Yoko Ono, widow of the former Beatle John Lennon, yesterday denied a British press report that her husband may have helped fund the IRA.
"My husband did not give money to the IRA. My husband gave money . . . when it was asked [for] by people who were in need," Ms Ono told Spanish media at an exhibition of her work in the northern city of Zaragoza.
The Observer said on Sunday it had seen a court statement by a former spy saying he was shown secret files that included references to Lennon giving money to the IRA in the early 1970s.
Ono told reporters in Spain that she and her husband sent money to Ireland and other countries, but the cash was intended for "children, orphans and women in need".
"Even in the 1960s, I did not believe that violence was a way of getting things," she said.
The files cited in the Observer referred directly to Lennon's support for the Trotskyist Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP), whose members included the actress Vanessa Redgrave.
The newspaper said the statement by the spy, Mr David Shayler, claimed a British intelligence source within the WRP said the pop star had contributed tens of thousands of pounds to the WRP, as well as funding the IRA.
Lennon, shot dead by a deranged fan in New York in 1980, once held up a sign saying "Victory for the IRA against British imperialism" at a London rally against internment without trial.
Mr Shayler's claims came amid a court battle in the US over confidential letters about Lennon from an unidentified foreign government, believed to be Britain.
A US federal judge has ruled that three letters should be turned over to Dr Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California who is trying to obtain 10 classified documents on Lennon.
The documents remain in a file on Lennon held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The professor told the BBC that while Lennon was sympathetic to the Irish civil rights movement, British intelligence service could have been misinformed about any link with the IRA.