Duddy, 'Fred' and Brokering Peace in Northern Ireland

Dr. Niall O'Dochartaigh, Prof. Jim Browne, President, NUI
Galway and Brendan Duddy

Throughout over twenty years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland a secret channel of communication linked the IRA to the highest levels of the British government. At the heart of this channel was a single intermediary, Brendan Duddy. His house was the venue for secret negotiations between the British Government and the IRA throughout 1975. He managed the intense negotiations over the Republican hunger strikes in which ten men died (1980-1981) and he was at the heart of the contacts (1991-1993) that culminated in a secret offer of a ceasefire that was a precursor to the public IRA ceasefire of 1994.

Deposited at the Hardiman Library, NUI Galway, the archive of Brendan Duddy provide a unique insight into this channel from the perspective of an individual who operated at the intersection of the two sides. 

The papers include coded diaries of contact kept by Duddy throughout 1975 and early 1976 and a diary kept for several months in 1993 when communication between the British Government and the IRA was at its most intense, as well as documents exchanged between the British Government and the IRA. Taken together with the Ruairí Ó Bradaigh papers, also at NUI Galway, these archives  provide a window on the secret back-channel negotiation that was one of the most intriguing aspects of the Irish peace process.

A recent article published in the London Review of Books and written by BBC journalist Own Bennett Jones, explores in detail the effect a single coded message, whose origins and author are still highly contested today. Owen Bennett Jones tells the story of how Duddy, MI5 operative, codenamed 'Fred' and a note to the British Government headed by John Major, said to have been authorised by Martin McGuinness, declared, "The conflict is over".

You can read the full story here.

An online exhibition of selected material from the Duddy Archive, including extracts from the 1974-75 ceasefire talks and pages from 'the Red Book' kept by Duddy as he tried to broker an end to the 1981 Hunger Strikes is available here.

Frank Carty Papers, letter from Liam Lynch

On this day in 1923 Liam Lynch, O/C IRA was shot and fatally wounded effectively bringing to an end hostilities in the Irish Civil War. Today's document is from the Frank Carty Papers (POL7) and is a letter from Liam Lynch to O/C 3rd Western Division reviewing activity in Frank Carty's Brigade in Sligo.

Frank Carty was active in the War of Independence 1919-21. He became Officer Commanding Number 4 Brigade, 3rd Western Division, which operated in the Sligo area. During this time he escaped from Sligo Jail in May 1920, was recaptured, escaped from Derry, was training IRA men in Glasgow and was involved in a shootout on the streets there. On the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the anti-treaty side and was active in a number of operations from his base in the Ox Mountains. He was elected to the second Dail in June 1921 and served through nine general elections, first with Sinn Fein and later with Fianna Fail.

This letter, damaged in parts, is from [Liam Lynch] Chief of Staff, Oglach na hEireann to O/C/ 3rd Western Division, dated 28th November 1922, thanking him for his report on the activities of the Number 4 brigade. It notes for the 13th July: "The attack and capture of the enemy party and armoured car "Ballinalee" on this date was a splendid victory and the bravery of the forces engaged deserve special praise". Ends with general comments on the need to develop road-mining and the manufacture of weapons and munitions.