Irish Republican Army Part 01 · p.387

Healsosaid:
"They tell you, 'No. It's not the same IRA'. Well, I joined the IRA
a 1ong time ago,I saw the campaigns of 1919, 1920 and 192l, and I'm
still here in the same organisation - the same IRA as I was in then.
and for al1" (An Phoblacht/Republican News, 4 September 1986).
In June 1982 the US Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it
York. Two men, Gabriel Megahey and Andrew Duggan, were charged with
conspiracy to purchase and export weapons and munitions, including five SAM
missiles (at a cost of $10,000 each), and ARl5 and M16 rifles. The missiles
were to be used against British helicopters in Northern Ireland.The FBI

Provisional IRA's leader in the United States and that his organisation had
$l million to spend on the purchase of weapons. At the time of his arrest
Megahey, an Irish citizen, was in the United States illegally and was subject
to adeportationorder.
Duggan,a US citizen, is a member of NORAID.The
FBI also arrested two Irish.brothers,Colum and Eamon Meehan.In May. 1983
Megahey, Duggan and the Meehans were convicted by a New York court of
gun-running to the Provisional IRA.
In September 1984, as a result of close cooperation between the Irish,
British and US authorities, the Irish.Naval Service intercepted and arrested
a Kerry-based trawler, the Marita Ann, off the coast of Ireland. The trawler
was found to be carrying seven tons of automatic weapons, ammunition and
explosives.T
Three members of the·crew of the Marita Ann were sentenced to
imprisonment in Dublin on 11 December 1984. Subsequently. several weapons
from the Marita. Ann were traced to the West Coast of America, where.six men,
at least two of whom were members of NoRAID, were interviewed and one was
presented with a subpoena for attendance before a'Grand Jury in Boston.
In October 1984 a US ship, the Valhalla, was arrested in Boston harbour;
it was believed that the vessel had carried the shipment of arms from the US
which was found on board the Marita Ann.0n 16 April 1986 seven people,
including the captain of the Valhalla, were indicted by a federal grand jury
for illegally exporting arms and ammunition from the Us. The Irish Justice
Minister; Michael Noonan, said of these arms that he was in no doubt that
they had been bought with money raised by NORAID "to.murder people, North and
South" (Daily Telegraph, London, 10 0ctober 1984).
Attitudes of the US Administration and political leaders.
In a statement issued to commemorate St Patrick's Day.in 1983 the
Congressional Friends of Ireland, an all-party group in the US Congress led
:-by such Irish American politicians as Senators Edward Kennedy and Daniel
Moynihan, and Tip O'Neil, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, said
"On this St Patrick's day, therefore, we appeal again to our fellow
Americans to reject those who believe in bloodshed, to renounce
organisations which are the agents of violence and to deny American
dollars to any group that condones or contributes to the killing.
Instead, we urge our fellow citizens to be unyielding in their
commitment to peaceful political change."