CONGRESSMAN INQUIRY:THE GOVERNMENT headed by taoiseach Jack Lynch investigated the background of a prominent US congressman for IRA links prior to his visit to Ireland in November 1978, State papers reveal.
Congressman Mario Biaggi from New York was a thorn in the side of the Fianna Fáil government led by Jack Lynch because of his associations with Irish-Americans who took a hardline republican stance, particularly in the Irish National Caucus and Irish Northern Aid.
The Lynch government preferred to deal with the group of senior US politicians known as the "Four Horsemen", which included speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, senator Ted Kennedy, New York governor Hugh Carey and senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
A massive file on Biaggi and the Irish-American scene includes a memo from senior official Frank Murray to other colleagues in the department of the taoiseach dated November 9th, 1978, which states that, "I attach as requested particulars received from the Department of Foreign Affairs in response to my request for material which would connect Congressman Biaggi publicly with men of violence."
Murray comments: "The links, public and publicised at any rate, with men of violence are a bit thin on the ground." The congressman had attended or spoken at a number of INC or Noraid functions. Further material was requested by another senior official on associations Biaggi might have had during visits to Ireland.
A Democrat from the Bronx and former high-profile police officer, Biaggi was chairman of the 120-member Ad Hoc Congressional Committee on Irish Affairs and his stated purpose in visiting Belfast and Dublin on November 15th-17th, 1978, along with congressman Ben Gilman from upstate New York, was to meet "a cross-section of groups which have expressed an interest in participating in a peace forum in Washington sponsored by the Ad Hoc Committee".
Murray's note was passed on to Mr Lynch, who had publicly quarrelled with Biaggi earlier in an exchange of letters on Northern Ireland the previous February and was clearly taking a close interest in the congressman's visit.
A further note from Hugh Swift in the Department of Foreign Affairs, copied to the Irish embassy in Washington, states that, "I was informed by the US Embassy this morning that they had heard from the State Department for information only[emphasis in original] that Biaggi hoped during his Irish visit to see the following: Dr John O'Connell, Mr John McBride (Provisional Sinn Féin - unknown to me); Mr Kevin Boland; Mr C.J. Haughey." [Note: The "John McBride" in question was probably Nobel prizewinner Seán MacBride who was not connected with Provisional Sinn Féin.]
Mr Haughey was minister for health at the time, prior to becoming taoiseach a year later, and a handwritten comment by one of Mr Lynch's officials states that it has been "seen by the Taoiseach", on whose instructions the Department of Health was contacted. "They have received no approach from Biaggi and will ensure that if one is made it will be rejected."
Indicative of the flurry created by Biaggi's visit is another telex from Irish ambassador to the US Seán Donlon, who sent a "coded message" marked "immediate/ confidential" to say he had been informed by the state department that the congressman had told US ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young of his hopes of meeting various individuals and groups ranging from Mr Haughey to archbishop (later cardinal) Tomás Ó Fiaich.
A letter on the impending visit from Hugh Swift to Dermot Nally in the department of the taoiseach dated November 2nd mulls over the appropriate response if Biaggi sought a meeting with a government representative.
"The Embassy in Washington has recommended strongly that we should do nothing which would enable the Congressman to use the visit to build up his own prestige in the United States. Accordingly, it would seem desirable that he should not be received by any Minister.
"On the other hand, he is an elected representative, and Congress is most conscious of its status, so we should avoid an outright snub. We would conclude from all of this that, should the Congressman seek a meeting, he should be offered one at official level in this Department. In effect, this would mean that I would receive him."
While there could be no question of government participation in Biaggi's "peace forum", Swift draws attention to a report from his colleague, Seán Ó hUiginn, based on a conversation with the Rev William Arlow, a participant in the Feakle peace talks in 1974, "that there may be a desire among at least some of the paramilitaries on both sides to negotiate a ceasefire and a 'peace forum' might provide a suitable context for such negotiation".
While such a scenario was "probably wildly optimistic", Swift writes that there is a "real danger" that government condemnation of the forum could be presented by Provisional IRA sympathisers as undermining efforts to secure peace.