DUP MP William McCrea wanted ‘Libya-type airstrikes’ against Carrickmore and Crossmaglen

The US dropped 60 tons of munitions on sites in Libya in April 1986 in retaliation for the Berlin disco bombing earlier that month in which three people were killed and more than 200 injured.

An April 1986 memo from Noel Cornick in the Political Affairs Division of the NIO reported on developments at the DUP conference, where it was noted that Ian Paisley had to work harder than normally was the case to keep the party under his control.

Members of the NIO had not been allowed to attend the conference as observers, so the report seems to have been compiled based on press reports and information from other sources.

In it, he said: “In a more extravagant contribution, Gregory Campbell called for ‘even the foundations of Maryfield [The Anglo-Irish Secretariat building in Belfast] to be demolished’ and the Rev William McCrea urged Libya-type strikes against Dundalk, Drogheda, Crossmaglen and Carrickmore”.