In August of 1989, Frank Doherty, editor of Now in Ireland magazine, revealed details of the technology GCHQ, Britain’s electronic eavesdropping intelligence service, was using to monitor calls made by people in Ireland.
One shudders to think what the snoops at GCHQ are capable of capturing now in terms of mobile phone calls, internet searches, emails and texts.
Also in the 1980s, Private Eye magazine reported Margaret Thatcher’s fascination with the calls made by the then taoiseach, Charles Haughey, especially those to his family.
A disgruntled source at GCHQ revealed to The Phoenix that members of Haughey’s family were also being monitored; as well as a named TD who later became tánaiste.
Another tánaiste became so paranoid about the surveillance he assumed he was being placed under, that he once challenged some of his neighbours, who were carrying a television set into the apartment building they shared, demanding to know who they were and what they were doing. The neighbours – UCD students – were shocked by his behaviour.
British prime ministers continue to rely upon GCHQ to tell them what Irish politicians, diplomats and civil servants are saying to each other.
GCHQ also monitors Irish lawyers and journalists. The Dublin embassy has always had a huge interest in the activities of the Attorney-General. This is presumably at a high level at the moment with Ireland opposing the UK’s Legacy legislation.
The surveillance is a gross breach of Irish sovereignty which everyone accepts without a murmur of complaint.
The Now article is reproduced in full in the pdf in the link below.