This article is from page 34 of the 2013-01-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
SHANNON Airport’s status as a stopover point for world leaders from President John F Kennedy to Mikail Gorbachev to Barack Obama has been showcased once more with release of the State Papers from 1982.
The papers released under the 30year rule show that Cuban leader Fidel Castro passed through that year, creating the possibility for what could have been one of the more unlikely summit meetings in Irish history.
All because when passing through Shannon, Castro left a gift for Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The documents show that the Cuban president stopped off at Shannon Airport in late 1982, probably en route from Moscow after attending the funeral of USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Haughey wrote a private letter to the Cuban president on 9 December, 1982 – one of the final acts he performed during his term as Taoiseach in that government – to thank him for the gift Castro had left for him.
An election in November had seen Fine Gael and Labour form a coalition and Garrett Fitzgerald took over from Haughey as Taoiseach on 14 December, just five days after the letter was written.
In the letter, Haughey thanked Castro for the “magnificent gift” of cigars and a casket which the Cuban leader left for the Taoiseach during the stopover.
“The hand-carved casket is most impressive and the cigars will be greatly enjoyed by my family and friends at Christmas,” Haughey told Castro.
Given the differences in political philosophies between the two men and Cold War tensions at the time, it is somewhat surprising how eager Haughey seemed to be to meet with the socialist leader, telling him:
Please accept my apologies that I could not be there to greet you in person but I hope that we can meet on some future occasion.
The letter ends with Haughey expressing his “warm personal regards” for the Cuban leader.