Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Office letter to No.10 Downing Street (hunger strikes) [PIRA left in no doubt government’s public statements represent true position] [declassified 2009]

Document type:	Declassified documents
Venue:	No.10 Downing Street
Source:	Northern Ireland Office FOI release AP/07/50 (documents released to Liam Clarke of the Sunday Times )
Editorial comments:	The NIO held back sections of these documents where deemed irrelevant to the request and retyped the originals. These have been retranscribed for this site, but PDFs of their versions are available on request. Some minor transcription errors would seem to have been made by the NIO.
Importance ranking:	Major
Word count:	3pp
Themes:	Northern Ireland, Terrorism

Extract from a letter dated 21 July 1981 from Northern Ireland Office to 10 Downing Street

The Provisionals have been left in no doubt that our public statements are our true position, and not a negotiating gambit. It is likely to be a source of strength to us in coming weeks.