Tony Blair’s government altered the rules on party leaders laying wreaths at the Cenotaph to keep unionists onboard with Northern Ireland’s peace process, newly released files show.
The decision was taken in the run-up to the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in 2004 to change rules drawn up in 1984 that meant leaders of parties who won at least six seats at the previous general election could lay a wreath.
The old rules meant that David Trimble, whose Ulster Unionist party (UUP) had won six seats in 2001, could take part, while his rival Ian Paisley could not, after his Democratic Unionist party (DUP) won five seats.
However, when Jeffrey Donaldson defected from the UUP to the DUP in 2003, the balance was reversed, and the Democratic Unionists complained they were being treated unfairly.
Papers released by the National Archives show that the then Northern Ireland secretary, Paul Murphy, wrote to colleagues in government: “We will undoubtedly face renewed pressure from the the DUP this year given that they are now not only the largest NI party but also have six Westminster MPs (and had done resoundingly well in the assembly and Euro elections).”
“But we are now involved in intensive dialogue over the political future in Northern Ireland in which the DUP, and the UUP, are the key players,” he added in a memo to which Blair was copied in. “I fear, therefore, there are now pressing political reasons for amending the 1984 formulation.”
Charlie Falconer, then the constitutional affairs secretary, expressed concern, saying there could be an “adverse reaction” from Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties to the prospect of two wreaths being laid by Northern Irish parties while they were limited to laying a joint wreath.
Paisley went on to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph for the first time, a reflection of the DUP’s status as the largest party in Northern Ireland at that point, with Trimble also taking part.
Other files reveal how Blair’s chief of staff had urged him privately to convince “securocrats” in the British state of the need to be brave and swiftly tear down watchtowers and armoured bases as part of a move to get the IRA onboard as the peace process hung in the balance.
“As always we have no plan B,” Jonathan Powell wrote to Blair in December 2002 at a time when he judged the situation to be “pretty grim” after the first collapse of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive, loyalist paramilitary violence and attempts to get the IRA to demobilise.
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But the files also illustrate the high-stakes balancing act the Blair administration was engaged in amid negotiations with Irish republicans and handling pushback from Britain’s security services.
“The only way to get the IRA onboard is to go for full normalisation in one go. It is probably also the safest way to do it – we need to make republicans responsible for the safety of police in places like south Armagh with a warning we will reverse the steps if they are harmed. And that can only be done if we go the whole way,” wrote Powell.
“The securocrats will tell you that all we can do is take a few minor steps, that the threat from dissidents remains etc. You will need to convince them when you see them in the first week back that they have to draw up a plan to go straight to pulling down all towers, pulling down armoured police stations etc. This will require real bravery on their part.”