The Shadow Of The I.R.A.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32304, 23 May 1970, Page 14

The Shadow Of The I.R.A.

(By

JAMES F. KING)

LONDON.

The legend of the Irish Republican Army is again casting a shadow across Irish politics. Young extremists, more interested in revolution than religion, are putting new life into the dormant Irish underground.

Some Irishmen doubt whether the old 1.R.A., which once fought for a unified and free Ireland, is really coming alive again. But there is no doubt that Ireland has a bubbling underground inspired hy the I.R.A. The allegation that ranking Ministers in Mr Lynch’s Government have been plotting gun-running on their own evoked memories of the 1.R.A., and raised fears of impending strife this summer.

Mr Lynch, a 53-year-old moderate, is pledged like all Southern Irish politicians to work for unification of Ireland—but he favours winning over the six counties in the North by negotiation, not force. The Government Ministers he accused and dismissed have denied the allegations. Mr Lynch has not elaborated. The result is a mystery about whom they were alleged to be gun-running for and who was alleged to be paying for the arms.

The finger immediately pointed to the outla'wed LR.A., but sources in Dublin say that the main I.R.A. unit suspects a plot to discredit them.

There is controversy as to just what the LR.A. is in 1970. The underground movement has broken into splinter groups, each claiming to be true to the ideals of the I.R.A. Some Irishmen find little semblance between what is called the I.R.A. today

and what it was- in the turbulent past. British Intelligence reportedly discovered several months ago that representatives of an Irish extremist organisation were making trips to Britain and the Continent buying arms on the black market—arms believed bound for Northern Ireland. One report said that much of the money came from Irish Republican sympathisers in the United States, the rest from a few Irish businessmen and from an informal “levy" on Irish building contractors in London itself.

Police investigating a series of bank robberies in Ireland during recent months suspect that they were carried out by the Soar Eire (Free Ireland), an extremist offshoot of the LR.A., to get money for buying arms. The gun-running deal linked to Government Ministers was a shipment worth $U5192,000 according to Liam Cosgrave, Opposition leader in the Irish Parliament.

Mr Cosgrave said that the arms—believed bought in Czechoslovakia and sent via Vienna—were to come in as "an official supply to the Army" but were destined for “an illegal organisation." But British police sources say that the arms were intended for one or another of the I.R.A. splinter groups. Mr Lynch said the Government crisis had passed as the arms were not landed. “Precautions I have taken will ensure that they will not be landed.” he said. Fears of civil strife in Ireland this summer are widespread, with British troops, predominantly Protestant, caught in the middle. The restlessness of youth and the permissive society have brought a new dimension to the LR.A. since the “troubles” in the 1920’5. Catahal (Charles) Goulding, chief of staff of the main I.R.A. organisation, describes Eainon de Valera, the 87-year-

old President of the Irish Republic and the only surviving l commandant of that struggle, I as an archtraitor to the origi- i nal ideals of the I.R.A. Mr Goulding, aged 48, com- i plains that de Valera opposes : violence, but that unification i of Ireland can only come by i "physical force." ; “Ireland could be united under a non-sectarian workers’ republic with the old i religious sympathies of the civil war buried," he says. h Even though the I.R.A is i outlawed in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Mr ; Goulding moves about freely. He and his wife live in a small brick house in a Dublin working-class district. He, works every day, running his painting and decorating busi-

ness from a rambling barn in his backyard. There, too. is his office for handling I.R.A. affairs. Mr Goulding calls himself a “left-wing Socialist” and says: “I’m not afraid of the Communists or accepting some of the Communist programme which is good for the people.” Mr Goulding says his organisation is predominantly Roman Catholic (but has many Protestant members) and is strictly non-sectarian. In January, a faction broke away from the group led by Mr Goulding. The main breakaway group calls itself the Provisional Army Council and refuses to recognise the Dublin, Northern Ireland, or London Parliaments.