Irish dancers tapping the cobbles as guests arrive, a harpist, pints of stout – the genial host raising his glass, “Sláinte everyone!” Last month’s celebration of St Patrick in 10 Downing Street, presided over by Keir Starmer, was the first such event at this famous London address in the ongoing “re-set” between the British and Irish governments. It would not have happened in Margaret Thatcher’s time as prime minister, particularly in 1982 when Anglo-Irish relations became decidedly frosty during the Falklands War.
This undeclared war began on April 2nd, 1982, when Argentina’s military junta seized the British-ruled Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) in the South Atlantic. Charlie Haughey, who led a minority Fianna Fáil government, initially joined the rest of the European Community in supporting the British position that Argentina should withdraw its forces unconditionally, a stance endorsed by the UN Security Council, of which Ireland was a member.
Three days later Thatcher dispatched a task force on a journey of 8,000 miles to retake the British overseas territory. The expedition comprised 127 warships, submarines and requisitioned merchant ships carrying troops, aircraft and equipment. One Thatcherite, the Tory MP Alan Clark, thought that it would require a miracle for the “armada” to succeed. If it did, “The Iron Lady” – or “The Lady” as Clark referred to her in his diary – would “be established forever as a national hero”.
The first major loss of life in the conflict came when the obsolete Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed by a British submarine on May 2nd with the loss of 323 lives. The Sun captured the jingoistic mood with the infamous headline “Gotcha”. The British action met with widespread criticism, in Ireland and elsewhere.
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One critic included the minister for defence, Paddy Power, who described Britain as “very much the aggressor now”. And, he added, the British should withdraw from “this little island of ours” to bring an end to the Northern Troubles. The taoiseach’s press secretary told Power he would have to retract his remarks, but the minister told him, bluntly, and colourfully, that he was not for turning. Mindful, perhaps, of his precarious situation in the Dáil, Haughey did not rebuke Power publicly – it was made known that his comments were personal and did not reflect the government’s attitude.
However, in keeping with the Irish mood, the government announced that it intended to seek an immediate meeting of the Security Council to call for a ceasefire in the Falklands.
It also demanded the lifting of European sanctions against Argentina.
Haughey’s unilateral move surprised everyone, including the UN, whose secretary general, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, continued his own peace efforts. The British described the Irish U-turn on the issue as “a mistake”, and one Whitehall official was quoted as saying that “Ireland was a fair weather friend turned disloyal in foul weather”.
As it happened, it would be two weeks before Ireland could opt out of the imposition of European sanctions. Italy did likewise, arising from its historic connection to Argentina because of the numbers of Italians who had emigrated there.
Meanwhile, the war went on. The Argentinians hit the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Sheffield, and 20 were killed in the explosion and resulting fire, which destroyed the ship.
On May 11th, Haughey said he wanted to “make it clear that we have not acted in any spirit of animosity towards our closest neighbour but rather in a desire to help. We believe that we can see the Falklands crisis objectively and separate it from other issues as a mature and responsible member of the community of nations . . . In trying to halt the conflict and prevent further loss of life we are acting in a way that seems to us the only sane and reasonable course to take.”
From May 21st, the British task force landed 4,000 troops on East Falkland where they faced a numerically-superior but largely conscripted enemy. The Argentinian forces surrendered three weeks later. More than 900 servicemen were killed in the Falklands War – 649 Argentinian and 255 British. Clark believed everything had changed for Britain over the course of 10 weeks. “Now not only have we redeemed everything that was at stake then,” he wrote in his diary, “but one has advanced immeasurably in self-esteem and in the status accorded to us by the whole world.” But he came face to face with the price to be paid in all wars when he attended the memorial service for the British dead in St Paul’s. As he passed row after row of next of kin, he anxiously “scanned their faces, but the only emotion I could see was anguish, sheer anguish”.
Thatcher won a landslide victory in the 1983 general election, and civilian rule was restored in Argentina the same year. Following the crisis, Thatcher remained angry with Haughey and refused to meet him except in brief and frosty encounters on the fringes of European summit meetings. Anglo-Irish relations had been damaged and it took some time to “re-set” them.
