The Irish Ambassador in Moscow was so concerned about high radiation levels at the US embassy in 1976 that he organised blood tests for two of his children.
A letter marked "personal and confidential" from Edward Brennan to the Department of Foreign Affairs said that the US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had warned of health dangers and said the matter had many "ramifications".
Mr Brennan said it was "a highly delicate" matter and he felt that he had to research the possible health hazard to the Irish embassy. He raised the matter in a meeting of nine western ambassadors, which was held, as was the custom, in a special bug-free chamber.
"As all the American community was getting blood tests I arranged for two of our children here to get them. They got a clean bill of health." The US doctor who tested the children "hinted that I should have my embassy premises checked".
He then met the US ambassador Walter Stoessel who reassured him that the Irish embassy was not at risk. Mr Stoessel told him the level of radioactivity began to suddenly rise the previous autumn due to efforts by the Soviets to overcome anti-listening devices at the US embassy.
"Their [ Soviet] listening devices utilised the whole glass area of a window as a microphone," Mr Brennan wrote. The US embassy had installed a fine-mesh metal screen between the double window panes and this reduced radiation by over 90 per cent, the US ambassador said.
Mr Stoessel told him it was US policy to "down-play the whole episode". ... Alison Healy