Ireland's OWN: History

 

How a Government Plot Created the Provos —by Phelim McAleer and Paul Colgan The Irish government plotted to create the republican split that gave birth to the Provisional IRA, cabinet papers released under the 30-year rule revealed yesterday. The documents will fuel unionist demands for an inquiry into the role of the Irish government in the formation of the Provisionals. The papers reveal that Jack Lynch's government was more concerned with the socialist activity of IRA members in the South than with the militant nationalism of the movement in the North. The documents include two Department of Justice memos to cabinet that summarise the strengths and weaknesses of the IRA. The documents were written in March and July 1969. Most of the memos are concerned with the destabilising effect that IRA agitation could have in the republic. At the time, the republican movement was campaigning against foreigners who bought property in the republic and multinationals that forced native fisherman out of business. The protests often coincided with burnings or attacks by IRA members. These attacks included the burning of houses in Limerick, Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Clare arising out of a trade dispute in Shannon; the blowing- up of an American-owned lobster boat; and the burning of property belonging to a landlord and a German farmer. One justice department memo said these incidents, which had been claimed by the IRA, were "open admissions of anarchy which no civilised community could tolerate". It noted that the law was insufficiently strong to deal with such incidents but said the strategy was not completely supported by the republican movement. "In different parts of the country, units of the IRA (and Sinn Féin) are uneasy about the new left-wing policy of their leadership and about the violent methods that are being adopted in the destruction of private property," the unsigned memo said, and went on to suggest that the government should exploit these differences. "Their unreadiness needs to be brought to the surface in some way with a consequent fragmentation of the organisation. It is suggested by the Department of Justice that the government should promote an active political campaign in that regard." The plans were further elaborated upon in the July memo. "While the army council of the IRA and the Ard Comhairle of Sinn Féin have been promoting their new doctrine of a workers' socialist republic, there have been signs in different parts of the republic that many local members of these bodies are uneasy about the orientation of policy and the accompanying acts of violence and anarchy." The memo urged a campaign to exacerbate these tensions. "It is thought in the Department of Justice that if the facts of the new policy were publicised sufficiently by state and church authorities, a result would be a split in the IRA organisation." The split between the Provisionals and what later became known as the Official IRA finally came at the end of the year, with a statement from the Provisional army council that rejected the decision of an IRA army convention to recognise Northern Ireland and the republic. It has since been alleged by unionists and members of the official movement that the Provisionals were set up with the financial support of the Irish government, provided they were not active in the South. Jack Lynch's government split in 1969 over appeals for military help from nationalists in Northern Ireland. In 1970, after a plot to import arms was uncovered, Lynch sacked Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney, his finance and agriculture ministers. Both were later charged and cleared on gun-running charges. Page updated 17 Aug 2008 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2008 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.