Brief reports on other matters revealed by the State Papers.
Concern at well spelt IRA graffiti
Officials at the British embassy in Dublin were concerned by the emergence of a republican poster and graffiti campaign in the city at the beginning of 1977.
A new slogan, "Brits out - peace in" began to appear widely in Dublin and the surrounding area in January. It was not thought to be a coincidence that Sinn Féin had recently announced a publicity campaign against the British presence in Ireland.
One official observed that he had counted 27 inscriptions calling on the populace to "murder the British" on a 30-mile stretch of road in Roscommon.
The issue of graffiti was not usually discussed by officials because they were generally the product of "isolated groups whose craving for self-expression is not matched by their coherence".
But the seriousness of the latest efforts was "already apparent in the unusual accuracy of the spelling employed by the sloganeers". John Bew
Meeting with Pope
James Callaghan, the British prime minister, discussed Northern Ireland with the Pope on a visit to Rome in September 1977. A meeting was thought "particularly opportune" in the light of the appointment of Msgr Tomás Ó Fiaich as archbishop of Armagh.
Dr O Fiaich was a native of Crossmaglen in Co Armagh and was known to have strong nationalist sympathies. The British were eager for the Catholic Church to adopt a more sensitive line on the issue of security policy. John Bew
SDLP irritation
John Hume was suffering from a "lack of self-confidence" and attacked the Peace Movement as an "umbrella for all the cowards in Ireland", according to Frank Dunlop, adviser to Jack Lynch.
Dunlop made the claim in a meeting with PJ Goulden, a senior figure at the British embassy.
Betty Williams and Mairéad Corrigan ( above right) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 1977. But the Peace Movement provoked the irritation of a number of local political parties , particularly the SDLP. At a meeting with the British ambassador, Robin Haydon, SDLP leader Gerry Fitt (above left, with his wife Ann) was reported to have said that the movement was "making no contribution to harmony, and was not stopping Provisional IRA violence" and that it "owed its success to the covert support" of the British government. John Bew
Black propaganda
The Rev Ian Paisley reacted angrily to claims by the Northern Secretary, Roy Mason, that he had called for an "escalation of violence" during the unsuccessful loyalist strike in 1977. He labelled the claim as "NIO black propaganda". Eamon Phoenix
Inadequate lighting at Áras left female staff suffering 'annoyance from undesirables'
The inadequacy of the lighting provided by traditional gas lamps in Phoenix Park led to "annoyance" of Áras an Uachtaráin domestic staff in the gloomy post-World War II years.
President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh's secretary lodged a complaint in 1946 according to a file made public by the National Archive office.
"I am desired by the President to state that the female members of the Áras domestic staff suffer an annoyance from undesirables when returning to the Áras through the Phoenix Park after nightfall." He sought adequate lighting "as a matter of urgency".
The Office of Public Works apologised saying that gas lighting of the roads "in the park generally had to be restricted during the emergency (World War II)".
When the problem was still "not satisfactory" it was arranged that floodlights on the gate pillars would be lit from the onset of darkness until 10.30pm "which is the hour at which the domestic staff are obliged to return to the Áras at night".
Ó Dálaigh asked for second-hand car
President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh asked the Government to take away his State Mercedes car in 1976 because travelling in the car was frequently making him sick.
He asked for it to be swapped for a second-hand Citroen DS as he had one when he was in Luxembourg as a judge of the EU Court of Justice before becoming president.
The memo said it had been suggested the reason Mr Ó Dálaigh wanted a second-hand car was that he was "anxious to avoid the criticism of both himself and the Government which he felt would come from the purchase of a new car in these times of economic stringency".