Arms and the man

The Arms Crisis:The events surrounding the Arms Crisis of 1970 were among the most dramatic in Charles Haughey's career. Joe Carroll reports.

The news on the morning of May 6th, 1970, that Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney had been sacked from the Government by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, was a bombshell. The shock was compounded when it emerged that the sackings arose from the alleged involvement of the two senior ministers in a failed attempt to import arms illegally through Dublin Airport.

By the end of the month, the two men had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to import arms. Also charged were Captain James Kelly formerly of Army intelligence; John Kelly, a leading Belfast Republican, and Albert Luykx, a Belgian who owned a hotel in north Dublin often used for Fianna Fáil functions.

While Blaney had been a loud critic at times of Lynch's handling of the Northern Ireland crisis over the previous year, Haughey had not been seen by the public as hawkish in this area.

Had he not as Minister for Justice in 1962 re-activated the Special Criminal Court to crush the IRA's Border campaign? Since the Northern Ireland situation escalated in August. 1969, Haughey had said virtually nothing about it in public and had apparently been content to support the Lynch line of ruling out violence as part of the solution.

Haughey had been seen as the archetypal "mohair suit" Fianna Fáil politician, intent on making Ireland more prosperous and himself as well. And few were probably aware of his roots on his mother's side in Swatragh in Co Derry where he spent holidays with cousins.

When the unrest in Northern Ireland boiled over in August, 1969, and the Cabinet faced a possible upheaval in the South as refugees poured over the Border, Haughey moved into a key role. He was given sole charge of the £100,000 fund set up to aid the victims of violence in Northern Ireland. He was also appointed to the Cabinet sub-committee which was "to select persons to promote anti-Unionist and anti-partition opinion in the Six Counties". The other members were Blaney, Padraig Faulkner and Joe Brennan, all from constituencies in the Border counties.

These decisions gave Haughey and Blaney virtually a free hand in Northern matters while Lynch apparently opted out. The full sub-committee met only once and thereafter Faulkner and Brennan let their senior colleagues do their own thing.

Money from the humanitarian fund paid for a meeting in October in Bailieboro, Co Cavan, of the Northern Citizen Defence Committees which soon became fronts for the IRA. The meeting was told that £50,000 would be available to buy weapons to defend nationalist areas.

A meeting between Haughey and the Chief of Staff of the IRA, Cahal Goulding, was reported to the Cabinet by the Minister for Justice, Micheal O Morain, but Haughey played it down as a "casual" encounter. But from the Goulding side it emerged that a deal was discussed whereby the IRA would refrain from its Marxist-influenced campaign of social protest in the South in return for a free hand in Northern Ireland.

Haughey in early October summoned the British ambassador, Sir Andrew Gilchrist, to his home at Kinsealy and proposed that in return for British support for a united Ireland, Britain could have access to the former Treaty ports in the Republic, or alternatively, NATO could use them. According to Gilchrist, whose account of this extraordinary meeting was not revealed until 2000, Haughey wanted a secret commitment that the Border would be the subject of an inter-governmental review. Describing Haughey as able, shrewd and ruthless, Gilchrist reported to London that there was "nothing he would not sacrifice, including the position of the Catholic Church, to achieve a united Ireland".

The Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, was, of course, unaware of much of Haughey's solo runs although the Secretary of the Department of Justice, Peter Berry, claimed in his diaries that he informed Lynch of the proposal to arm Northern nationalists and of the role of military intelligence officer, Captain James Kelly, at the Bailieboro meeting as early as October, 1969.

Following the split in the IRA and Sinn Féin over participation in political institutions, the breakaway Provisional wing continued to seek aid from Dublin for the importation of arms on the pretext that they would be needed to defend Catholic areas against a future pogrom by loyalist gangs.

In February, 1970, the Cabinet issued a directive to the Defence Forces to prepare contingency plans to defend nationalists in the event of a disintegration in Northern Ireland.

Blaney encouraged Captain Kelly in a scheme to buy arms on the Continent which could be shipped over the Border when required. Haughey, who would provide the necessary finance, also tried to arrange customs clearance for the importation but by late April, the Special Branch had been alerted and Lynch was given details. He did not act, however, until the leader of the Opposition, Liam Cosgrave, who had also been tipped off by the Garda, threatened to go public.

During the two "Arms Trials", Haughey's defence was that he had no knowledge that guns were being imported. When he provided customs clearance it was for an unspecified consignment for Military Intelligence covered by the directive on contingency planning. He rejected evidence by the Minister for Defence, Jim Gibbons, and Peter Berry that he was fully aware of and approved a plot to import arms. This defence was to be criticised by his co-defendants who had admitted their roles in the attempted import but claimed that it was authorised by the Government. The case against Blaney had been dropped at a lower court hearing.

Following his aquittal, Haughey was acclaimed by excited supporters and he made a short statement "on behalf of myself and my fellow patriots". He also made it clear that Lynch who was then in the US should resign.

But this was his last gesture of defiance. He joined with Fianna Fáil colleagues to vote confidence in Jim Gibbons, not once but twice. Even Blaney could not go this far and resigned from Fianna Fail.

Haughey kept his head down and cultivated Fianna Fáil grass roots support by attending party meetings around the country and making the contacts that would ensure his election as leader and Taoiseach when Lynch stood down in December, 1979. Lynch had unintentionally cleared the way for Haughey's eventual success when he appointed him, first to the front bench as spokesman for health in 1973, a bare three years after his disgrace, and then to the Cabinet following the 1977 election when Fianna Fáil returned to power.

It was an astonishing turnaround in Haughey's fortunes.