DISSIDENT THREAT:PLANS BY the Irish Republican Army for a seizure of power by coup d'etat in 1934 have been revealed in documents released for the first time by the Department of Justice.
More than 1,000 files from the period 1934-39 with a strong focus on IRA, Blueshirt and communist activities have been transferred to the National Archives. The files were apparently considered too sensitive for public viewing until now.
In a document issued on August 31st, 1934, and entitled Training and Preparation within a YearIRA Chief of Staff Maurice "Moss" Twomey (1897-1978) informs local commanders that the organisation is to "be trained, equipped and fit to take the field" in that time.
Meanwhile, the army council and general headquarters staff of the IRA would be responsible for “the drawing-up of plans for the seizure and consolidation of power”. As part of this “great project”, agreed at an IRA convention earlier in the month, Twomey states that “the complete elimination of a number of unsuitable volunteers” might be required.
There must be “very drastic re-organisation” at officer level: “We must have officers with military mind and military outlook, who will think in terms of military action . . . in terms of revolution.”
Each recruit would be subject to a probationary period of at least three months including education in the “history of the physical force movement . . . pointing out the ideals which animate it and how its policy and methods differ from the so-called constitutional Nationalist agitations”.
An accompanying commentary on Twomey’s message from a senior officer in the Garda Síochána states that it is “mere bluff and is directed at putting something spectacular before the rank and file for the purpose of keeping them together”. The Garda estimate of IRA strength is given as “about 8,041” for the 26-county area, with “a limited supply of rifles, revolvers and ammunition” at local level. In addition, the split by left-wing elements to form the Republican Congress party and the establishment of a reserve force by the Fianna Fáil government, “had the effect of disintegrating the organisation to a very considerable extent”.
A further Garda commentary submitted to the government concedes that “the document, on its face value, is rather an alarming one” in that it purports to convey “that at the end of 12 months the IRA should be in a position to attempt to effect a coup d’etat”.
Explaining the background as he sees it, the senior Garda officer continues: “Individual members of the IRA . . . were beginning to realise that the establishment of a Republic could only be accomplished behind the lawfully and freely elected Government of the country.
“This general instruction is . . . an attempt to put some spectacular objective before the rank and file . . . in a desperate endeavour to stem the disorganisation and disintegration that threatened its very existence.”
The real threat lay in the development of a left-wing party such as the Republican Congress: “It is thought that the orthodox IRA will never be a serious menace to the Government as at present constituted.
“The Republican Congress Group, under Peadar O’Donnell, which endeavours to get control of the Labour Organisations in the country for the purpose of creating general social disorder and internal chaos will be a much greater menace. The more this organisation’s efforts are thwarted by the existence of the orthodox IRA the better. If the latter ceased to exist there would be much more recruitment to the Congress ranks with the inevitable social consequences.”
