Charlie and the Provos

This is as good a time as any to recall to mind the shenanigans that were going on in Dublin in 1970, as the Haughey clique sought to insulate their 'kingdom' from the storm that was about to break in the north of Ireland.

In 1970, Charlie Haughey and his cohorts saw the way the wind was blowing in the north of Ireland. Their priority was to safeguard the Fianna Fail gravy train in the south. Informal contacts were made between the Haughey clique and the newly emerging Dublin bosses of the Provisional IRA - Sean MacStiofain, Rory O'Bradaigh, Daithi O'Conail.
A certain understanding was reached.
Money and guns would be made available by southern politicians and businessmen, but strictly on the condition that the new IRA leadership would adhere to their declaration of an earlier decade that the IRA would not open fire on the southern police and the southern army, and would not plant bombs in the south.

(The occasional bank raid in the south could be tolerated, as long as no one could prove it was a Provo job........ and so Garda Fallon lost his life as a result of this policy...... nudge nudge, wink wink......)

And so we went on from there. All hell broke loose in the north of Ireland, partly funded by money and guns from southern politicians and businessmen.

Their agenda was clear. They foresaw in 1970 that all hell was about to break loose in Northern Ireland. Their priority was to confine the mayhem to north of the border, so that the Fianna Fail gravy train could stay on track south of the border, and they colluded informally with Sean MacStiofain and his successors to ensure that the mayhem would be confined to the north.

This is a good time to remember it.