The Northern Ireland Office accepted “in hindsight” that it should have done more to offer protection to leading lawyer Rosemary Nelson, who was killed by a loyalist car bomb outside her home in Lurgan in March 1999.
Her death followed years of complaints by her to the RUC about harassment and death threats against her, including some, allegedly, made by RUC officers during interrogations with her clients.
Shortly before her killing, the NIO offered protection to two of her clients, Portadown councillors Breandán McCionnaith and Joe Duffy, who were campaigning against Orange Order demands to march on the Garvaghy Road.
The NIO had decided, however, not to offer the same to Ms Nelson because she had not sought it, she was not a member of the Garvaghy Road residents’ coalition, and she was not a councillor.
State Papers: Five things we learned, from details of Boris Yeltsin’s Shannon no-show to blocking Mary Robinson’s UN role
How John Bruton, the last Redmondite, got to grips with the IRA, the UK and the peace process
Irish government feared retaliation over decision not to prosecute Dessie O’Hare
Bertie Ahern overruled objections to continue weapons purchases from Israel in 1990s
Certain ‘State papers’ or official archives are declassified at the end of every year. This week, thousands of documents in archives in Dublin, Belfast and London are being made public for the first time, bringing new insights into events of times past. This year’s Dublin archives mostly date from 1994.
The NIO’s top official, Joe Pilling, later accepted in conversation with Irish diplomats that “with the benefit of hindsight the NIO ought perhaps to have actively sought her out on this”.
However, he suspected she would not have welcomed an RUC security offer, though he said he would have liked lighting installed that would have illuminated “the entire front of the house and would also have detected any interference with her vehicle”.
RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan believed her killing was carried out “in some form” by members of the Ulster Defence Association because it was “too sophisticated” for Lurgan Red Hand Commandos, perhaps by “UDA dissidents who are unhappy with the ceasefire”.
The heightened security force presence near Ms Nelson’s home in the days before her killing was “pure coincidence”, NIO official, Stephen Leach told Dublin, prompted by dissident republicans’ hoax alerts.
“These calls have to be checked, however, and an RUC and British army operation was mounted, including the use of a helicopter overhead. Leach recognises fully that other interpretations can be, and are being, put on this operation,” said the DFA note.
Just days before she was killed, Nelson contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) fearful about her safety “She is very worried and asked if it would be possible to meet with the Minister to discuss her case,” noted official, James McIntyre.
Before her death, the chief constable was unhappy that a United Nations’ special rapporteur’s report claimed that Flanagan’s view was “that solicitors may in fact be working for paramilitaries”, though no supporting evidence was given.
Unhappy that such words were attributed to him, Flanagan sought their removal and “said that if the comments were kept in the report there may be a danger to the life of Nelson from loyalist paramilitaries”.
“As a result of this, the Special Rapporteur’s office is proposing to delete the names of the solicitors from the report. Ms Nelson considers this to be a meaningless exercise as everybody will know the solicitors it refers to,” noted Mr McIntyre.
