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<\/a><\/p>\nBritish ambassador Veronica Sutherland had said in a letter on March 7 that Charles would like to arrive in the Britannia pulling into Galway Bay on the morning of Friday June 28 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the evening, he would like to offer hospitality on board Britannia, which would then sail late in the evening for a private weekend in Kerry and Cork, having disembarked the guests,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In response, also on March 7, Government secretary Frank Murray said the trip was \u201cfar more extensive\u201d than had been suggested initially, which involved a visit to Haulbowline harbour in Co Cork.<\/p>\n
He said they appeared to have \u201clittle option but to proceed with the programme\u201d unless there were security or political considerations.<\/p>\n
But Mr Bruton conveyed his concerns in a hand-written reply to Mr Murray, where he wondered if the arrival of the royal yacht in Galway would spark debate about the Treaty ports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the symbolism of the royal yacht arriving into Galway Bay is not good,\u201d he said, with \u2018good\u2019 replacing the crossed-out word \u2018great\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill it revive arguments about \u2018the ports\u2019 in the \u201830s?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe yacht suggests opulence and superiority. It\u2019s not the image that should be conveyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy can\u2019t the prince just fly in by plane to one of the regional airports? That would give them a boost commercially.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe yacht is, I think, controversial in Britain lately because of its cost. Ireland is the last place he should be bringing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 19, Mr Murray wrote a letter to the Taoiseach where he said he had conveyed the concerns from the Irish government about the proposed visit to Ms Sutherland.<\/p>\n
He said he also relayed security concerns which he did not have a \u201cconsidered view of\u201d at the last meeting.<\/p>\n
A revised \u201cscaled-down\u201d visit was expected in \u201cprobably a week\u2019s time\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
The trip was later cancelled after the Irish side had \u201chad expressed concern about the risks\u201d Charles would face if the visit went ahead without an IRA ceasefire.<\/p>\n
The document, released from the National Archives at Kew in 2020, also signalled that if Charles used the Britannia during the visit it would \u201cbe unwelcome to parts of the population\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risks now seem to outweigh any benefits,\u201d it concluded.<\/p>\n
In a separate file from 2003, permission was sought for the British Navy vessel the HMS Ark Royal to dock in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern turned down the request after a senior civil servant warned that doing so would be perceived as a shift in policy \u201ctowards the British military displays in our jurisdiction\u201d as the vessel was \u201ca symbol of British naval prowess\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cVisits by British naval vessels have traditionally been low-key affairs but the presence of the Ark Royal in Dublin would, quite literally, be a flagship event which would certainly be attended by widespread publicity, including in regard to its role in the Iraq war,\u201d the official noted.<\/p>\n
The civil servant said they believed the request should be refused, but said due to its significance it should be raised with the relevant minister.<\/p>\n
On the cover page of the three-page document, a hand written note highlights the \u201cTaoiseach\u2019s comment on page 3\u201d.<\/p>\n
There is one hand-written line on page three: \u201cmy view is \u2018no\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concern was expressed about the image of \u201csuperiority\u201d that would be conveyed by the Royal Yacht Britannia arriving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-664123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115812780264346964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}