, 1996, by Noel Conroy, then serving as a Garda assistant commissioner in charge of crime and security. Mr Conroy went on to serve as Garda Commissioner between 2003 and 2007.
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In the 1996 letter, he wrote that the IRA’s strategy was dominated and controlled by five men: Gerry Kelly, Brian Keenan in Belfast, Martin McGuinness in Derry; Pat Doherty in Donegal and Thomas “Slab” Murphy in Louth. Mr Kelly is now an MLA for North Belfast.
“Gerry Kelly is emerging as the most dominant figure within this group,” wrote Conroy in a two-page letter on the IRA’s activities to the then-secretary general of the Department of Justice, Tim Dalton.
The inclusion of Mr Conroy’s letter in the files led to post-Christmas contacts between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice amid initial confusion about which department had released it.
In a Dáil parliamentary reply on Thursday to Labour TD Ged Nash, Ms McEntee said the file had been withdrawn temporarily and had now been returned.
She said her department had released 800 Northern Ireland files.
“It is normal for files to be recalled on a temporary basis, for review or consultation by officials,” she said. “Following the temporary recall, the files are returned to the National Archives. That is what was done in this instance. The file in question was recalled for review and will be returned this week.”
Rejecting the Minister’s assertion, Prof Ferriter said he could not remember another case of a previously-released file being withdrawn.
“That is a very unsatisfactory explanation,” he said, adding that the Government has let a National Archives supervisory council lapse for several years, meaning “there isn’t even a forum to raise these matters”.
Prof Ferriter said the State is not releasing even a fraction of the files that should be released annually. He added that several Government departments do not maintain any relationship with the archives.
Mr Nash had asked for the reasons justifying the file’s removal and details of the process that led to the decision.
On Thursday, Sinn Féin said it had made no effort to have the file withdrawn by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
