John Devine

Omagh-born Labour PRO John Devine enjoyed a particularly good rapport with the Northern activists. Before joining the staff in Labour’s head office in October 1968, he had been a journalist […]

New light on the arms crisis

Relations between individuals in Labour in the south and their comrades in the North, including Gerry Fitt of the Republican Labour Party and Paddy Devlin of the Northern Ireland Labour […]

Justifiable intervention or an illegal invasion?

Under international law, sending a military force into another sovereign state without that state’s permission is classified as an illegal invasion. A UN peacekeeping force cannot enter a member state’s […]

‘No longer stand[ing idly] by’? Irish army contingency plans, 1969–70

On 13 August 1969 the Irish cabinet discussed the developing Bogside crisis. Neil Blaney, minister for agriculture, suggested sending the Irish army across the border in an attempt to provoke […]

How much did Lynch know?

Ought he to have known about that attempt to import arms? The answer is certainly ‘yes’. But the burden of evidence that I have examined leads me to conclude that […]