IRA 'carefully infiltrated parts of Army'
Irish Independent 29/12/2005
Fergus Black
DOCUMENTS released under the 30-year rule claim the Provisional IRA had carefully infiltrated parts of the Irish Army and planned to involve it to "stage" incidents along the Border.
This was the Provos' plan, if Northern Protestants decided to make a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) upon Britain withdrawing and the result of the Northern Ireland Convention was "favourable to a united Ireland".
In a report marked "secret" and sent to the secretary of the Department of Justice in June 1975, a garda chief superintendent said he had been directed by the Garda Commissioner to forward an analysis of Provisional IRA activity which had come to hand from a "confidential and usually reliable source".
It revealed the Provos had a plentiful supply of ammunition and had $50,000 to buy sophisticated weapons.
The document also claims the PIRA was assured of the total withdrawal of all British forces from the North and in return undertook to await the result of the Convention which was to have been favourable to them.
However, the Provos were convinced the Protestants would never agree to a handover and would ultimately resort to force.
"The Provisionals' reaction to this situation will take the form of 'token resistance', giving the appearance of weakness and irresolution but sufficient to provoke the Protestants to over-reaction. The PIRA then plans to 'stage' border incidents involving the Irish army, part of which has been carefully infiltrated by the Provisionals to this end.
"By implication, having once involved the forces of the Irish Republic , the Provisionals would then turn on the Protestant paramilitary forces using their full strength and every weapon available to them, hoping to gain Catholic support throughout Ireland."
Another "secret" memo, from then Assistant Garda Commissioner Ned Garvey, said it appeared that the ceasefire in place at the time rested securely enough on some kind of undertaking by the British Government that their troops would be withdrawn from the North.
Such a withdrawal would be phased and there was some evidence that it had already begun, he said.
But he warned that should the Northern Ireland Convention prove a failure there was a very real likelihood of UDI.
Mr Garvey suggested that the first concern of the authorities here must be the security of the organs and processes of government in our own State.
The maintenance of the authority of the government here must constitute the surest deterrent against PIRA designs, he wrote.
Irish Independent 29/12/2005
Fergus Black
DOCUMENTS released under the 30-year rule claim the Provisional IRA had carefully infiltrated parts of the Irish Army and planned to involve it to "stage" incidents along the Border.
This was the Provos' plan, if Northern Protestants decided to make a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) upon Britain withdrawing and the result of the Northern Ireland Convention was "favourable to a united Ireland".
In a report marked "secret" and sent to the secretary of the Department of Justice in June 1975, a garda chief superintendent said he had been directed by the Garda Commissioner to forward an analysis of Provisional IRA activity which had come to hand from a "confidential and usually reliable source".
It revealed the Provos had a plentiful supply of ammunition and had $50,000 to buy sophisticated weapons.
The document also claims the PIRA was assured of the total withdrawal of all British forces from the North and in return undertook to await the result of the Convention which was to have been favourable to them.
However, the Provos were convinced the Protestants would never agree to a handover and would ultimately resort to force.
"The Provisionals' reaction to this situation will take the form of 'token resistance', giving the appearance of weakness and irresolution but sufficient to provoke the Protestants to over-reaction. The PIRA then plans to 'stage' border incidents involving the Irish army, part of which has been carefully infiltrated by the Provisionals to this end.
"By implication, having once involved the forces of the Irish Republic , the Provisionals would then turn on the Protestant paramilitary forces using their full strength and every weapon available to them, hoping to gain Catholic support throughout Ireland."
Another "secret" memo, from then Assistant Garda Commissioner Ned Garvey, said it appeared that the ceasefire in place at the time rested securely enough on some kind of undertaking by the British Government that their troops would be withdrawn from the North.
Such a withdrawal would be phased and there was some evidence that it had already begun, he said.
But he warned that should the Northern Ireland Convention prove a failure there was a very real likelihood of UDI.
Mr Garvey suggested that the first concern of the authorities here must be the security of the organs and processes of government in our own State.
The maintenance of the authority of the government here must constitute the surest deterrent against PIRA designs, he wrote.
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