Dublin's friendship with IRA sympathiser

Newly-released files demonstrate that Irish Government officials decided to keep business negotiations with Colonel Muammar Gaddaffi's regime quiet due to an expected backlash in both Britain and Northern Ireland.

The documents show that senior Irish officials were aware that Libya was providing the Provos with weapons but nonetheless thought it prudent to remain friendly with the rogue state rather than jeopardise lucrative contracts.

In April 1973 Aer Lingus asked a number of cabinet ministers to sign off on a deal concerning a contract to help train and manage Libyan Arab Airlines.

Just weeks before a prominent IRA member Joe Cahill was arrested on board the Claudia off County Waterford with over five tons of Libyan weapons.

The consignment included hundreds of rifles, revolvers, anti-tank mines and other explosives and was thought to be one of a number of shipments.

Gaddaffi would go on to stock the Provos' deadly arsenal throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Later weapons shipments would include thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, tonnes of Semtex plastic explosives and RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers.

But the new documents show that a handwritten note to then industry and commerce minister Justin Keating underlined the Government's awareness that Gaddafi's regime was arming the Provos, who were then involved in a deadly campaign in Ireland and Britain.

Although the documents illustrate Dublin's disapproval over Libya's support for subversion and violence in Northern Ireland an adviser noted: "If elements in the Libyan administration have, in fact, been involved in gun-running, they are not going to be influenced by the withdrawal of Aer Lingus from a proposed management assistance contract."

The memo was signed off by number of officials, along with a note that the decision had been conveyed to the Department of Transport and Power.

Papers also show that the Department of Industry and Commerce agreed a request by Enterprise Ireland's predecessor, the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards (IIRS), to train up Libyan graduates.

An official noted: "It is true that there have been difficulties about the Libian (sic) regime support for the Provisionals and that our message to Colonel Gaddafi on this matter did not seem to be getting through as we like.

"In spite of this I feel we should do what we can to be friendly with Libya and to exert our influences in such a way as to bring it into a more reasonable relationship not only with Ireland but with Europe as a whole."

"Whatever it may be short of, Libya is not short of money," a memo commented on a decision to insist on full commercial payment.

It adds: "You may also wish to suggest to Industry and Commerce that the arrangement is not one for excessive publicity in present circumstances since not only might it cause unwelcome reaction in Ireland but might also arouse unwelcome reaction in Great Britain."

Families of IRA victims are still seeking compensation from Libya for supplying Semtex and guns to the Provos.