Gunrunning from America and Libya 1983-7

 While the US gunrunning route was still open and we could count on support from friends there,I counselled the importation of 365 AR-15's,a gun with which the IRA was well familiar. I stipulated to Mick Mc Manus that we concentrate on arming the IRA with just one type of semi-automatic rifle because, in what I hoped would be a general conflagration,the assortment of rifles previously imported would make for a motley crew and was not appropriate for an organisation calling itself an army. Standardisation was my advice.

In September 1983,the shipment was seized.

In January 1985,my slogan of Openness, Restructuring and Democratisation being ready I was counselled by Manus Maguire to ask for 2 000 rifles from the Russians for the intellectual work.

I was being poisoned with a substance or substances in the water supply of my shared accommodation and agreed. Memory fails me but I think that high on whatever form of dope had been laid in the water supply and 'keyed up' by Maguire,I asked for 72 general purpose machine guns,TNT and 16 high-calibre machine guns and ammunition for the guns involved. Memory fails me today because I had fallen into a trap of greedy and evil men.

Sic transit tempora.