The Irish military might soon come under the control of Sinn Fein-led government

Under scrutiny will be the Republic of Ireland which signed up to NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

With the possibility of a Sinn Fein Taoiseach of foreign minister in a new Irish government there will be intense interest around the Nato table, under any other business.

It was back in 1974 when the Soviet KGB supplied by sea, weapons to the Official IRA, under the leadership of Cathal Goulding, chief of staff.

These weapons are likely to have been the ubiquitous Kalashnikov and Makarov pistol, standard issue to the Soviet secret police. One can only speculate as to the type of other weapons gifted to the ‘Officials’.

This tranche of arms was supplied around the time Goulding stood down his Marxist organisation after his hideous bombing of Aldershot army barracks in London, killing a number of civilian personnel.

The arms supplied with the help of the Communist Party of Ireland as go-between, apparently made their way into the hands of the Provisionals and the breakaway group, the INLA.

Goulding was not by any means friends with the Provisional leadership and unlikely to have given over the arms; speculation has it that he sold most of the KGB weapons to the Provisional IRA. As to whether these arms became part of the decommissioning process is unknown. Let us hope, in particular for UK security, that MI6 is ahead of the game.

No doubt Monsieur Barnier will be delighted to have Irish republicans at his side in EU negotiations with the UK on future trade arrangements.

With a Sinn Fein-led Irish government perhaps entering the mix, will the UK prime minister be caught once again in a bear-trap over Northern Ireland?

In a new coalition government, the control of the constituted Irish armed forces might come under a Sinn Fein Taoiseach.

Morrison W Woods, Bangor