Suspected IRA quartermaster Father Patrick Ryan was the subject of a lengthy legal battle in 1988.
Fr Ryan was arrested by Belgian police at is home where they found large quantities of cash and bomb-making equipment.
The UK requested to have him extradited from Belgium where he was believed to have been involved in an IRA unit.
The Belgian authorities refused the UK’s request and later extradited him to the Republic of Ireland.
Fr Ryan, a former Pallottine priest from Tipperary, became the centre of a row between Irish and British authorities after the Republic refused to extradite him to the UK.
The rift caused tension between the British Prime Minister and Taoiseach Charlie Haughey which spilled into a meeting between the two leaders at the end of the European Council in Rhodes in December 1988.
Minutes of the “frank exchange” which lasted under an hour, reveals the PM’s frustration over the extradition process saying she felt “badly let down” over the matter.
Mrs Thatcher described Fr Ryan as a “really bad egg”.
“I and my soldiers – we are at the receiving end,” she told the Taoiseach.
“Ryan is a very dangerous man. Both the Belgians and our services know this. He is at liberty still.”
Thatcher and Charles Haughey
Mrs Thatcher pressed the then Taoiseach on why the Irish government failed to arrest him or…
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