Martin McAleese (right), husband of president Mary McAleese, struck up an unlikely but rewarding and important friendship with UDA leader Jackie McDonald (left) and other top loyalists. Photographs: Bryan OBrien
A coach arranged by Martin McAleese to transport senior loyalist paramilitaries to a social event was turned down by their leadership “because it would look too much like a UDA day-trip”, according to a newly declassified document released on Tuesday [December 30th] by the Northern Ireland state archives.
Security concerns were also an issue, and while “alternative transport in a fleet of mini-buses was agreed”, it noted “each vehicle was examined for ‘bugs and bombs’ before his guests boarded it”.
The detail was revealed in a confidential minute from September 2003 to the then British ambassador to Ireland, Stewart Eldon, from the senior Northern Ireland Office (NI
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