Dublin arms conspiracy trial

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32425, 12 October 1970, Page 13

Dublin arms conspiracy trial

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

DUBLIN, October 11. Mr James Gibbons, the Minister of Agriculture and a former Minister of Defence in the Irish Republic, said on the fourth day of the arms conspiracy trial in Dublin that on April 2 or 3 last he had given an order for 500 rifles and 8000 rounds of ammunition to be moved to the border town of Dundalk.

Mr Gibbons said that he had given the order to the Army Chief of Staff after he had spoken on the telephone to the former Minister of Agriculture, Mr Neil Blaney, about the situation in Northern Ireland at that time. He told the Chief of Staff, Mr Gibbons said, that it might be wiser in the circumstances to comply with Mr Blaney’s request “in case Mr Blaney did something more rash to aggravate the situation.” Earlier, the Court had been told by the Minister

of Justice (Mr Michael Moran) that the Irish Government had planned a limited incursion into Northern Ireland at the height of the Protestant-Roman Catholic riots this year. Four men have been charged with conspiring to import arms intended for Ulster riots into the republic from Austria. They are: the former Minister of Finance, Charles Haughey; a former Irish Army intelligence officer, James Kelly; the chairman of the Belfast Citizens’ Defence Committee, John Kelly; and a Belgian businessman now living in Dublin, Albert Luykx. All four have pleaded not guilty. Mr Gibbons said that he told Haughey on or about April 17 that he had had telephone calls from the Department of Defence, the Department of Transport and Power, Aer Lingus (the Irish airline) and, he thought, the Department of Justice, about a proposed shipment into Dublin of an illegal consignment of arms. Haughey said: “The dogs in the street are barking it.” “I said: ‘Charlie, can .you do anything to stop this shipment?’” Mr Gibbons said

"Haughey replied: ‘I will stop it for a month.’ I said: ‘For God’s sake, stop it altogether Charlie’, or words to that effect.” On April 23, the witness met Mr Blaney, James Kelly and Colonel Hefferon (the former Director of Army Intelligence) in Mr Blaney’s office,' and at the end of the meeting it seemed to him it was recognised that a serious situation had arisen. He added that his preoccupation at that stage was the preservation of secrecy. Mr Gibbons said that he met two delegations from Northern Ireland, the first in January or February last, and the second early in March at a meeting which lasted three or four hours. He made it clear that no arms would be provided for them by the Irish Government, and that arms were simply not available. Mr Gibbons recalled that James Kelly, then a captain in the intelligence branch of the Army, had called on him late in March or early in April, and said that there had been an attempt to import arms illegally into Dublin. He said he and some others had been there when it happened. Mr Gibbons said that he

asked Kelly: “Did you or they, disappear into the shadows?” Kelly shrugged this off in an affirmative kind of way. The witness said, “I suppose that is the end of that lot anyway,” or words to that effect, and Kelly indicated that further attempts might be made to import this particular batch of arms. Mr Gibbons said that he spoke to Haughey later, and told him that there was an officer in the Irish Army who should be got rid of as quickly, but as discreetly, as possible. The witness thought that Haughey understood his reasons for doing this; he himself described KeMy to Haughey as “hot.” The Government, Mr Gibbons said, had been anxious about a breakdown of law and order in Northern Ireland, and the possibility of widespread murder. Mr Moran had told the Court earlier that in discussions in the Cabinet, one of the major considerations was the ability of people in Northern Ireland to defend themselves. There was a grave fear in the republic that many people would be killed, and that

there would be a repetition of the pogroms, he said. There were plans at the time, including what he thought were called limited incursions by the Army into the North, in the event of the breakdown of civil authority there.

Mr Moran said that he remembered during one discussion that Mr Gibbons, then Minister of Defence, complained about the lack of equipment and the unpreparedness of the Irish Army. That discussion took place in January. Incursions by the Army into Northern Ireland would have taken place if certain circumstances applied, Mr Moran believed, such as if the situation in Ulster had worsened. In that event, the possibility of the Army going as far as Derry and other places was discussed. Mr Moran said that a number of officers of the Irish Special Branch were in Ulster a year ago because there had been conflicting reports from Army intelligence and the news media about the situation there, and the authorities in Dublin wanted an objective assessment. The trial is continuing.