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Provisional Irish Republican Army arms importation into the Republic of Ireland for use in Northern Ireland began in the early 1970s. With these weapons it conducted an armed campaign against the British state in Northern Ireland.〔''War in the Shadows: The Guerrilla in History Volume 2'' by Robert B. Asprey (ISBN 978-0595225941), page 1125〕〔''Global Geopolitics: A Critical Introduction'' by Klaus Dodds (ISBN 978-0273686095), page 205〕〔''British Civilization'' by John Oakland (ISBN 978-0415261500), page 108〕 ==American arms== In the early stages of the Troubles, during the period 1969–1972, the Provisional IRA was poorly armed. They had access to weapons remaining from the IRA's failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962, but these weapons were outdated and unsuitable for a modern campaign. After 1969, and the split with the Official IRA, the Provisional IRA gained control of a majority of the stockpiled weaponry still held from previous IRA campaigns. They found that the stockpiles consisted mostly of World War II small arms ranging from Lee–Enfield and M1 Garand rifles, to MP40 and Thompson submachine guns (SMG), plus Bren light machine guns (LMG) and Webley revolvers.〔Taylor, p. 62.〕 The Garands were used in IRA operations as late as the summer of 1976, when a British army patrol in South Armagh was fired on by one of these rifles loaded with armour-piercing ammunition.〔Bramley, Vincent (2012). ''Two Sides of Hell''. John Blake, p. 57. ISBN 184454821X〕 To continue and escalate their armed campaign, the IRA needed to be better equipped, which meant securing modern small arms. In previous campaigns weapons had been secured before hostilities commenced via raids on British Army and even Irish Army weapons depots. In the 1969–1971 period this was no longer feasible.〔Previous raids included the 1940 Christmas Raid, the 1953 Felstead Raid, and the 1955 Hazebrouck Raid.〕 By 1972, the IRA had large quantities of modern small arms, particularly Armalite rifles, manufactured and purchased in the United States. The AR-18 rifle in particular was found to be very well suited to the Provisionals' purposes as its small size and folding stock meant that it was easy to conceal. Moreover, it was capable of rapid fire and fired a high velocity round which provided great "stopping power".〔Taylor, pp. 108–109.〕 The IRA's main gun runner in the USA was George Harrison, an IRA veteran, resident in New York since 1938. Harrison bought guns for the IRA from a Corsican arms dealer named George de Meo, who had connections in organised crime. Joe Cahill acted as the contact between NORAID and Harrison. In 1971, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) had already seized 700 modern weapons from the IRA, including 2 tonnes of high explosive and 157,000 rounds of ammunition, most of which were US made. Harrison spent an estimated US$1 million in the 1970s purchasing over 2,500 guns for the IRA. According to Brendan Hughes, an IRA member who later became Officer Commanding of the IRA inside Long Kesh prison, the IRA smuggled small arms from the United States by sea on ''''Queen Elizabeth 2'''' from New York via Southampton,〔 through Irish members of her crew, until the network was cracked down on by the FBI in the 1980s.〔Geraghty, Tony (2000). ''The Irish War''. Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 172. ISBN 0-00-255617-0〕 These ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' shipments included M16, CAR-15, AR-18 and AR-15 Armalite assault rifles, accompanied by Browning pistols and Smith & Wesson pistols and revolvers and were driven from Southampton to Belfast in small consignments. In the late 1970s, another IRA member, Gabriel Megahey, was sent to the United States to acquire more arms and he was able to procure more AR-15 Armalites, plus a number of Heckler & Koch rifles and other weapons. Again, the purchase of these weapons was funded by Irish American republicans.〔Taylor, pp. 1–5.〕 A batch of M60 machine guns was imported in 1977.〔P400 Martin Dillon, ''The Dirty War: Covert Strategies and Tactics Used in Political Conflicts'' Taylor & Francis, 1999 ISBN 0-415-92281-X〕 Harrison was arrested by the FBI in 1981, but acquitted at his trial.〔 Megahey was arrested by the FBI in 1982 after a successful "sting operation", where he was trying to purchase surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) for the IRA, and sentenced to seven years in prison.〔 In 1984, the FBI warned Ireland that a major IRA arms shipment was underway from the US, and that the weaponry would be transferred to an Irish fishing trawler in the Atlantic. Subsequently, Irish authorities discovered that arms ship was a vessel named ''Marita Ann'', allegedly after a tip off Sean O'Callaghan, an IRA informant for the Garda Síochána (police of the Republic of Ireland).〔 Three Irish Naval Service ships confronted the vessel off the coast of County Kerry, and prevented its escape by firing warning shots. A team of naval personnel and Garda officers boarded the ship, arresting the crew of five and confiscating seven tons of military equipment, as well as medications, training manuals, and communications equipment.〔"(Scannal: Boston )" RTÉ Television〕 The weapons had been donated by the South Boston Winter Hill Irish Mob. ==Libyan arms== The other source of IRA arms in the 1970s was Libya, whose leader, Muammar Gaddafi, sympathised with their campaign. The first Libyan arms donation to the IRA occurred in 1972–1973, following visits by Joe Cahill to Libya. In early 1973, the Government of the Republic of Ireland received intelligence that the vessel ''Claudia'' was carrying a shipment of weapons, and placed the ship under surveillance on 27 March. On 28 March, three Irish Naval Service patrol vessels intercepted ''Claudia'' in Irish territorial waters near Helvick Head, County Waterford, seizing five tonnes of Libyan arms and ammunition found on board. The weapons seized included 250 Soviet-made small arms, 240 rifles, anti-tank mines and other explosives. Cahill was found and arrested on board.〔RTE Documentary: The Navy〕〔Bowyer Bell, p. 398.〕 It is estimated that three shipments of weapons of similar size and makeup did get through to the IRA during the same time period.〔Taylor, p. 156〕 Journalist Ed Moloney reports that the early Libyan arms shipments furnished the IRA with its first RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and that Gaddafi also donated three to five million US dollars at this time.〔Moloney, p. 10.〕 However contact with the Libyan government was broken off in 1976. Contact with Libya was restored in the aftermath of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, which was said to have impressed Gadaffi. In the 1980s, the IRA secured larger quantities of weapons and explosives from Gaddafi's Libya – enough to supply at least two infantry battalions.〔A court action is currently (May 2006) underway against Libya by victims of IRA violence. See (here ).〕 Four successful shipments of arms were made between 1985 and 1986, providing large quantities of modern weaponry, including heavy weaponry such as heavy machine guns, over 1,000 rifles, several hundred handguns, rocket-propelled grenades, flamethrowers, surface-to-air missiles, and Semtex〔Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country – The IRA and South Armagh. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 239–245〕〔Tony Geraghty, The Irish War. ISBN 0-8018-6456-9, p. 182〕〔Brendan O'Brien, The Long War – The IRA and Sinn Féin. ISBN 0-8156-0319-3, p. 137〕—an odourless explosive, invisible to X-rays, and many times more powerful than fertiliser.〔 According to British journalist Toby Harnden, from late 1986 to 2011, "virtually every bomb constructed by the Provisional IRA" and splinter groups such as the Real IRA, "has contained Semtex from a Libyan shipment unloaded at an Irish pier in 1986." These shipments were in retaliation for the British Government's support for the US Air Force's bombing attacks on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986, which in turn were in retaliation for the 1986 bombing of the LaBelle discotheque in Berlin. The USAF planes involved in the bombings had taken off from British bases on 14 April 1986, and Libya reportedly suffered 60 casualties in the attack. This second major Libyan contribution to the IRA came in 1986–1987. There were four shipments which were not intercepted, in a huge intelligence failure of both Irish and British agencies described as 'calamitous' by journalist Brendan O'Brien.〔O'Brien, p. 137〕 The arm supplies from Libya developed as follows: * The trawler ''Casamara'' took on ten tonnes of weapons in September 1985 off the Maltese island of Gozo. These weapons were landed off the Clogga Strand near Arklow by inflatable boats some weeks later. The shipment contained five hundred crates of AK-47s, pistols, hand grenades, ammunition and seven RPG-7s. * ''Casamara'' (renamed ''Kula'' at this time), left Maltese waters on 6 October 1985 carrying a cache of DShK heavy machine guns. * In July 1986, there was a shipment of 14 tonnes, including, according to the authorities, two SAM-7s. * In October 1986, another shipment of 80 tonnes which included one tonne of Semtex, reportedly ten SAM-7 missiles, more RPG-7s, AK-47s and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition arrived aboard the oil-rig replenishment ''Villa''.〔Bowyer Bell, p. 570.〕 In total, the arms shipments included: * 9mm Browning, Taurus, Glock and Beretta handguns * AK-47 Kalashnikov and AKM assault rifles * MP5 submachine guns * RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launcher * Soviet made DShK heavy machine guns * FN MAG machine guns * Military flamethrowers * Semtex plastic explosive * Strela 2 man portable SAMs It is also estimated that the Libyan government gave the IRA the equivalent of £2 million along with the 1980s shipments.〔 However, on 1 November 1987, during transit to Ireland, one-third of the total Libyan arms consignment being carried aboard the MV ''Eksund'' was intercepted by the French Navy while the ship was in the Bay of Biscay,〔p.441, The dirty war: covert strategies and tactics used in political conflicts. Dillon, Martin〕 along with five crew members, among them Gabriel Cleary. The vessel was found to contain 120 tonnes of weapons, including HMGs, 36 RPGs, 1000 detonators, 20 SAMs, Semtex and 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition. Ed Moloney claimed that the ''Eksund'' shipment also contained military mortars and 106 millimetre cannon, an assertion never confirmed by the Irish authorities.〔Moloney, p. 22.〕 Despite the ''Eksund'' fiasco, the IRA was by then equipped with a quantity and quality of weaponry and explosives never available to them at any other phase of their history.〔 Furthermore, according to Brendan O'Brien there was actually an 'over-supply', specially regarding the 600 AK-47s still in the hands of the IRA by 1992.〔O'Brien, p. 239〕 Garda Síochána (the Police Service of the Republic of Ireland) uncovered numerous arms destined for the IRA in 1988. These included several hundred AK-47s, Russian DSHK HMGs, FN MAG machine guns and Semtex.〔O'Brien, p. 143.〕 By 1996, ''Jane's Intelligence Review'' reported that "it is believed that the bulk of the material presently in IRA arsenals was shipped from Libya in the mid-1980s with the aid of a skipper, Adrian Hopkins, hired for the purpose by the IRA." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Provisional Irish Republican Army arms importation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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