A campaign by the Irish Government for the admission of more Catholics to the Northern Ireland Civil Service provoked a hostile reaction from senior officials at Stormont. Dr Eamon Phoenix reports
On December 21st, 1972, Mr J. Parke, a permanent secretary at Stormont and an official of the Northern Ireland Senior Officers' Association, informed Sir David Holden at Stormont: "My association has been perturbed by growing demands from politicians both here and in the Irish Republic for 'reform' of the higher reaches of the Northern Ireland Civil Service."
Such reform, he understood, envisaged "the offer of premature retirement to senior officers in order to make room for the appointment of Roman Catholics" . To this his association was "totally opposed".
A week later, Mr Parke again wrote to Sir David to state "further alarm had been generated by a speech made by the Republic's Minister of Home Affairs (Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr FitzGerald) to the United Nations."
According to Mr Parke, Dr FitzGerald's remarks "implied that the issue of the reorganisation of the Northern Ireland Civil Service had been transferred from the 'long term deposit' to the 'current account'".
Dr FitzGerald, he protested, apparently felt the British and Irish governments had already "agreed to reorganise" the service. Such a statement by a Dublin minister, unless contradicted by the British government, could only add to the anxieties of senior Stormont officials, he said.
The issue was taken up by Mr K. P. Bloomfield (now Sir Kenneth Bloomfield) of the Stormont Secretariat. The result was a strongly-worded memo to the Secretary of State, Mr William Whitelaw, from the high-powered Future Policy Group of Stormont officials in January 1973.
The group included Sir Kenneth and all the permanent secretarial staff in the Stormont departments. The officials bluntly told the Secretary of State: "We have become increasingly concerned about the growing number of demands for 'reform of the Northern Ireland Civil Service' over the past 18 months. In many instances, these demands state simply that there too few Roman Catholics at the top of the service, that a number of senior non-Catholic officers should be retired prematurely and their posts filled in by specifically recruited Roman Catholics.
"Our views on the total impracticality of such a proposition and the disastrous consequences which would flow from it, have been made known to you," the Future Policy Group told Mr Whitelaw.
The officials stressed their concern had become "critical" following recent public statements "which could be taken to imply that the government is seriously considering such a reform."
They cited a statement by the Taoiseach, Mr Liam Cosgrave, and Dr FitzGerald's address to the UN Assembly in which he said "broad agreement now existed between the Government of the Republic and that of the UK on the solution to the Northern Ireland problem."
According to the memo, Dr FitzGerald had stated this would entail "the reform of the civil service in Northern Ireland so it might be acceptable to the minority community as well as the majority." This statement had caused a considerable alarm, particularly in the absence of any denial by the UK government.
"In these circumstances," the senior officials told Whitelaw, "we think it of paramount importance for you to be aware of our views as a body. We know that there is a religious imbalance in the service, particularly in the senior grades. We do not think it is sensible to discuss the reasons for this.
"We also know that recent recruitment figures show that at the clerical level we are taking people at about the religion/population ratio and that we seem to be fast approaching this at the higher levels. In the course of time, therefore, the service as a whole should reflect the religious make-up of the province."
The Future Policy Group reiterated its view that any attempt to accelerate Catholic entry into the upper echelons by the forced retirement of existing staff would be "disastrous" for several reasons. Firstly, the civil service had retained remarkable cohesion and was one of the "stabilising forces in the community as a whole". There had been very positive attempts at all levels to avoid people being regarded either as Protestant civil servants or as Roman Catholic civil servants and this effort had been largely successful.
They added: "Deliberate recruitment of civil servants on a religious basis would split the service into two and would be bitterly opposed by the Staff Association, the majority of whose paid officers are Roman Catholics and could lead to industrial action."
In practical terms, it could only lead to a grave reduction in the efficiency of the public service.