IRA aimed for 'full strength' assault on Loyalists

Security of the State: The IRA was re-arming for a "full strength" assault on loyalists during the 1975 ceasefire, according to Garda intelligence records. A secret Garda report, written for the minister for justice, Patrick Cooney, in June 1975, warned that the Provisional IRA had acquired considerable financial resources which it planned to use for the acquisition of arms.

The report estimated that the IRA had $50,000 available for "sophisticated weapons and those of heavy calibre".

The Provisionals had already received "a consignment of small arms" from abroad. "A supply of similar weapons, emanating from Vietnam, is en route to Ireland," the Garda report continued.

Such re-arming occurred at a time of increased attacks against Catholics by loyalist paramilitaries, some of whom were pushing for a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in the North.

The Garda report stated that, while British army numbers had been cut by half since the ceasefire began, "it is the PIRA's conviction that the Protestants will never agree to a handover and that they will ultimately resort to force and declare UDI.

"The Provisionals' reaction to this situation will take the form of 'token resistance', giving the appearance of weakness and irresolution but sufficient to provoke the Protestants to over-reaction. The PIRA then plans to 'stage' Border incidents involving the Irish Army, part of which has been carefully infiltrated by Provisionals to this end.

"By implication, having once involved the Forces of the Irish Republic, the Provisionals would then turn on the Protestant paramilitary forces using their full strength and every weapon available to them, hoping to gain Catholic support throughout Ireland by so doing."

The confidential document, seen by Mr Cooney on June 20th, also claimed: "Substantially increased payments are being made to PIRA volunteers as a result of the general improvement in the organisation's financial situation.

"Security measures within the Provisional organisation have never been more strictly enforced. Dire consequences have been promised any member whose actions might jeopardise the overall plans."

The Garda said it was also informing the Defence Forces of the situation, particularly the reported infiltration of the Army by the IRA. The report was one of several documents released by the Department of Justice relating to IRA activities in 1975.

Other documents marked "secret" told of the Garda's concerns about a major influx of refugees from Northern Ireland as a result of a possible UDI.

In a letter seen by the minister on July 8th, and dated two days previously, Asst Commissioner Edmund Garvey wrote: "The role assigned, as a matter of top secrecy, to the elements of the British army still remaining in Northern Ireland, sheds a sombre light on the British estimate of the immediate consequences of UDI. For the mission of the British army would then be not the protection, on the ground, of any section of the population, but the keeping open of certain main arteries linking the rest of the province with Belfast, in order to facilitate large-scale movements of refugees - Protestants eastwards towards Belfast, Catholics in the opposite direction."

A further report from the Garda Security Department, dated August 1st, recommended a policy of "maximum dispersal" of refugees from Northern Ireland to avoid enclaves of IRA sympathisers emerging in the Republic.

Calling for "the minimum number of refugees" in Border areas, the report stated: "Towns such as Dundalk, Monaghan, Buncrana, etc could well become shades of the Bogside, Ballymurphy or the Falls if there was no refugee dispersal policy."

"Cross-Border activity in the wake of a mass exodus could easily become two-way, with attacks by Northern Ireland loyalist extremist elements on the security forces on the southern side of the Border, not to mention the placing of bombs in populated areas near the Border. This would pose a very serious problem.

"Looking at the potential situation even in the most optimistic light, a mass exodus following a doomsday situation in Northern Ireland would tax the resources of the security forces in the Republic to the limit."