When is Treason not Treason

President of Republican Sinn Fein and former IRA Chief-of-Staff, Ruairi O’Bradaigh gives his thoughts on the recent decommissioning of arms

General Order No. 11 (Deals with the seizure of arms and dumps under Army control.)

a) Any volunteer who seizes or is party to the seizure of arms, ammunition or explosives which are being held under Army control shall be deemed guilty of treason. A duly-constituted court martial shall try all cases.

Penalty for breach of this order; Death.

Note: As in all cases of the death penalty, sentence must be ratified by the Army Council. (Ref. The Long War, by Brendan O’Brien, p. 296 – publ. 1993)

The first demand by British government for the surrender of IRA arms was in 1920 when the Black and Tan war was at its height. Efforts for a Truce between British and Irish Republican forces were being made through Archbishop Clune of Perth, Australia by British Prime Minister Lloyd George in December of that year.

November had been a critical month, beginning with the hanging of Kevin Barry on the first, the execution of Connacht Ranger James Daly on the second and ending with Bloody Sunday in Dublin on the 21st. and the Kilmichael Ambush on the 28th.

The Irish leaders, Griffith and Collins indicated that a truce must not involve a surrender of arms. In the British House of Commons on December 9 Lloyd George declared that while willing to meet certain members of the Dail for negotiations, the British "would meanwhile intensify their campaign against Sinn Fein, proclaim Martial Law over large areas, make the surrender of all arms and uniforms by a certain date compulsory and render any person failing to comply with the order liable to the death penalty."

Next day, December 10 the whole of the counties of Cork, Kerry, Tipperary and Limerick were placed under Martial Law with all that that entailed. Dr. Clune attempted to persuade the British to drop their demand for the surrender of arms. On December 24 he was told in London that the surrender of arms was essential. He refused to carry that demand to Dublin. On the 29/30th he was told, finally, by the British that "all prospect of a truce had been closed." (Ref. Dorothy Macardle’s Irish Republic pp378-381).

The Commander of the West Cork Brigade Flying Column, General Tom Barry was very much to the point in his answer to Michael Collins who told him of the pre-Christmas truce negotiations. Lloyd George had stipulated that an exception to the cessation of hostilities on the British side be made in the case of the Kilmichael Flying Column which must be hunted down.

Barry said that the West Cork Volunteers would survive long enough "to dispatch sufficient of their numbers to Dublin to exterminate the Cabinet which concluded such a truce" and Collins "laughed heartily and expressed approval". (Ref. Guerrilla Days in Ireland, by Tom Barry, p. 191, publ. 1949).

Sceilg in his book on Cathal Brugha criticises negotiations with Griffith and Eoin Mac Neill who were in prison at the time. (Collins was at liberty). Griffith wrote secretly to Collins: "He (Dr. Clune) will be going to London tonight to see Lloyd George and he will tell him that everything is at an end if it is necessary for us to give up our arms" "(Beidh se ag dul go Lundan anocht chun Leod Seoirse d’fheicsin, agus inneosaidh se dho go bhfuil deire le gach nidh ma’s eigin ar n-airm-na do thabhairt suas). (Ref. Cathal Bruagha le Sceilg, leath. 163, foillsithe 1942).

No more was heard from the British about a surrender of arms until the mid-1990s. Their proposal was rejected out of hand on its first airing in December 1920. The Irish were unanimous on that point then.

The next time an arms surrender demand was raised was at the end of the Free State War (popularly known as the "Civil War") in May 1923. The Free State Administration under Cosgrave said "Military actions against him (deValera) and his followers would cease when the arms held by them were delivered into the effectual custody of the Irish Free State executive authorities" and so instructed two Senators who acted as intermediaries.

The result was: "On the 13th and 14th of May the Republican Cabinet and Army Council met again. The decision was taken to attempt no renewal of the civil war but not to surrender arms. The Volunteers were to be ordered to conceal their arms and ammunition in places as safe as possible from discovery. The order to ‘Cease fire’ and ‘Dump arms’ was issued by the Chief of Staff on May 24". (Ref. The Irish Republic by Dorothy Macardle, pp. 775 and 781)

The Sabotage Campaign in England, 1939-40 and the Northern Campaign in the Six Counties 1942-44 were both declared officially to have ceased in early 1945. "One of Fleming’s first acts (as new Chief of Staff), on March 10, was to order a ceasefire with Great Britain, thus cancelling the 1939 IRA declaration of war". (Ref. The Secret Army by J. Bowyer Bell, p. 240, publ. 1970).

Surrendering or destroying arms simply did not arise. Several hundred Thompson sub-machine guns as well as Lee-Enfield rifles, revolvers and automatic pistols were in secure dumps so as to be available when the fight for Irish freedom was resumed. The Thompson guns were the greater part of a consignment of 500 ordered in May 1921 by IRA GHQ. They had been imported in the 1920s and early 1930s.

In 1962 the orders issued at the end of the Resistance Campaign were specific. A public statement released to the media on February 26 said: "Instructions issued to Volunteers of the Active Service Units and of local Units in the occupied area have now been carried out. All arms and other material have been dumped and all full-time active service Volunteers have been withdrawn".

It went on to speak of a "period of consolidation, expansion and preparation" and renewed the IRA’s "pledge of eternal hostility to the British Forces of Occupation in Ireland". It looked forward "with confidence" to the final and victorious phase of the struggle for the full freedom of Ireland".

The weapons were secure and held for a more opportune time when the fight would be renewed. An earlier "amnesty for illegally held arms" announced by 26-County Justice Minister Haughey for the month of January 1962 had been a total failure. All units had been reminded of General Order No. 11 and "not a round, not an ounce" moved into the military or police barracks of the 26 County State.

Neither in the preparations for the Bilateral Truces of 1972 and 1975, nor in the political discussions that took place during those truces was the question of arms surrender or arms destruction ever raised, I write advisedly when I state that all bets would be off if such had ever been raised or pressed. It never was.

But on March 15, 1995, the British Secretary for the Six Counties, Patrick Mayhew raised the matter of "decommissioning of arms" in an address in the United States which came to be known a "Washington 111". This was not, repeat NOT, immediately rejected publicly. The idea was kicked around, in other words entertained, and it became an article in the Stormont Agreement of April 1998.

All parties signing up to that deal undertook to use their "influence" to secure the destruction of "illegal" arms by May 2000! Tom Barry and the men of the West Cork Brigade were all safely dead, of course.

On May 5, 2000 – Bobby Sands’s 19th anniversary – the Provos agreed positively to "decommission" their arms. In June they actually exposed their arms dumps to the agents of the enemy. At Weston Park, England in late July and early August 2001 they made a definite compact with the enemies of Irish freedom as to a method of destroying their arms. Sometime between then and early October they destroyed the war material in at least one large dump in the presence of agents of London and Dublin.

The deed was done and General Order No. 11 was breached coldly, deliberately and publicly. William Shakespeare once asked: "When is treason not treason?" Answer: "When it is successful; because then none dare call it treason". But those who went before us would dare.