A Secret History of the IRA

Home > Other > A Secret History of the IRA > Page 88
A Secret History of the IRA Page 88

by Ed Moloney


  21. MacStiofain, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, 145–47.

  22. Interview with former IRA member, June 14, 1999.

  23. Interview with former IRA member, May 9, 2000.

  24. Interview with former Belfast IRA member (A), Dr. Anthony McIntyre, Linenhall Library (embargoed collection).

  25. De Baroid, Ballymurphy and the Irish War, 71.

  Three: “The Big Lad”

  1. Interview with former Belfast IRA member (B), Dr. Anthony McIntyre, Linen Hall Library (embargoed collection).

  2. Ciaran de Baroid, Ballymurphy and the Irish War (Belfast: Aisling Publishers, 1989), 79.

  3. David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999), 1477.

  4. Sean MacStiofain, Memoirs of a Revolutionary (London: Gordon Cremonesi, 1975), 163.

  5. Ibid., 160.

  6. P. O’Neill, Freedom Struggle (Dublin: Provisional IRA, Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, 1973), 1973.

  7. Confidential information, IRA source, Nov. 2000.

  8. Interview with former Belfast IRA member, Nov. 2000.

  9. Interview with former Belfast IRA member, Nov. 2000.

  10. McIntyre interview with former Belfast IRA member (B).

  11. O’Neill, Freedom Struggle, 39.

  12. McIntyre interview with former Belfast IRA member (B).

  13. O’Neill, Freedom Struggle, 48.

  14. MacStiofain, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, 219.

  15. David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999), 1473–93.

  16. Notes of conversation with former British military intelligence officer, Sept. 2000.

  17. Interview with former IRA member, June 1999.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Interview with former IRA member, Nov. 2000.

  20. McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, 390.

  21. Notes of conversation with former IRA member, June 1999.

  22. Notes of conversation with former IRA member, Nov. 2000.

  23. Interview with former IRA member, May 2000.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Interview with former IRA member, June 1999.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography (London: Heinemann, 1996), 189.

  29. Conor O’Clery, Ireland in Quotes (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2000), 142.

  30. O’Neill, Freedom Struggle, 62.

  31. Kevin Kelley, The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA (Dingle, Co. Kerry: Brandon Books, 1983), 153.

  32. Ibid., 172.

  33. McIntyre interview with former Belfast IRA member (B).

  34. Confidential interview, IRA source, April 2000.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Interview with former IRA member, June 1999.

  39. McIntyre interview with former Belfast IRA member (B).

  40. Confidential interview, republican source, May 2000.

  41. Ibid.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Interview with former IRA member, June 1999.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Adams, Before the Dawn, 213.

  46. Confidential information, IRA source, Nov. 2000.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Ibid.

  49. Confidential information, IRA source, May 2000.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Confidential information, IRA source, June 1999.

  53. Sunday Times, Nov. 26, 2000.

  54. Confidential information, IRA source, June 1999.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Richard Deutsch and Vivien Magowan, Northern Ireland 1972–73: A Chronology of Events (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1974), 316.

  58. Ibid., 317.

  Four: Cage 11

  1. Interview with former IRA member, May 2000.

  2. Interview with former Belfast IRA member (B), Dr. Anthony McIntyre, Linen Hall Library (embargoed collection).

  3. Interview with former IRA member, May 2000.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Martin Dillon, The Dirty War (London: Hutchinson, 1988), 84.

  6. Interview with former Belfast IRA member (A), Dr Anthony McIntyre, Linen Hall Library (embargoed collection).

  7. Unpublished interview with a Feakle cleric, June 1994, author’s copy.

  8. McIntyre interview with former Belfast IRA member (A).

  9. Ruairi O Bradaigh, letter to Irish Times, April 30, 1992.

  10. David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999), 1473–75.

  11. McIntyre inteview with former Belfast IRA member (A).

  12. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  13. Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography (London: Heinemann, 1996), 257.

  14. Author’s note of a conversation with an IRA Army Council member, May 18, 1990.

  15. Interview with an IRA member, April 2000.

  16. Author’s note of a conversation with an Army Council member, May 18, 1990.

  17. Ibid.

  18. David McKittrick and David McVea, Making Sense of the Troubles (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000), 130.

  19. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Republican News, Aug. 14, 1976.

  22. Republican News, June 15, 1977.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Muammar Qaddafi, “The Green Book, Part One”: www.geocities/Athens/8744/zgb1-6htm.

  25. Republican News, Oct. 28, 1975.

  26. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  27. Brendan O’Brien, The Long War (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1995), 350.

  28. Brendan O’Brien, A Pocket History of the IRA (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2000), 101.

  29. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  30. Confidential information, republican source, Dec. 2000.

  31. McKittrick, Kelters, Feeney, and Thornton, Lost Lives, 790.

  32. Confidential information, republican source, Dec. 2000

  33. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Confidential information, republican source, Jan. 2001.

  Five: “Our Dreyfus”

  1. Unpublished interview with a Feakle cleric, June 1994, author’s copy.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  6. Interview with former GHQ member, April 2000.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  9. Republican News, May 8, 1976.

  10. “There Will Be No More Ceasefires until the End,” Magill, Aug. 1978.

  11. Kevin Kelley, The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA (Dingle, Co. Kerry: Brandon Books, 1983), 243–44.

  12. Hansard, July 7, 1979.

  13. Ministry of Defence, “Northern Ireland Future Terrorist Trends,” Nov. 2, 1978, author’s copy.

  14. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  15. Dorothy McArdle, The Irish Republic (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1999), 384, puts the toll at seventeen auxiliaries and three IRA dead, but J. Bowyer Bell puts the British dead at eighteen.

  16. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Jan. 5, 1980.

  17. Interview with former IRA member, April 2000.

  18. Interview with former Belfast IRA member (C), Dr. Anthony McIntyre, Linen Hall Library (embargoed collection).

  19. Author’s note of a conversation with former Army Council and Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, April 2000.

  20. Interview with former IRA Army Council and Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, May 1999.

  21. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Jan. 27, 1979.r />
  22. Interview with former IRA Army Council and Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Nov. 1999.

  23. Peace with Justice, publication of the republican movement, reprinted July 1975.

  24. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Feb. 2001.

  25. “The IRA,” Magill, Sept. 1980.

  26. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Feb. 2001.

  27. An Phoblacht–Republican News, April 12, 1980.

  28. Interview with former IRA GHQ officer, April 2000.

  29. David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999), 702, lists a total of ten businessmen killed by the IRA between Feb. and May 1977.

  30. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Feb. 19, 1977.

  31. An Phoblacht–Republican News, June 18, 1977.

  32. For an example of internal tensions over the left-wing moves, see the minutes of the special Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle meeting, April 12, 1980, in appendix 1.

  33. “Eire Nua: The Social, Economic and Political Dimensions,” author’s copy.

  34. “The IRA,” Magill, Sept. 1980.

  35. Hibernia, Oct. 19, 1979.

  36. “ Eire Nua: The Social Dimension,” Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle, Dec. 8, 1979.

  37. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Jan. 26, 1980.

  38. Interview with the author, Dublin, Feb. 2001.

  39. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, March 1999.

  40. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Feb. 1999.

  41. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, March 1999.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Feb. 1999.

  44. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, March 1999.

  45. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, May 1999.

  46. Interview with former member of IRA Executive, June 1999.

  47. Ibid.; interview with former member of IRA Army Council, May 1999.

  48. Interview with former member of IRA Army Council, May 1999.

  49. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Feb. 2001.

  50. Interview with former member of IRA Executive, June 1999.

  51. Irish Times, Sept. 9, 1982.

  52. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, March 1999.

  Six: A Long, Hot Summer

  1. Note of author’s conversation with former Cage 11 inmate, undated, 1997.

  2. Interview with former IRA leader (D), Dr. Anthony McIntyre, Linen Hall Library (embargoed collection).

  3. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, March 1999.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. An Phoblacht–Republican News, June 9, 1979.

  7. Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography (London: Heinemann, 1996), 253.

  8. Fortnight magazine, July 1981.

  9. Patrick Bishop and Eamonn Mallie, The Provisional IRA (London: Heinemann, 1987), 301.

  10. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Nov. 8, 1980.

  11. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, March 1999.

  12. Interview with National H Blocks Committee member, April 2000.

  13. Irish Times, Oct. 21, 1981.

  14. An Phoblacht–Republican News, March 1, 1984.

  15. Notes of author’s conversation with Adams think tank member, Aug. 1980.

  16. Interview with former Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member, Dec. 1998.

  17. Interview with National H Blocks Committee member, April, 2000

  18. For accounts of this episode see David Beresford, Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike (London: Grafton Books, 1987), 344–47, and Brian Campbell, Laurence McKeown, and Felim O’Hagan, eds., Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle, 1976–1981 (Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications, 1998), 234–36.

  19. Interview with former IRA Army Council member, Feb. 2001.

  20. Ibid.

  21. An Phoblacht–Republican News, June 3, 1982.

  22. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Oct. 2, 1982.

  Seven: “Behind the Scenes”

  1. David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999), 917.

  2. Confidential information from peace process participant, 2000.

  3. McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, 922.

  4. Martin Dillon, The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study in Mass Murder (London: Hutchinson, 1989), 240–53.

  5. Chris Ryder, The Ulster Defence Regiment: An Instrument of Peace? (London: Methuen, 1991), 209.

  6. Irish News, Oct. 26, 1982.

  7. Irish News, Oct. 27, 1982.

  8. “Collusion,” Ulster Defence Association intelligence report, undated but ca. 1988, author’s copy.

  9. McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, 921.

  10. Confidential information from peace process participant, 2000.

  11. Notes of author’s conversation with British official, Aug. 2000.

  12. Notes of author’s conversation with Belfast INLA member, undated, summer of 1998.

  13. Correspondence with author, March 3, 1989.

  14. “Haughey and the Priest,” Sunday Tribune, Sept. 25, 1994.

  15. Interview with former IRA prisoner, April 2000.

  16. David Beresford, Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike (London: Grafton Books, 1987), 56.

  17. Interview with former IRA prisoner, April 2000.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Interview with Brendan Hughes, June 2000.

  21. Unpublished interview in article prepared for Sunday Tribune, Sept. 25, 1994.

  22. See Clonard website: www.clonard.com/chouse.htm.

  23. Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography (London: Heinemann, 1996), 33.

  24. Andersonstown News, April 15, 2000.

  25. Conor O’Clery, The Greening of the White House (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1997), 47.

  26. Confidential information from peace process participant, 2000.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Brian Campbell, Laurence McKeown, and Felim O’Hagan, eds., Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle, 1976–1981 (Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications, 1998), 262–63.

  30. Confidential information from peace process participant, 2000.

  31. Irish Press, Jan. 16, 1978.

  32. Paul Bew and Gordon Gillespie, Northern Ireland: A Chronology of the Troubles, 1968–1999 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1999), 127.

  33. Irish Times, Nov. 5, 1982.

  34. Sunday Times, May 29, 1988.

  35. Note of author’s conversation with senior Catholic cleric, March 2001.

  36. Notes of author’s conversation with Adams adviser, Nov. 1992.

  37. Note of author’s conversation with senior Catholic cleric, March 2001.

  38. An Phoblacht–Republican News, April 19, 1984.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Note of author’s conversation with senior Catholic cleric, March 2001.

  42. Notes of conversation with peace process participant, 2000.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Note of author’s conversation with senior Catholic cleric, March 2001.

  45. An Phoblacht–Republican News, Nov. 8, 1984.

  46. Irish Times, Feb. 24, 1985.

  47. Irish Independent, March 11, 1985.

  48. Irish Times, Jan. 3, 1984.

  49. Irish Times, July 22, 1985.

  50. Campbell et al., eds., Nor Meekly Serve My Time, 263–64.

  51. Interview with former IRA member, 1999.

  52. Interview with senior Protestant cleric, Sept. 2000.

  53. Note of author’s conversation with senior republican, Dec. 1983.

  54. McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, 981.

  55. Interview with former Belfast IRA member, Nov. 2000.


  56. Interview with former IRA member, June 1999.

  Eight: Dealing with the Brits

  1. Sinn Fein, “Setting the Record Straight”: A record of communications between Sinn Fein and the British government, Oct. 1990–Nov. 1993 (July 1994).

  2. Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, The Fight for Peace: The Secret Story behind the Irish Peace Process (London: Heinemann, 1996), 99.

  3. Interview with the author, Westminster, June 22, 2000.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Sydney Elliott and W. D. Flackes, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory, 1968–1999 (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1999), 308.

  6. Interview with the author, Westminster, Nov. 13, 2000.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Confidential interview with peace process participant, Aug. 2000.

  11. Secret British message to Gerry Adams, author’s copy.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Interview with the author, Westminster, June 21, 2000.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Confidential interview with peace process participant, Aug. 2000.

  16. Ibid.

  17. “What’s on the Agenda Now Is an End to Partion,” Irish Times, Dec. 10, 1986.

  18. “Pact Won’t Stop War, Warns Adams,” Irish Press, March 5, 1987.

  19. Confidential interview with peace process participant, Aug. 2000.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Tom King, interview with the author, Westminster, Nov. 13, 2000.

  22. Interview with former British official, Nov. 2000.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Notes of conversation with author, Westminster, Nov. 2000.

  25. Interview with the author, Westminster, June 22, 2000.

  26. Peter Taylor, Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein (London: Bloomsbury, 1998), 233–34.

  27. David Beresford, Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike (London: Grafton Books, 1987), 9–12.

  Nine: “Stepping Stones”

  1. John Waters, “The Fat Chief’s Belly Was to Reassure His Tribe,” Irish Times, July 15, 1997.

  2. Dick Walsh, “Lynch’s Rivals Were the State’s Biggest Threat,” Irish Times, Jan. 6, 2001.

  3. “Whitaker Advised Lynch to Pursue Unity Peacefully,” Irish Times, Jan. 2, 2001.

  4. “Letter Tells of Haughey Role in Breaking IRA,” Irish Times, Jan. 2, 2001.

  5. Martin Mansergh, ed., The Spirit of the Nation: The Speeches of Charles J. Haughey (Cork and Dublin: Mercier Press, 1987), 8.

  6. Justin O’Brien, The Arms Trial (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2000), 110.

  7. Mansergh, ed., Spirit of the Nation, 335.

 

‹ Prev