‘Republic ‘faced a Bay of Pigs’ if Jack Lynch had sent in troops as Troubles erupted in 1969
The BBC’s Belfast HQ and the city’s international airport were to be blown up as part of an Irish invasion in response to the eruption of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a TV documentary reveals. But troops sent by the government in Dublin to take over Newry across the border would have been annihilated by the UK army responding to the invasion.
Although an incursion into Northern Ireland never happened in August 1969, the programme claims that forces inside Jack Lynch’s government tried to push for a military intervention. He came under tremendous pressure to respond militarily, especially from hardline nationalists inside his Fianna Fáil party. Des O’Malley, Lynch’s parliamentary secretary and later founder of the Progressive Democrats, said cabinet hard-liners such as Kevin Boland and Neil Blaney pushed for an armed invasion.
“Boland was the most vocal, and Blaney was not far behind him, I think…their attitude was that the Irish government should take a very belligerent stance,” O’Malley said. “They wanted overt military activity.”
Many unionists, including Northern Ireland’s prime minister, James Chichester-Clark, also thought the Irish army would try to seize nationalist majority towns such as Newry and the west bank of Derry. On the programme John Taylor, then junior home affairs minister and later deputy Ulster Unionist leader, says: “James Chichester-Clark believed that the Irish army was going to invade Northern Ireland. I was very anxious, very worried, because I knew it depended on me advising the prime minister to what exactly was going on.”
Taylor ordered the mobilisation of 8,000 part-time B Specials to repel a possible invasion. He claims Lynch’s TV broadcast on 13 August, warning the Republic would “not stand by” while northern nationalists were injured in clashes with the Stormont police force, only inflamed the situation. Now Lord Kilclooney, Taylor calls Lynch’s remark “one of the most irresponsible” in the past 40 years.
However, TK Whitaker, Lynch’s key adviser on Irish government policy on Northern Ireland in 1969, defends him, claiming that the taoiseach was unsure how his cabinet would vote.
“I think the challenge [for Lynch] was to dissuade the hotheads, the republicans in his cabinet, from insisting that we go to the aid… [of nationalists in Northern Ireland]. I think it was a very terrifying period for him because he knew that he couldn’t rely on support from major colleagues… It was hard to discern who was for peace and who was for invasion.”
Former Irish soldiers mobilised during the August 1969 crisis admit their equipment was obsolete and unable to match the British army’s. One retired Irish general, Vinnie Savinho, tells the documentary he was relieved that the invasion order was never handed down.
Military and political experts on the programme describe the idea for an invasion of the north as a potential “military fiasco” and “Ireland’s Bay of Pigs”. It would have also isolated Lynch’s government internationally and set back the Republic’s entry into the EEC.
Outspoken Army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt was yesterday sent to the TOWER by the PM as he stepped down from his post.
The popular leader has been sent to pasture by Gordon Brown with the ceremonial title of Constable of the Tower of London.
The hero, 58, retired yesterday after being passed over for the role of Chief of the Defence Staff – the nation’s top military job – despite a glittering 40-year career.
He was snubbed for hitting out at the Government for its handling of the Iraq War and for soldiers’ poor pay and conditions.
The new role keeps him away from the troops he had served.
One senior Army source said: “He has been handed a ridiculous job which represents a tremendous waste of talent. It really is a case of putting politics over need.”
Whitehall “bottled” an SAS mission to rescue a British hostage just before he was executed.
The elite unit were furious, believing they could have sprung tourist Edwin Dyer from al-Qaeda’s clutches.
Mr Dyer, 61, was shot dead at a desert terror camp in Mali, West Africa, ten days ago.
But it has emerged that the Who Dares Wins regiment had been planning a classic hostage rescue.
In a rare breach of protocol that reveals the SAS’s anger, serving members have given us details of the top-secret action.
Operation Aerobic was organised after al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing set a deadline for the release of hate preacher Abu Qatada in exchange for Mr Dyer’s life.
But with time almost up at the end of May, senior military officers in the MoD advised Foreign Secretary David Miliband that the operation must not go ahead.
SAS officers and other ranks across the board were left furious.
A senior SAS source said: “We knew where he was. We are convinced we could have got him out alive, but Whitehall bottled it.
“Whether it was the Directorate of Special Forces, the military chiefs or Government ministers, we don’t know. We have our suspicions.
“Of course there was risk, there always is in hostage rescue. The group said they were going to kill him anyway, so what was there to lose?
“And if we did it, it would have sent a powerful message to these sorts of people not to screw with Brits.”
More than 100 SAS troopers and expert infantry back-up from the Special Forces Support Group were kept on standby for a month.
An advanced party was sent to Africa to liaise with allies in the region.
The night raid would have hit the north and south sides of the terrorist camp.
Troops would parachute from 25,000ft, while Predator unmanned drones with infra-red cameras would circle at 10,000ft, giving commanders a real-time feed.
Once the terrorists were overrun a fleet of helicopters were synchronised to arrive to whisk Mr Dyer and assault teams to safety.
Mr Dyer, who lived in Austria and worked for a plumbing company, had a British father and a German mother.
He was among a group of tourists kidnapped in January after going to an African music event near Timbuktu.
His stepfather Paul Mead, 84, said last night: “We were not aware of an SAS operation, but if there was a chance Edwin could have been saved then they should have gone for it.”
Mr Mead, of Marlow, Bucks, who is married to Mr Dyer’s mother Ingeborg, added: “Edwin’s death came as a terrible shock to us.
“We were told to keep quiet for months after he was captured, and then suddenly ‘bang’ — he had been shot and that was it. It was a truly terrible thing.”
The Foreign Office last night refused to discuss any details of the operation, but senior sources insisted it was not Mr Miliband’s decision to scrap it.
A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: “Ministers at no point made decisions contrary to military advice.”
