NAZI PLAN IN IRELAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26028, 17 December 1945, Page 6

NAZI PLAN IN IRELAND

FOMENTING OF REVOLUTION LONDON, Dec. 14. The German Intelligence Service attempted to foment a revolution in Ireland with the help of the Irish Republican Army, to take place simultaneously with the planned invasion of Britain, said the sabotage chief, Major-general Lahausen, in an interview with the Associated Press correspondent at Nuremberg. The attempt failed when the key Irish revolutionary figure “ mysteriously died ” on board a U-boat while crossing the English Channel.

General Lahausen said Ribbentrop considered the plot so important politically that the German Foreign Office took over its direction. It consisted of two parts: First, to establish agents in Ireland to work with the Irish Republican Army and to use Ireland as a base for sabotage operations against major British industries; secondly, to collaborate with the Irish Republican Army through one of its leaders and lay the political groundwork for the uprising. One of t'he key agents was an Irish sailor who was living in the United States and went to Germany via Italy. He saw Ribbentrop, after which the scheme was immediately implemented. He was an idealist and. a dreamer. A second agent, also a sailor, was described as a revolutionary type.

General Lahausen said the relations between the two men were strained, probably due to the clash of personalities.

The agents boarded a U-boat at Wiihelmshaven for an undisclosed point on the Irish coast. The Intelligence Corps arranged to drop by parachute a radio transmitter and special sabotage equipment to the agents at a prearranged rendezvous. The agents were to establish contact with the German Foreign Office through secret signs, to be given by the different arrangement of flower pots on the window sill of the German Embassy in Dublin. The U-boat had been at sea only a few hours when it sent a message to its base, reporting that one of the Irish agents had died suddenly and had been buried at sea. Ribbentrop made repeated efforts to discover the cause of the man’s death, but the mvstery was never solved. The affair ended all Nazi enterprise to foment a revolution in Ireland. Major-general • Lahausen said the Intelligence Corps, did get four or five other agents into Ireland by diverse means such as aeroplane and sailing boat. The agents, with the aid of the Irish Republican Army, went to England, but were soon captured. Their efforts at sabotage failed.