{"id":254431,"date":"2025-12-27T18:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T18:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/254431\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T18:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T18:11:09","slug":"padraig-flynn-shouted-at-john-major-over-calls-to-drop-constitutional-claim-on-north-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/254431\/","title":{"rendered":"P\u00e1draig Flynn \u2018shouted at\u2019 John Major over calls to drop constitutional claim on North \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>\u2019s P\u00e1draig Flynn \u201cshouted at\u201d British prime minister John Major during a testy meeting in 1992 when he objected to British government calls for Dublin<\/a> to drop Ireland\u2019s constitutional claim to Northern Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not helpful when Her Majesty\u2019s government says that the Irish Constitution must be changed,\u201d Flynn \u2013 who accompanied taoiseach Albert Reynolds<\/a> \u2013 told Major at the London<\/a> meeting. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet us not get into double-speak here. Let us be clear: if the unionists feel comfort from you, or that a change in the Constitution is possible, there will be misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Major and then-Northern secretary Patrick Mayhew both cast doubt on Flynn\u2019s claim that the Conservative government could influence the thinking of unionists on anything.<\/p>\n

Echoing the prime minister, the Northern Ireland secretary said he wished it was true that he had influence over unionists, contending that they only hang on his words because they feel they are about to be betrayed. <\/p>\n

However, Flynn did not accept their arguments. \u201cI sit opposite Patrick at the talks and every time he speaks, they linger on his words,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time he has to give them comfort.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ian] Paisley<\/a> refers to \u2018an understanding\u2019. You have influence. They are beholden to you, if you could use it to get them to understand our constitutional position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayhew disagreed: \u201cThey hang on my words because they think I am going to betray them!\u201d <\/p>\n

He added that he had emphasised the need for constitutional change in the Republic in a bid to keep the unionists at the table.<\/p>\n

Flynn said the talks were going nowhere, adding: \u201cWe hope to go somewhere but every week the unionist position is clearly stated . . . only if there is a change in our Constitution will anything happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish government had made clear it was willing to consider changes to Articles 2 and 3 if there was a full agreement, but it was \u201cnot calculable\u201d to know the attitudes of voters in the Republic towards change ahead of an agreement.<\/p>\n

Prior to the meeting in Admiralty House, Major had held an hour-long tete-a-tete with Reynolds where Major expressed pleasure that security co-operation between Dublin and London had never been better.<\/p>\n

However, the tone changed when Flynn joined the talks. He partly blamed the dramatic escalation in loyalist paramilitary violence on the lack of visible action being taken by London and Dublin.<\/p>\n

Objecting to what he characterised as ceaseless demands from the unionists for constitutional change in the Republic, Flynn said: \u201cI have sat there at the talks and been insulted. My party has been insulted.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u00c9amon de Valera has been insulted. I say to myself, \u2018hold your peace, Flynn \u2013 there is a huge prize here\u2019.” <\/p>\n

He insisted that constitutional matters were ones for debate between the governments, not with the unionists.<\/p>\n

Major was prodded into defending his record, saying he could have previously secured vitally needed Westminster support from unionist MPs if he had conceded ground to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the last election, I could have done a deal. I would have got 14 extra votes in the House of Commons,\u201d he told the Fianna F\u00e1il minister for justice, \u201cBut I would not do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t believe that my government is sincere you should know that we were prepared to go out of office rather than do it. We could have done a deal in a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major said being \u201cshouted at\u201d by Flynn was like \u201cbeing in the House of Commons\u201d, before he urged everyone to go outside \u201cto meet the reptiles\u201d, meaning the press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s P\u00e1draig Flynn \u201cshouted at\u201d British prime minister John Major during a testy meeting in 1992 when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,131506,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-254431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-state-papers","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115792883392027519","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}