ON THE TRAIL OF US FUNDS FOR IRA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480034-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: January 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480034-5
t ..y
14 January 1985
On the trail of US funds for
By Warren Richey'
New York
Funds raised in the United States ' ostensi-
bly for charitable relief work in'Northern Ire-
land have been diverted for the. purchase of
guns :and bombmaking equipment for the
outlawed Provisional . Trish - Republican
Army. (IRA), according to:, US `federal court
documents. The funds, raised through pub collections
and testimonial- dinners'by . the;7rish North-
em Aid:- Committee '(Noraid) :-:of New York I
City, are. channeled through. An Cumman
Cabhrach; a relief organization in Dublin.
But on-several occasions"in 1982 and 1983
some of the Noraid funds were siphoned off
to finance IRA shopping expeditions in the
US for guns and other military: hardware, ac-
cording to the testimony of Michael
Hanratty, a former electronics purchaser for
the IRA who turned federal informant in
1982.
"Money. supplied by'. Noraid was sent
over to Ireland," Mr. Hanratty testified in
the 1983 Brooklyn gunrunning trial of Ga-
briel Megahey and Andrew Duggan. "At
that point, when equipment .,was to be pur-
chased, a courier then took some of the
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Although Hanratty's- - statement . about
Noraid did not play . a significant role in the-;'
prosecution of Mr. Megahey and Mr. j
Duggan, it remains today the strongest piece'/
of evidence among available public records
and documents -supporting -Irish; British,
and US " government ' claims that Noraid
funds are illicitly diverted-from their -an
nounced purpose.
It is called "the Noraid connection."
For years it has baffled security' officials
in Belfast, Dublin, London, and Washington I
who have been trying to establish a concrete
link between the New York-based national
.fund-raising effortand the bankrolling of.:al
back.."
money that was needed and carried it back
to this country.
"It was direct triangulation. Money col-
lected here, sent there, -and then transported
steady flow of arms and explosives from the US. to the
Provisional wing of the IRA in Northern Ireland.;
Despite 15 years of active fund raising in America,
Noraid remains as controversial now as. when it. began its
efforts to assist the cause of the Republican/nationalist
movement in Ulster in 1970. It is one of the most outspo-
ken supporters in this country of the Provisional IRA's
violent campaign of snipings, bombings, and armed at-
tacks designed to end British rule in Northern Ireland.
Since 1969, IRA attacks-in Ulster have resulted in the
deaths of 605 civilians and 722 members of-the security
forces, .y according: _:.to ':Northern Ireland; , government
statistics.
Noraid has'most recently come into* the public light- following 'reports that the US was- the source of
seven tons of IRA arms confiscated Sept. 29 off Ireland's
southwest coast aboard the Irish fishing trawler Marita
Ann. = Irish officials used the occasion to condemn
Noraid, though there was no established Noraid link at
the time.
A Noraid spokesman in New York said after the inci-
dent: "Irish Northern Aid categorically rejects the false
suggestion that our committee funds were involved with
the shipment of weapons seized in' Kerry or with any
shipments of weapons....."
Noraid was founded and . directed by Michael
Flannery, who in the 1920s was an IRA member in the
North Tipperary Brigade, and has provided the Republi-
can movement in Northern Ireland with its largest regu-
lar source of American funds ($2 million to $3 million
-since 1970) and unstinting moral support from a vocal--
-,minority- of Irish-Americans who.openly, support the
IRA. Irish, British, and-American officials-say the US .
has also been the IRA's largest source of guns.
Startling admissions in open court'
- An RUC spokesman --says the .-IRA's :.
control over Noraid appears --to be ` 'per
suasive rather than direct." But he adds:-
"The direction and control is there."
Again, Flannery denies any connection :
to the IRA. What he doesn't deny. how
ever, is that he-approves of the smuggling
of guns to the IRA* and that he was pre-
pared to finance unrunning deals.
Such admissions made, in
opencouitT
were at first startling to prosecutors -'and :_
law-enforcement officials attending"the`
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480034-5
1982 trial. Flannery and - the -other defen wasn't a CIA operation. The five -
dants, in effect, admitted they were run- cluding Flannery - were acquitted.
ring guns to the IRA.
But their defense was that they had British aghast at Flannery verdict
been under. the impression that the arms Today, Flannery says, he no longer. ac
shipments were being sanctioned by the cepts funds for the IRA. "There are still..''
US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to people around" who want to give money
enable US intelligence both to monitor the to the IRA; he says. "I told all:of. these
flow of weapons, !to. -the Provisional IRA people not to .bother me with any, more
and to prevent the Soviets from:becoming funds for the' IRA; that it was .too.danger
Defense >attorneys alleged that one of watched tched
etc "
?
,
.
.
the middlemen in the arms deal;' George 'and Irish security` officials were
DeMeo,'was a CIA operative.Mr DeMeo. . aghast at . the,' outcome of the. '-Flannery
denied :any CIA link.: According to the trial. One British official .in North
eni Ire-:
a .CIA witness at the trial
72, , the CIA had` no land says "It is a deficiency ofthe;Amen
.FBI source, in an interview with this cor ~` could stand up in court, admit the: creme,
respondent, said that _ DeMeo ;had had a ' and,then get away with it.
ner
e tri
an
o
_ -~...
....
...,-
opp
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Flier; but that there were no links to t8; M S pity to battle British propaganda with
The judge permitted this defense to he Americans rallied around the five accused
used in court. The CIA repeatedly denied gunrunners, considered patriots in certain
any involvement: in the case. But govern- Irish-American circles. And within a few
Public's lingering memories of the*ater- - at the head of the 1983 St. Patrick's Day:
age were unable to convince the jury,
"beyond . a reasonable doubt,' that
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480034-5