Decoding the IRA (29 page)

Meanwhile, since George hadn't received the telegram from Dublin he had no way of knowing whether the package had gone through and so wrote to GHQ: ‘Could you find out if it did arrive [?] It is a pity that such an important matter received so little attention.'
⁴⁸
Given Russell's displeasure, this was a rather inopportune remark, and Russell sarcastically retorted: ‘“It's a pity” says H.S. “that such an important matter received so little attention” – I quite agree.'
⁴⁹

In February 1927, Twomey next asked George for a few hundredweight of potassium chlorate, a hundredweight being equivalent to eight stone or fifty kilograms:
‘Can you possibly get at once a few cwt [hundredweight] [of] pot. chlorate or as much as you can? Consign it to Messrs O'Connor Cycle Agents, Abbey Street, Dublin as cycle parts. Give [the] QMG a few days notice previous [
sic
] to despatch
. Let me know what you hope to do in this matter.'
⁵⁰
George replied: ‘I can get as much of this stuff as you want, but at the present time I have no place to store or pack [it] in [
sic
]. If you have any suggestions to make I will be glad to have them or if you could let me have an address where casks could be sent to, it would make it much easier for me.'
⁵¹

If George felt he could send casks of explosives through Dublin port without them being apprehended, he must have doubted the competence of the customs officers or known that they were either sympathetic to or in the pay of the IRA. Even Twomey wasn't completely averse to the idea of sending the explosives in casks rather than disguising them:
‘Could [the] stuff be made up so as not to excite [the] suspicion casks
would? QMG may be able to arrange to receive casks. So [I] will see him and he will let you know. We require some very soon.'
⁵²

In the end George bought two hundredweight [100 kilograms] of potassium chlorate for £5 and 10 shillings and, having repacked it with the help of a friend, addressed it to O'Connor's Cycles, from a John Brow in Highgate.
⁵³
The supplier's name, ‘John Brow', was probably a non-existent cover invented by George. Three days later, in a cryptic message Twomey acknowledged receipt of the explosives: ‘Noted. QMG has full info about this.'
⁵⁴

In April Twomey again wrote:
‘We will require more pot[assium] chlorate, at least five cwts [hundredweights] and up to half a ton.'
⁵⁵
There's no further documentation on this batch and presumably it therefore went over without a hitch. In June Twomey requested more ‘stuff' or explosives:
‘The address to which you will send [the] stuff for [the] QMG is: Mrs Sweeney, Fruiterer and Greengrocer, 5 Harold's Cross, Dublin. Try to make it appear like fruit.'
⁵⁶
George felt that this would be a challenge and appeared to want to send it over again labelled as bicycle parts: ‘It will be hard to make arrangements at this end to fit in with it. Is it not possible to get one similar to the last?'
⁵⁷
Moss Twomey wrote back that he'd try and get a ‘more suitable address'.
⁵⁸
Most of the correspondence between Twomey and George for the next few months is missing and there's no further mention of smuggling explosives until Twomey reports on a shipment that was captured by the customs in Dublin. As this occurred three months after the last communication regarding ‘Mrs Sweeney', it was probably a different consignment.

On 21 September Twomey wrote:
‘[The] packet you advised [
sic
] to [the] QMG has not turned up. Can you make inquiries there of [the] railway or [the] carriers? Send me [the name of the railway] station [it was] booked from, [the] route and what you described [the] contents as.'
⁵⁹
A few days later Twomey updated George:
‘[The] QMG informs me [that the] packet you sent was opened by customs here and recognised as explosives. He believes he can get it without trouble as he is fixing up with [a] friendly official.'
Twomey put the blame on George:
‘This occurred through [the] long delay in arrival [as] our agent was not there. Send by return details of contents of [the] consignment. This should
always be sent.
I hope that this will not upset any of your arrangements there. I shall let you know what the result of the negotiations will be.'
⁶⁰

George replied that the shipment
‘contained two drums of phosphorus [an incendiary agent], one dozen adaptors for twelve bore shotguns, one galvanometer for testing mine circuits and two tins of aircraft signalling cartridges. The latter I had in stock for a long time'. The container ‘was described as cycle parts [and] sent by Saunders from Camden Goods … to the last address given by [the] QMG. Sorry [I] cannot make enquiries at this end as [the] address given did not exist.'
George was hopeful that the customs officer whom Russell was working with would keep quiet about the seizure: ‘If the matter is referred to the head-office it will certainly affect my arrangements.'
⁶¹
Twomey then asked for some ammunition:
‘If [the] stuff held up is received, we will require some .22 ammunition from you, so get it.'
⁶²
The fate of this shipment remains a mystery, as the last mention of it is a sentence from George: ‘P.S. I hope you were able to recover that packet.'
⁶³

In addition to explosives, the IRA were able to easily come by revolvers on the black market. In April 1926 Twomey asked ‘M' to
‘purchase the sixty Webleys [revolvers] for £30. Keep these for Britain.'
⁶⁴
‘M' however had some difficulty getting
‘silencers for revolvers'
.
⁶⁵
In mid 1926 Jim Killeen, of the IRA's headquarters staff, was arrested trying to smuggle revolvers from England and was sentenced to six months in Pentonville prison, London.
⁶⁶

In October George bought half a dozen adaptors for Webley revolvers. An adaptor is a device which allows a weapon to fire bullets of a different calibre.
⁶⁷
Given the IRA's limited supply of ammunition this was a rather useful accessory. He sent the adaptors over in different consignments. On one occasion an IRA courier was caught by customs in Dublin with three adaptors and confidential IRA despatches; however, only the adaptors were confiscated and she was allowed to go free with the despatches.
⁶⁸
Around the same time George sent another two adaptors sealed in a box to an IRA safe address and these got through safely.
⁶⁹

Twomey wrote to George that:
‘Arms and ammunition can be purchased from Horace Soley and Co. 3 Jewin Street, London.'
⁷⁰
George replied: ‘That man [Horace Soley] will not let you or any other person
have stuff unless you can produce the necessary papers. Then he would sell as much as he could get hold (at a price).'
⁷¹

One of the more unusual items George sent over was a motorbike that was required by the IRA in Armagh. In April 1926 Twomey wrote to ‘M':
‘Regarding [the] motorcycle you wished to dispose of, you could send it to: Mr H Magee, Motor and Cycle Agent, Edward Street, Lurgan. Give me notice before sending [it]. Make a good bargain.
I presume this can be sent through [to Northern Ireland] direct. Do not send except it is the good value you represented it to be.'
⁷²
The next mention of a motorbike was in January 1927, when Twomey asked George if he had already sent the bike. Presumably this was the same bike that was referred to almost a year earlier. On 7 February, George wrote that he would ‘send it some time this week'.
⁷³
A month later the ever efficient George wrote that the bike ‘will be sent on Monday the 7
^th
[of March]'.
⁷⁴
Finally, in mid March, the IRA commander in Armagh reported: ‘I received the bike and had £1 3 [shillings] carriage [shipping fee] to pay, had also to get the back stand fixed, it was smashed, had also the get the foot boards and back brake fixed and she isn't going yet. I think she needs overhauled [
sic
]. I have told the mechanic to put her in going order.' He ended with ‘P.S. There was no lamp on the bike either.'
⁷⁵
Given the state of the bike on its arrival in Armagh, either George was cheated when he bought it, or he got a bargain and pocketed some of the IRA's money for himself.

The OC also sent over a steady supply of military books. These were meant both for Moss Twomey and the headquarters staff, and also for the libraries supposed to be kept by individual IRA units. In March 1926 the chief of staff sent an order for a total of 134 training manuals, ranging from twelve copies each of
Practical Musketry Instructions
and
Machine Gun Training
to one copy of
Smoke Tactics
by Lieutenant Colonel Worrall.
⁷⁶
Twomey found
The Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies
to be ‘quite good' and asked George to send it on to him each quarter.
⁷⁷
The Royal United Services Institute is a highly influential advisory authority to the Ministry of Defence.
⁷⁸

Twomey regularly read books on military strategy and among those he requested were:
The Wilson Diaries
by Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson and
The Science of War
.
⁷⁹
Field Marshal Wilson was chief of the imperial
general staff in 1918. After the First World War he retired from the military to become a Unionist MP for North Down, only to be assassinated in the streets of London by two members of the IRA in 1922 [who were later hanged].
⁸⁰
The Science of War
was a collection of essays by an eminent British military historian, Colonel G. F. Henderson, who argued against the dangers of ‘untrained' civilian leaders who ‘overruled Generals as they pleased' during time of war.
⁸¹
This was a line of argument likely to have found great sympathy among the IRA's leadership!

George may have simply borrowed some of the books from a library, as Twomey once wrote: ‘I got those two books you sent me, for which many thanks. Mention if I am to return them to you at once, but I will have them read within a week if this will do.'
⁸²

George also had some issues of the IRA's paper
An tÓglach
printed in London and then sent over to Dublin for distribution.
An tÓglach
was the official organ of the IRA and contained helpful advice on military tactics. It differed from the more widely available
An Phoblacht
, which was a newspaper meant for the general public. In October 1926 George wrote:
‘I sent 1,000 copies of An tOglach [over] during the week. Did ye receive them?'
⁸³
A few months later George sent a
‘packet of papers weighing eleven pounds to Parsons' [Newsagents], Baggot Street [Dublin]. Let me know when they arrive and I will send the remainder.'
⁸⁴

Passports

One task that the OC. Britain was very successful at was procuring false passports or, to be more accurate, passports in false names. These passports were needed by IRA and Sinn Féin delegates and emissaries travelling abroad and by volunteers emigrating to America who were ineligible for legitimate passports; on occasion the IRA also provided passports to Soviet agents.

The simplest way to create a fake passport was to merely swap out the photograph on a legitimate passport. Seán MacBride did this for Éamon de Valera when he removed the photograph from a priest's passport and substituted one of de Valera dressed in clerical garb.
⁸⁵

Another method was to submit a passport application form in a false name to an office of the travel agents, Thomas Cook and Sons, who then
forwarded the application to the government's passport office. The address given for the applicant was that of an IRA sympathiser. The application was also signed by a referee, verifying the identity of the applicant. Passport referees were expected to be a designated ‘respectable' member of the community such as a priest or medical doctor. On one occasion the IRA forged the name of an alcoholic doctor, Dr Gately, and on other occasions a sympathetic priest signed the form. Presumably the forms were accompanied by a forged birth certificate. When the passport was issued, an IRA agent, giving a false name, collected it at the travel agents.

This was the technique used to get a passport, issued in the name of ‘Ethel Chiles', for the Soviet agent Kate Gussfeldt. Gussfeldt was arrested soon after her arrival in Britain and the British secret service or MI5 (who had an informer in the London IRA) were aware of the IRA's involvement. They falsely believed that the passport scheme was a ‘private venture', orchestrated by IRA officers in Britain to enrich themselves and wasn't approved by GHQ in Dublin. On her passport application ‘Ethel Chiles' gave her address as 62 Rendlesham Road, which also happened to be that of the Woods family, ‘whose connection with the Irish Republican Movement is well known'. MI5 reported that Gussfeldt was ‘an important agent … in connection with the Irish Republican Intelligence Service'. After her arrest and brief imprisonment Gussfeldt was deported back to Germany (for further details see the Appendix 2).
⁸⁶

One person who acted as a referee for IRA volunteers was Fr Martin McKenna, an Irish Catholic priest in Britain. In 1926, after the police discovered his association with the IRA, he sent a letter to ‘M':
‘I tried to get into touch [with IRA headquarters] through Bob, but did not succeed. The [British] authorities got at my superiors and ordered me to leave the country. [I'm] barred [from the] USA and [I have] fixed [up] New Zealand. I have booked [passage] for New Zealand via Canada and am going home at once … It [the trouble] is all about [the] passport I spoke of. Also evidently my name was used extensively for recommendations.'
⁸⁷
Before leaving for New Zealand Fr McKenna wanted to contact GHQ in Dublin and also ‘touched you [OC. Britain] for some cash and stated it was wanted for official purposes'.
⁸⁸
Twomey wrote directly to the priest: ‘Dear Rev. Father, I … am very sorry indeed
to learn what has occurred. I believe you would like to see some of us before you would leave … If you come to Dublin call to 23 Suffolk Street and ask to see Art O'Connor [president of Sinn Féin]. If by any chance he should not be there, call to Miss O'Donel [Peadar O'Donnell's sister-in-law], 24 Eccles Street.'
⁸⁹