Arms trial 50th anniversary: Dublin ‘must acknowledge role in arming the IRA’

Just weeks before the trial of cabinet ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney commenced on May 28, 1970, Irish police officer Richard Fallon was shot dead by members of republican splinter group Saor Eire while investigating reports of a Dublin bank robbery.

Garda Fallon’s son Finian Fallon has, for many years, believed the state may have been involved in supplying the gun that murdered his father and also helped protect the killers.

“I keep plugging away but I’m not getting much response,” he said.

“A previous justice minister said, back in 2007, that Fine Gael would look into the matter but they haven’t followed up on it. I think, unfortunately, there is resistance on both sides of the border among political institutions”.

Charles Haughey was acquitted while the charges against Neil Blaney were eventually dropped.

However, files released to the Irish national archive suggest that a “blind eye” was being turned to intelligence that weapons for the IRA were being illegally imported – including the one used to murder the Dublin police officer.

Mr Fallon has spent many years lobbying for a public forum where concerns, and allegations of criminal conspiracy, can be raised and examined, with a new inquest one possibility.

“I think ultimately there is going to have to be a legal case taken against the [Irish] government.

“It has been a long and hard battle for many [victims] and I don’t think they are getting any significant or substantial satisfaction,” he added.

Kenny Donaldson of the victims’ group SEFF (South East Fermanagh Foundation) described the 50th anniversary of the Arms Trial as a “significant milestone.”

He said: “We believe the arms crisis trial to have been a whitewash. The reality is that had guilty verdicts been reached on the accused then the Government would have collapsed. That was not going to happen.”

Mr Donaldson added: “That point in our history has had limited forensic examination, weaponry procured via the arms shipments whilst destined northwards is also believed to have fallen into the hands of individuals operating in tandem with subversives, leading to murders such as Garda Richard Fallon.

“We call today for a fresh and independent Review to be completed into the events of the Arms Crisis and we also seek confirmation from the Government as to what has been done to take forward the findings and recommendations which flowed from The Smithwick Tribunal”.

“50 years on the Government of 2020 in The Republic of Ireland needs to finally step up to the plate on these issues.”

One of the weapons used in the 1989 Breen and Buchanan murders was also used to murder a civilian electrical contractor, Terence McKeever, in south Armagh three years earlier.

Mr McKeever’s sister Karen has since discovered that evidential material gathered by Irish police is now missing from Dundalk Garda station.

The IRA claimed that Mr McKeever had been warned to discontinue carrying out work for the security forces.

Ms McKeever said she was “no further on since 1986” when she started trying to establish exactly what happened to her brother.

“The HET report revealed that 16 items had gone adrift, so when I thought we could have had a [new] investigation, looking at DNA samples and things like that – obviously that is now never going to happen.

“I then went to the Garda ombudsman, because the items had disappeared out of Dundalk Garda station, and I have been pursuing that ever since.”

Ms McKeever said she can’t understand how the evidential items were removed from a secure location without a record of the reason.

“I would like to know where they went and who was responsible for disposing of them, because I do believe that somebody deliberately disposed of them. I have tried so hard but just draw a blank every time.

“I would like to see an investigation. He was my brother and it was so wrong what happened to him, so until I draw my last breath I will be seeking answers and some form of justice for him. I am not giving up.”

A number of unionist political representatives have also marked the Arms Trail anniversary by calling for action from the Irish government.

DUP MP Gregory Campbell said it was now time for “Dublin to accept the role it played in fomenting and sustaining Provisional IRA terrorism” and to “take steps to help bring closure to those affected”.

Mr Campbell added: “Throughout the decades which have passed since the arms trial, there has never been any acceptance of the role played by the then Irish government in the formation, funding and training of the Provisional IRA.

“A show trial did nothing to dispel the knowledge of collusion and financial assistance being offered. There appears to be collective amnesia in the official circles in the Republic about the role of the Irish state in assisting a thirty year terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie said the role of the Irish Republic should be the subject of “proper scrutiny so that it can be fully acknowledged”.

He added: “This will include the presence of IRA arms dumps and training camps on its territory, the network of safe houses, the hundreds of gun and bomb attacks the IRA was able to mount from the Republic against targets in Northern Ireland, the ethnic cleansing campaign against border Protestants, collusion between rogue elements of the Garda and the IRA as was proven in the Smithwick investigation into the murder of RUC officers Breen and Buchanan, and the ease with which IRA terrorists were able to live freely in the Republic.”

Jim Allister has also called for an independent review of the events surrounding the Arms Trial.

The TUV leader said: “There has never been an independent trawl of Irish Government papers relating to the incident. At a time when the UK state is preparing to throw open its files on the Troubles as part of the Stormont House process it is reasonable to expect more transparency from the Irish Government.

“While Dublin has been keen to call for openness from the UK there has been a telling reluctance to face up to their own role in republican terrorism. Openness in relation to the Arms Trail affair would be a welcome step in the right direction.”

The Irish Government has not yet responded to a request for comment.