Irish Republican Army Part 01 · p.385

address of its foreign principal; that it had not described properly its
activities; and that it had not provided an accurate accounting of its
receipts and disbursements (Federal prosecutors had argued that some money
was retained to make illicit weapons purchases and the amounts transmitted to
Belfast and Dublin were disputable).During the Federal investigations,
Michael Flannery and two other NoRAID officials invoked the Fifth Amendment
against self-incrimination.
A US Justice Department official said that for a decade the Department
"has been trying to get people here who represent the IRA to tell the truth;
they're raising money to create widows and orphans, and not to help widows
and orphans" (US International Communication Agency, 19 August 1982). NORAID
Registration Act since August 1984.However the first set of accounts
submitted was later admitted by NoRAID lawyers to be false, and subsequent
sets have contained glaring discrepancies.
Theseaccountsthereforegivea
very incomplete and distorted view of NoRAID expenditure.
Supplyofarms
Since 1970,when the IRA broke into Provisional and 0fficial wings, the
United States has been the Provisional IRA's most important regular source of
arms. More than l,250 weapons (including automatic rifles,cannon and
flamethrowers) and large quantities of ammunition have been purchased in the
years 1973 to June 1986.According to the US Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco and
Firearms,up to the end of 1984 the Bureau alone "has directly traced 716
guns, primarily rifles and machine guns, to the IRA". Ballistic and other
evidence have shown that weapons obtained from the United States have been
used in some of the worst terrorist incidents in Northern.Ireland.
Since its inception, NoRAID and its officers have been mentioned in
connexion with trials in the United States and Canada for arms/offences and
gun-running to the Republic,and eight NoRAID officers have been convicted of
gun-running for the Provisional IRA since 1973.James 0Gara, given a
five-year suspended sentence in 1973 for using a falseidentification to
purchase arms, was an active NORAID official and co-chairman of the NORAID
annual New York dinner-dance in 1976. Joseph Myles, sentenced to two years
g ae
was described by police as "an executive officer of a Us organisation′
Daniel Cahalane,
Northern Irish Aid" (Irish Times,Dublin,7 June 1975).
headofNORAIDysI
Delaware County chapter, spent over five months/in jail in
1973 for refusing to testify to a Federal Grand Jury investigating
gun-running,
and was convicted in June 1976 for illegally exporting arms.
Neil Byrne/ a NORAID member, was also convicted in June 1976 with Cahalane
Byrne,the Pennsylvania Appeal Courf
found that"NoRAID engaged invarious
.fund-raising activities and was also the centre of the armament purchase and
transportation efforts".Francis.Grady
convicted in New York on 12 March
1976/for illegally exporting arms Jand falsifying documents, was said in court
to Have formed with others a chapter of NoRAID in Yonkers, New York State, in
May 1970. When, in 0ctober 1979,(151 weapons originating in the United
States were found in Dublin docks,the shipment was traced to an
accommodation address in New York belonging to Bernard McKeon, an office
holder in NORAID.In June 1983,a New York court convicted McKeon of
conspiracy to export firearms.
lEh #
951-661
0