With the peace process underway and the Good Friday Accords signed in 1997, it is remarkable that three IRA dissidents were involved in arming the group that allegedly has vowed to decommission and integrate into civil society. For these three specifically, there can be no mistake; they were caught on June 19, 2006, trying to smuggle weaponry?Kalashnikov assault rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, silencers, heavy machine guns and ammunition, armor-piercing weapons, plastic explosive, detonators, mines, rocket-propelled grenades and detonating cord, according to AP?from Portugal and France into Northern Ireland. In past cases, alleged members were involved in armed robbery, which could variously be IRA-related or petty crime .
Mr. Desmond and Mrs. Alison Kearns and Michael Gregory were all arrested in a raid, which involved over 200 officers and searches of eight properties throughout Northern Ireland. French authorities also aided in the investigation. It is unclear if any of the enumerated weapons or weapon systems were recovered in the raids.
The threesome will be remanded to face the judiciary on July 28. Desmond Kearns faces two counts of acquisition of weaponry to endanger life. Allison Kearns faces one count of “inviting another person to acquire these weapons for terrorist purposes.” And, Michael Gregory faces a charge of arranging access to commercial property to store weaponry.
The IRA, primarily Provisional IRA members, has officially observed a ceasefire since 1997 and began decommissioning in 2005. However, splinter groups, specifically the Real IRA and to a lesser degree the Continuity IRA , have not signed on to the parent group’s agenda and have launched attacks, to include the 1998 Omagh attack . In fact, the Real IRA’s Number Two man Paul McCaugherty, in charge from December 1, 2005 through June 19, 2006, was captured by MI5 and French and Irish authorities on June 26 as he attempted to purchase “AK47 assault weapons, Barrat Light .50 long-range sniper rifles, Sam-7 anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine-guns, and 200lbs of Semtex plastic explosives,” according to The Herald. These weapons systems would have been inimical to the security apparatus. He will be charged with “conspiracy to possess firearms, conspiracy to murder members of the security forces in Northern Ireland and supplying cash to buy arms and ammunition.” He is also remanded to custody for a July 20 hearing. He is the fourth Real IRA member to be captured in about a week and the second set of members in four years in massive crackdowns. McCaugherty’s purchases are suspected to have been intended for use against police forces, likely in both Northern Ireland and mainland England, to undermine Sinn Fein’s interaction with the UK . According to Times Online, the weapons were intended for a sizable plot in Ireland and Britain to derail the peace process.
Both sets of arrests are quite telling, as it indicates that the PIRA’s weapons caches are inaccessible to splinter groups and individuals, who are forced to look toward mainland Europe for illicit weapon technologies. Further, both sets of arrests are indicative of the good work?despite some media reports?that British investigators and law enforcement have been doing covertly and overtly for years, often in an under-resourced capacity, to obliterate this hydra. While both sets of arrests should be celebrated, as the Independent Monitoring Commission said in early 2006, “Dissident republicans remain determinedly committed to terrorism and deeply engaged in other crime…”
