On May 18th, 1971, the US embassy in Dublin sent Washington an eight-page confidential assessment of the IRA which it drew up in co-ordination with the consul general in Belfast. This was 18 months after the republican movement had split into an Official faction - "under communist influence", as the embassy put it - and a Provisional faction, resulting in two Sinn Feins and two IRAs, Official and Provisional.
The IRA split had had "serious repercussions on the Republic's domestic politics as well as complicating the difficult internal security situation in Northern Ireland".
It lists the republican movement's various branches. "The best-known and most romantic of these groups is the IRA (all members of which belong to Sinn Fein, but not vice versa)."
Under the sub-heading "Mystique of the IRA", the report says its "legend of derringdo" attracts a steady supply of "would-be patriots and martyrs whose IRA activities seem to combine a tradition of revolution and force with the ideal of unselfish puritanical service to Ireland."
Dealing with the lead-up to the split, the report drafted by the political officer, Virgil Randolph III, states that he "understands from an authoritative source in the Irish government that in the autumn of 1969 the Irish minister for agriculture, the unreconstructed Donegal man and powerful Fianna Fail politician Neil BLANEY, began beefing up his own political machine in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, ostensibly to further the Fianna Fail interests but actually to further his own . . .
"Prime minister Lynch, unable to curb Blaney's free-wheeling activities, which involved the diversion of Irish government and Fianna Fail party funds to his supporters, waited for an opportunity to quash Blaney and his `private IRA'."
The report describes the Sinn Fein split in January 1970 into Officials, led by Roy Johnston and Cahal Goulding, and Provisionals, "led by Rory Brady, a pre-1962 IRA militant. . ." who with "80 angry hardcore IRA traditionalists devoted to nationalist, but not socialist, issues set up their own dissident Sinn Fein/IRA wing."
Under the sub-heading, "The Gun-Running Plot", the report says: "It now seems established that during the spring of 1970 Neil Blaney sought to give muscle to his political ambitions by arranging for the illegal importation into Ireland of a substantial quantity of arms and ammunition for delivery to his republican friends on both sides of the Border.
"Despite the failure of the attempt to smuggle arms to Blaney's `private IRA', a quantity of guns and ammunition as well as money (some apparently from Irish government appropriations for `Northern relief'), seems to have trickled into Northern Ireland during 1970, mostly into the hands of the IRA `Provisionals'."
The report says that "a responsible Irish government official" in January 1971 had "estimated that the combined active membership of both IRA groups in the Republic at about 1,300, with an additional half that number operating in Northern Ireland. These figures exclude Neil Blaney's `private IRA', which may number a hundred men or so."
The report says the situation within the Provisionals is less clear than the left-wing ideology of the Officials. It states: "Brady's Provisionals are . . . having nothing to do with Neil Blaney's . . . current efforts to found a new 32-county Republican Party (whose real aim is to oust Lynch from the leadership of Fianna Fail) . . .
"Since it is doubtful that the new Republican Party will get off the ground, Blaney's `Private IRA' may eventually drift back into Fianna Fail. In this connection, it should be noted that Fianna Fail has very carefully avoided any confrontation with the IRA `Provisionals' and the `Officials' as well. In fact, the Lynch government has turned a blind eye at clandestine `Provisional' IRA training activities in the Republic."
The US diplomat who wrote the report is "reliably informed that Brady's Belfast locum tenens, Jim SULLIVAN,* has arrived at the conclusion that, especially in view of the increasing efficiency of the British security forces, nothing more is to be gained from further violence against the `Officials' in Northern Ireland.
He is also reported to be considering the advisability of the `Provisionals' coming to terms with their republican rivals and concentrating on opposing `British imperialism,' perhaps in return for a diminution of Roy Johnston's influence within the `Officials'.
"It also would seem as if control of the faction-ridden `Provisonals' is passing from Dublin to Belfast. The present truce between the opposing wings may therefore be prolonged indefinitely. The future of the `Provisionals' is uncertain, but bound to be turbulent - and fascinating to the Irish people," the report concludes.
The embassy continued to keep close track of developments inside the IRA. In January 1973, it reported to Washington on "The New Provo Command". According to sources close to the Provisional IRA, a "Troika" was now running the IRA, namely, Daithi O'Connell, Joe Cahill and Gerry Adams, "who is still an active Belfast military commander."
The embassy was also intrigued by the visit to the US in December 1972 by Charles Haughey, still in disgrace after dismissal from the government and the arms trial. Indeed, it seems to have misunderstood Mr Haughey's position: Ambassador Moore told Washington that he was quite different from "run-of-the-mill" republican supporters. " He was "capable, high-powered and ambitious." It was rumoured that he was going to the US for "fund-raising for the republican cause".
* US embassy intelligence seems to have been flawed in relation to Jim Sullivan. In fact, the late Mr Sullivan was allied at the time to Official Sinn Fein, and later to the Workers'Party, never to Provisional Sinn Fein.