{"id":215918,"date":"2025-12-29T07:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/215918\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T07:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:16:10","slug":"blair-refused-intelligence-sharing-with-ireland-over-sellafield-threat-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/215918\/","title":{"rendered":"Blair refused intelligence-sharing with Ireland over Sellafield threat \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

MI5 blocked an appeal by Bertie Ahern<\/a> for the UK to share intelligence on any terrorist threat to the Sellafield<\/a> nuclear facility, according to newly-released British government files.<\/p>\n

Following the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombing, the then taoiseach wrote to Tony Blair<\/a> warning of a \u201ctransnational catastrophe\u201d which could engulf his country if international terrorists targeted the site on the Cumbrian coast.<\/p>\n

However files released to National Archives at Kew, West London, show that the British prime minister rejected his request for intelligence-sharing, insisting the UK had to protect the confidentiality of it sources.<\/p>\n

Instead, Mr Ahern had to settle for an assurance that the British ambassador would brief his officials if any threat to Sellafield was uncovered.<\/p>\n

It followed a warning by MI5 that there could be \u201cno guarantees about who will have access to it\u201d if sensitive material was shared with Dublin.<\/p>\n

Writing to Mr Blair following the March 2004 co-ordinated bomb attacks by Islamist extremists<\/a> on the Madrid commuter network which left 193 dead, Mr Ahern said it underlined the \u201cruthlessness and determination\u201d of global terrorists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is fair to say that terrorist targets that could result in transnational catastrophes deserve to receive special attention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand your concerns to safeguard the integrity of sensitive information about nuclear facilities and the need to guard against detailed information on the design and nature of nuclear facilities falling into dangerous hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe, however, it should be possible to devise arrangements for the communication of sensitive information in a secure manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

However the Department of Trade and Industry, which had responsibility for the UK\u2019s nuclear facilities, said the MI5, the Security Service, was not happy with the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese letters signal Irish determination not to let go of the Sellafield issue,\u201d Shantha Shan, an official in secretary of state Patricia Hewitt\u2019s private office, told No 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have consulted with the Security Service and conclude that we must maintain a firm line not to release terrorist-related intelligence of any kind as there could be no guarantees about who will have access to it, no matter what arrangements were put in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Blair sought to reassure the then taoiseach that if Britain was to receive intelligence of a real threat to Sellafield, they would seek to share that assessment as fully and as quickly as possible \u201csubject to the constraints placed upon us by the originators of that intelligence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Ahern was still unhappy, complaining that while he understood the need to protect intelligence sources \u201cthe protection of the lives and health of our citizens should have priority\u201d.<\/p>\n

The British ambassador Sir Ivor Roberts said the renewed Irish focus on issues like Sellafield was in part down to the success of the Belfast Agreement which meant relations with the UK were no longer seen \u201cexclusively through the Northern Ireland prism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of this year has been taken up in fighting a vigorous rearguard action against opposition parties and NGOs who have pressurised the Irish government into taking more forward position on Sellafield than they would instinctively have taken themselves,\u201d he reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has led them to initiate a proliferation of legal cases against us in international courts and to step up the rhetoric.\u201d \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MI5 blocked an appeal by Bertie Ahern for the UK to share intelligence on any terrorist threat to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[894,61,60,43,112004,15888],"class_list":["post-215918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bertie-ahern","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-sellafield","tag-tony-blair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}