The British government's 1972 plan to repartition Northern Ireland was "pub talk" that could not have worked, Lord Fitt said last night (Wed).
Details of the radical plan, revealed in cabinet papers released yesterday, included the forced movement of more than 500,000 Catholics and Protestants across a new border.
Speaking last night, Lord Fitt said that at the time politicians and journalists often speculated about what would happen if areas of the north were transferred to the Republic.
"In 1972, while all the trouble was going on, it was suggested that, for example, south Armagh should be made part of the Free State," he said.
"But it was all pub talk. It was not actually going to happen and I don't see how it could have worked anyway.
"If you begin to think about all the financial and practical considerations such a plan would have involved in 1972, it just wouldn't have happened. It was nothing serious."
The former West Belfast MP and SDLP founder said it was irresponsible to describe the plan as "ethnic cleansing".
"The first time the phrase ethnic cleansing was used was in relation to the Bosnia situation in the 1990s. It is very emotive and I don't think it at all describes what was talked about in 1972," he said.
But Lord Kilclooney, who as John Taylor was minister for home affairs in the unionist government at Stormont at the time, said the border plan was "seriously considered" by Edward Heath's Westminster administration.
"We knew about it at the time but it was an idiotic idea which would have meant moving half a million people," he said.
"The idea was seriously considered by the Tory government, though.
"Through our friends in the Conservative party we were aware of what was going on and told them it was total nonsense.
"Some of them thought the pro-Irish minority lived only along the border. However, we told them that in fact some of the most pro-British people lived in those areas.
"It was an idiotic idea from some English civil servants and thankfully it was scrapped."
Lord Kilclooney said the British government's proposals would not "have changed things in any way dramatically", if implemented.
"It may have led to greater inter-communal violence in 1972, which was the worse year of the troubles anyway. I think people would soon have moved back into the British jurisdiction to take advantage of the benefits and many of the problems from the time would have continued," he said.
Meanwhile, both Lord Fitt and Lord Kilclooney said they had no knowledge of top secret talks held between Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and the NIO in June 1972.
British cabinet papers released under the '30-year rule' yesterday described Mr Adams as a "prominent leader" of the IRA.
Mr Adams, then 23 years old, and senior IRA leader Daithi O Connaill represented the Provisional IRA in the talks with senior NIO official PJ Woodfield, held at Ballyarnett on the Derry-Donegal border.
The meeting was described as "preliminary contact" between the government and the IRA prior to an already documented meeting between a six-man IRA delegation and Secretary of State William Whitelaw in July 1972.
Mr Adams was released from internment to attend the meeting.
He has consistently denied he was ever a member of the IRA and was unavailable for comment last night.
Lord Fitt said it was "unlikely" that Mr Adams would have attended the secret June 1972 talks as an advisor.
"I think he was there because of his known IRA connections. He would not have been there as a 23-year-old to act as an advisor," he said.
"He was actively involved in IRA activity at the time and would not have been 'advising' people much older than himself.
"I had no knowledge of that meeting at the time."
Lord Kilclooney said: "We knew nothing about the talks between the British government and the IRA."
Ulster Unionist assembly member Esmond Birnie last night said the most "significant thing" about the plan to redraw the border was "that it didn't happen".
"The political challenge in 2003 remains one of getting Northern Ireland to work through the full implementation of all aspects of the agreement – that must mean an end to paramilitarism in all its forms," he said.
"For the foreseeable future Northern Ireland will have a unionist majority but we must also recognise the reality of the existence of a sizeable minority who identify themselves as Irish."
