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STATE DOCUMENTS FROM the 1980s reveal that the government had concerns about Iran opening an embassy in Dublin and about their sympathies towards the IRA.
A “confidential” document on political observations between Ireland and Iran states there were concerns about Iran’s “championing” of Bobby Sands. The document points out that the issue could be “brought under control fairly quickly” as it was mainly due to their “ignorance” of the Northern Ireland situation.
Bobby Sands
The briefing adds that the hunger striker’s championing was being used as a “convenient outlet for anti-Britishness, as it is a zeal for the Provo cause”.
Hostages
It also states that there was a “chill of western relations” after the taking of hostages from the US embassy in Iran in 1979, which affected Ireland too. The state document adds that the hostages, which were released in 1981, stopped off in Shannon “en route home”. The release allowed other western countries like Ireland to build up a relationship with the country.
It was also expected that if an embassy was opened in Dublin, “the interactions with existing embassies… the French, US and Egyptian embassies… may be frosty…”.
Addressing the issue of Middle Eastern students in Ireland, the point was made that the embassy might try to “spread the gospel of Khomeini’s revolutionary Islam among this group”. Other concerns were that there would be Iraqi protests outside the embassy .
The brief recommends to put “no obstacle” in the way of Iran opening an embassy in Dublin.
Iranian Embassy
In another letter, dated 8 September 1981, to the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, diplomat Niall Holohan, who is currently Ireland’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, stated he had met with Mr Taghavi, the then Director of the Third Political Division in the Foreign Ministry in Tehran who voiced their interest in opening an Iranian embassy in Dublin.
Holohan said he did not respond to the query, but added that given the attacks on Iranian embassies in several European countries at the time, it was “probably fortunate that there is no official Iranian presence in Dublin at this present time”.
He said during his phone call with Mr Taghavi, he was asked to explain Ireland’s position on the happenings in Northern Ireland and stated that Iran’s “sympathy for the IRA” was well-known, although he understood the organisation was “illegal”.
Holohan stated he explained that “however honourable the aim of the IRA might be, their methods were repugnant to the Irish Government and to the vast majority of the Irish people”. He said he pointed out that the Irish Government would not look favourably on any foreign government giving aid to the IRA. He said Mr Taghavi said that often accurate reporting on the Troubles in Northern Ireland was difficult to come by and appreciated his account of the situation.
The IRA
In another document relating to the coverage of the IRA in Iran, the Department of Foreign Affairs was forwarded on some of the media reports from Tehran. It states that the “Foreign Relations Officer” for Sinn Fein sent condolences to the Iranian Government following the death of a number of their senior ministers.
It stated the favourable attention being given to the IRA and the hunger strikers was due to “Britain being treated as the béte noir of world of imperialism” adding that the imperial role of Britain in Iran and their closeness to the US, was reasoning why the Northern Ireland situation was “being used as a further stick with which to beat the British”.
While another document revealed that a British Foreign Ministry diplomat stated they did not think the Iranian sympathies towards the IRA would develop beyond a “symbolic level,” pointing out that the road running along side the British Embassy compound in Tehran was renamed after the hunger striker Bobby Sands, but was not to be taken too seriously.
Here are some media clippings from Iran about Bobby Sands that were sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland:
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The street that the old British embassy in Tehran was renamed Rue Bobby Sands.
Thus all letters were addressed to the British embassy had Sands name on the address.
The British responded by asking all diplomats to post correspondence to their back door which had a different address.
Fecking Brits. Typical underhand stuff from them!!
Rue? Think thats in paris
They should have renamed that Road as well. Something awful. What a great way to annoy the British at the time. No one was hurt but I’d say it wrecked head!
Yankee lapdogs avenue.
They then renamed the streets around it Francis Hughes Street, Raymond McCreesh Street and O’Hara Street which must have really pissed them off
Ya can’t spell Iran without the IRA.. lolz
Omg ,,,,,,, thirty years ago our government description of anyone who disagreed with them was “ignorant”
How we have not changed
I do not support Iran or a lot of this story but I can see that we the people should not have an opinion cause everyone is ignorant but them
What has Iran done to you?
I don’t support Clare either and they have not done anything to me ………please elaborate so I can return comment???????????????
In all fairness the Iranians didn’t care a toss about Bobby Sands & co. They just wanted to annoy the British with the old “the enemy of our enemy is our friend” attitude.
Same could be said for gaddafi, he only supported th ira just to piss the British off, couldn’t give a monkeys about Ireland.
while there is probably some truth in that,who are you to say so ?? i find it very hard to belive that a nation struggling against most of the world and massive odds and fresh from revolution didnt find an amazing human being such as bobby sands a inspiration !!
I can’t wait for them to pave Snowden avenue and Manning Boulevard
I think the Chelsea/Bradley Manning one is a non-runner.
Womanning?
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Was he not caught picking his nose….fraud
Up the Iranians a great bunch of lads!!
I was on this road a few years ago, it’s a bit odd because if Iranians ask you where you’re from they don’t even know what Ireland is. The typical Guinness, U2 references don’t work there and most don’t know about the Ira either.
I think you’ll find that east of the Bosphorus most people don’t know Ireland.
fair play to iran.great rock climbing out there and great people.
As long as you’re not gay. Or a woman.
i bet there are plenty of happy women out there avina,or do you determine how happy a woman is by how many men she’s had or how revealing her clothes are ????
Ger lad, there are plenty of women out there that are treated like second class citizens.
Interesting collection of friends the IRA had in the 1980s. The Khomeni regime in Iran, the Gaddafi regime in Libya, FARC, Robert Mugabe … You can see why an aspiring politician might be reluctant to join.
Love it!
Farc off… You’re not serious
And the other side of that coin: Thatcher and Reagan cozying up to Pinochet, Botha, the Contras, the Khmer Rouge, Suharto, Burma, Saddam Hussein (what ever happened to him?), Saudi Arabia, Thatchers own son involved in an attempted coup in Africa and arms trading.
Kinda makes the Provos seem like altar boys when you consider the human misery that can be laid at their opponents’ feet.
Ever wonder who was in charge in Equatorial Guinea that Mark Thatcher attempted to overthrow?
Shush Birch. The coup was by British guys, therefore it was bad, therefore the regime was good. It’s nothing like a German backed coup in 1916. That was a completely different situation entirely.
Not defending the attempted coup in any way, but nobody in their right mind could try and defend President Obiang, particularly not the left!
absolutely brilliant response filthpig !!! really does put it straight
Yeah Birch, Mark Thatcher concerned about common people???
I think not. The apple didn’t fall very far from the tree with that one, look out for #1 and f:ck everything else. He learned that suckling at his mother’s teat.
So you didn’t support a coup. Was because he was involved or what?
have your say