SAOIRSE32

STATE PAPERS: THE REPUBLIC

By DR Eamon Phoenix
Irish News
30/12/08

President Eamon de Valera accepted gifts from Colonel Gaddafi the same year Libya began arming the IRA, official state papers have revealed.

Documents released into the Republic’s National Archives show the maverick Arab ruler sent Mr de Valera a riding whip, a saddle and a bridle at a secret meeting with one of his ambassadors in 1972.

Later that year IRA chief Joe Cahill met Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Tripoli to arrange a five-ton shipment of weapons into the Republic.

The cargo ship Claudia was intercepted by the Irish navy in March 1973 and Cahill was convicted for smuggling the arsenal of Libyan arms and explosives.

Files from the president’s office at the time show that a representative of Colonel Gaddafi asked to call at Aras an Uachtarain during a St Patrick’s Day visit to Dublin.

Galal Daghely, Libyan ambassador in Bonn, then in West Germany, was officially in Ireland to meet a foreign trade committee.

A memo, written in Irish, reveals that an official in the Department of Foreign Affairs warned that any meeting with the president should not be part of the published agenda of the visit.

The meeting was initially turned down but the ambassador contacted an Irish official at home on St Patrick’s Day to say he had a present for Mr de Valera and would be disappointed if he did not accept it.

Eventually, after giving assurances that he would not publicise the visit, it was agreed that he could call to Aras an Uachtarain where he was met by the president.

Several days later Mr de Valera wrote to Colonel Gaddafi to thank him.

“For this gift, which richly reflects Arab skill and handicraft, I wish to convey to your Excellency my sincere thanks,” he wrote.

“In expressing my appreciation of your kindness, may I add my good wishes for your personal wellbeing.”

Files from 1973 released several years ago revealed that the Irish government decided against lodging an official protest with Libya over the arms smuggling because it was afraid it would spur the regime into providing more supplies.

It was also felt that it might lessen chances of attracting Libyan investment.

Libya went on to become one of the major sources of IRA arms and finance for its campaign of violence over the following three decades.