Arms Crisis - Background

Background

The events occurred during the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch. In growing disturbances in Northern Ireland, which would lead to The Troubles, nationalist civilians were being forced from their homes, with over 1,000 seeking refuge in the Republic. The Irish Government established a cabinet subcommittee to organise emergency assistance and relief. Haughey, then Minister for Finance and the hardline Blaney, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries who was from the Donegal North–East constituency bordering Northern Ireland were members of the subcommittee, along with Pádraig Faulkner and Joseph Brennan. Jack Lynch took little interest in the work of the subcommittee, and after an initial meeting, Faulkner and Brennan seem to have left their senior colleagues Haughey and Blaney to their own devices. A government fund of £100,000 was set up to provide relief to nationalist civilians forced out of their homes by the Troubles, and Haughey was given sole authority over this money.

Ministers Haughey and Blaney disapproved of the cautious policies of Taoiseach Lynch on Northern Ireland and favoured a more robust approach. In August 1969 Lynch had asked the Irish army to draft proposals for limited military intervention in Northern Ireland to protect nationalist areas from loyalist mobs, known as Exercise Armageddon, but it was seen to be unworkable and was not adopted by the cabinet. The nationalist areas were protected later in August by British forces in Operation Banner, and Lynch saw this as an effective short-term measure. In 1968 Lynch had met with the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson in London and had called on Britain to take steps to end the partition of Ireland.

Blaney was an outspoken critic of government policy on Northern Ireland, but Haughey had not publicly opposed Lynch's policy. In October 1969, a meeting of Northern Citizen Defence Committees, which had been set up to defend Republican areas form Unionist attack and which included IRA officers, was held in Bailieboro, County Cavan, with Irish army intelligence officer Captain James Kelly in attendance. The meeting was told that £50,000 would be made available to buy weapons for defense of nationalist areas against loyalist attack. Haughey even met with the IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding. The Minister for Justice Micheál Ó Móráin reported this meeting to the Cabinet, but Haughey dismissed it as a chance encounter.

Neil Blaney allegedly made plans with Captain James Kelly to import weapons from continental Europe. Haughey provided the money for the purchase from his civilian relief fund, and also tried to arrange customs clearance for the shipment.

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