Official papers confirm 1970 plans for military action in N. Ireland

Tuesday, January 2nd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) _ The Irish government made contingency plans in 1970 for a military thrust into Northern Ireland to protect Catholics and provide them arms for their protection, according to newly released official papers.

Historians have long believed that such contingency plans were made, but there had been no official confirmation.

The official papers released Tuesday show that then-Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch ordered the army to train for a possible incursion into British-ruled Northern Ireland. But his military planners felt only 800 troops would be available for a brief foray across the border.

Serious rioting had erupted in Northern Ireland the previous summer. Catholic homes had been attacked by Protestant mobs in Belfast, and the British government put troops on the streets to help keep order.

Lynch raised expectations of intervention in a broadcast on Aug. 13, 1969 in which he said: ``It is clear ... that the Irish government can no longer stand idly by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse.''

In public, Lynch went no further than calling for a U.N. peacekeeping force for Northern Ireland, and he ordered the army to set up field hospitals along the border to offer treatment to people who, fearing prosecution for rioting, did not want to use hospitals within Northern Ireland.

On Feb. 6, 1970, according to the official papers, Lynch directed the chief of staff ``to prepare and train the Army for incursions into Northern Ireland, if and when such a course became necessary, and to have respirators (gas masks) and arms and ammunition made ready in the event that it would be necessary for the minority to protect themselves.''

On April 2, the army moved 500 rifles, 80,000 rounds of ammunition and 3,000 gas masks to Dundalk, near the border with Northern Ireland.

The official papers also reveal that the defense minister, James Gibbons, admitted he had ``no idea'' when and to whom the arms might be handed over.

In June, the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Sean McKeown, reported to Lynch that the army had the capacity only to send 800 troops into the town of Newry across the border for as little as 24 hours _ at the cost of ``considerable casualties.''

McKeown said he viewed this option as ``a short temporary stay to carry out a mercy mission and return.''

Lynch, according to the official papers, ``reaffirmed that it was the policy of the government that force would not be used as a means to reintegrate the national territory'' _ that is, to end British rule of the six counties of Northern Ireland.

Though Irish military moves never went past the planning stage, Finance Minister Charles Haughey and Agriculture Minister Neil Blaney were expelled from the Cabinet and then charged with conspiring to send arms to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

Haughey, who became Ireland's prime minister in 1979, and Blaney were acquitted. As a Cabinet member, Blaney had advocated that the Irish army attempt to occupy Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city and the scene of battles between Catholics and the police.