Decoding the IRA (41 page)

In letters to America Twomey and the leadership exaggerated the military capability of the IRA to encourage donations. An Timthire wrote in 1926 that at a meeting of the New York Clan he ‘gave mysterious hints of things that could happen if we had sufficient money. It is necessary to say things here that are not literally correct.'
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The following year Twomey sent Connie Neenan an impossibly upbeat assessment of the IRA:
‘I visited many units recently [and] am very pleased with the situation in most and [it] is generally better (both in numbers and spirit) than I expected. Except [for the] difficulty in openly drilling, things are good.'
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This after all was a force that wasn't able to competently carry out the garda barrack raids a few months earlier! In a letter to George Gilmore in Ireland around the same time Twomey had used the phrase ‘quite pleased' rather than ‘very pleased'.
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Neenan was careful to ask Twomey to forward receipts to the Clan for all money received:
‘[The Clan] executive demands receipts for all monies received from them. Send [receipt] when [the] cash arrives.'
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It was reasonable for the Clan to be cautious, and McGarrity and Luke Dillon had previously accused another IRA emissary, Dan Breen (of Tipperary), of having misappropriated money from the Clan when he was in America, following the Anglo-Irish truce.
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Neenan also received money from sources other than the Clan, such as from the running of dances and other fundraisers, and he deducted his personal expenses from these sums. One source was Miss Annie O'Mahoney, who ‘was by no means wealthy'. In 1926 she put a dollar a day aside until she was able to hand over $100 to An Timthire and ‘under no circumstances would she allow it to be used for any purpose except the Army'. An Timthire wrote to Andy Cooney asking him to send her an official ‘note of thanks and appreciation', which she would ‘treasure'. Unfortunately this despatch was one of those found on Patrick Garland when he was stopped by customs in Cobh and to Miss O'Mahoney's
‘embarrassment'
was published in the newspapers. A year later she was still subscribing
‘$20 per month to [the] Army'
and had given a
‘$100 special grant'
.
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This was likely the same ‘Miss O'Mahoney' who was a member of the executive committee to welcome de Valera to New York in 1927 and was president of the Irish Republican League in New York. The league was associated with the AARIR.
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Figure 24. In April 1927 Connie Neenan sent a report to Moss Twomey and Andy Cooney on the republican position in America. He complained about de Valera's success in attracting support from members of the Clan. In this, the fourth page, Neenan commented on fundraising by the Clan and in the postscript named a potential IRA informer within the gardaí:

The final two paragraphs concern the informer in the gardaí:

Get in touch with Sergeant Leen, Civic Guards, Bandon, County Cork. He is in [the] superintendent's office, he is fed up with [the] imperial gang and is going to clear out, possibly emigrate. He is anxious to give information to us. Mention Martin Howard of Listowel, now in New York … [He sent a letter] to Martin offering to assist.

A significant expense borne by the IRA and the Clan in America was the provision of support for disabled and impoverished veterans and their dependants. The IRA received so many petitions for financial assistance that Frank Aiken said it ‘would require at least £10,000 per week to deal fully with every case'.
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Aiken and later Moss Twomey were adamant that the IRA could only respond to a small proportion of all such requests. By 1923, $250,000 had been raised in the US for the dependants of republican prisoners.
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By 1932 the Clan was spending $6,000 annually to support ‘disabled' veterans.
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To cut down on abuse, the policy was for money to be provided to deserving cases by either GHQ or the Clan headquarters and not directly by individual Clan clubs.
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As Neenan wrote:
‘The matter was raised about certain [Clan na Gael and IRA] Clubs assisting destitute cases at home [in Ireland] in their own areas. I refused to sanction sectional drafts [
sic
] to any area and stated all monies should go through General Headquarters.'
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Neenan and ‘Jones' were both concerned that too many veterans were dependent on aid from the IRA and the former remarked:
‘Too much money has to be expended on such cases … They are coming here to work and must not expect us to spoon feed them.'
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Twomey replied:
‘In future no money, is on any account, [to be] spent on men going out, even if [they're] on the run, except [for] men sent out in bad health for to be cured, and then only when specific instructions are sent.'
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Joseph Blake of Dublin was in San Francisco, under an assumed name, and
‘in hospital suffering from TB and his expenses run to $120 a month. A few friends are taking him in charge, still I [Neenan] feel we are being asked to assist, which I am unable to do.'
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IRA veterans in
San Francisco and New York raised money to bring out Denny Prenderville from Castleisland, County Kerry, who was ill – probably with TB. Neenan wanted him to enter America by way of Canada as
‘he won't be passed by [the United States] Consulate doctor'
.
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Another republican immigrant whom Twomey wanted Neenan to try and help out was Thomas Curran of Dublin. When in Ireland he ‘was employed in one of the railways, did work for us [the IRA] and as a result was imprisoned'. Following his release he was unemployed and forced to emigrate – leaving a wife and family at home. When he stopped writing home his wife contacted the Dublin brigade: ‘His wife states he has no work [in America] and as he cannot send her money she is badly off. Could anything be done for him?' Twomey wanted Neenan to send someone around to his last known address: C/O Mrs Brady, 73 west 88th Street, New York.
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I
N
M
AY
1927 ‘M
R
Jones' resigned his position as the IRA agent working for Soviet military intelligence in New York and resumed ‘civilian employment' (see Chapter 8). Responsibility for this sensitive work was now handed over to Neenan, while Anthony Farrell from Mayo was appointed as his assistant to help him with administrative duties, but not with any responsibility for the clandestine Soviet work.
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Neenan continued to work closely with Joe McGarrity, but without a degree of success sufficient to reverse the IRA's misfortunes. The Clan's membership dwindled, and by July 1929 there were only 620 paid up members in New York city.
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Then in October 1929 the Wall Street Crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression. As unemployment and bankruptcy swept the US, millions were plunged into poverty. Irish immigrants were as badly affected as any other group and many of the Clan's IRA veterans now returned to Ireland. In 1933 Joe McGarrity was expelled from the New York Stock Exchange for ‘false book-keeping entries', leaving him almost destitute.

But McGarrity and Neenan were both rescued by the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes. The sweepstakes was a lottery established in 1930 by the Free State government to finance hospitals and health care in Ireland. At the time lotteries were illegal in America and therefore the two were able to use the IRA and Clan na Gael networks to import, distribute and sell
tickets throughout the US. Neenan was soon the sweep's ‘principal agent in the United States' and McGarrity was appointed a ‘special agent'. In turn McGarrity appointed Moss Twomey in Ireland as a lottery agent. In only five years McGarrity earned a commission of £300,000
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while Neenan lived a life of affluence, prompting Twomey to write to him: ‘We are told you will soon be a millionaire – don't forget us!'
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McGarrity, however, continued his involvement in militant republicanism and in 1939 he supported Seán Russell's bombing campaign in Britain, which culminated with an explosion in Coventry killing five people. The unintended civilian casualties occurred when an IRA volunteer panicked and left the bomb he was carrying at a crowded shopping centre. The FBI noted that some of the bombs which the IRA used during the campaign had been smuggled from America and were ‘of the type used by [the] police in the United States'.
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Twomey, no longer chief of staff, was disgusted with the ‘senseless demonstrations in a foreign country'.
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A year later McGarrity was dead from incurable cancer of the throat and in the 1970s a wealthy Connie Neenan retired to Ireland.
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CHAPTER 8

The Soviet Union and China

Wine and women. I am onto the right people now and can produce material of a high order.

‘
Jones', an undercover IRA agent in New York

We have been very active, made and placed 200 coal bombs in [the] cargo of [British] admiralty coal transports for China.

IRA commander in Scotland

In 1927, two men waiting in a café in Amsterdam were joined by a third. A brief conversation ensued and a package was handed over, before the three took leave of each other. The first two were representatives of Soviet military intelligence, their guest a member of a revolutionary organisation.

Sounds rather like a clichéd spy novel. Actually it's an accurate representation of a meeting between the IRA and Soviet agents. This is a relationship that has never before been elaborated upon. A relationship so secret that IRA men took it to their graves and one that remained largely unknown to the British secret service and the authorities in America.

Historical background

To understand the clandestine relationship between the IRA and the Soviets in the 1920s it is necessary to have some familiarity with the circumstances of the time. Given the situation they both found themselves in, it was almost inevitable that they should have been brought together.

There were two revolutions in Russia in 1917: one a people's revolution in February, which overthrew the Tsar, the other led by Lenin in October which brought to power a small ruthless clique, the Bolsheviks or communists. To many Europeans the Russian revolutions represented a new hope, a move away from the capitalist regimes responsible for the carnage and destruction of the First World War. Communism was expected to sweep across Western Europe – poverty, war and injustice would become things of the past. It may seem strange to us today, but the
Soviet Union was to many educated and intelligent people a beacon of freedom, egalitarianism and prosperity.
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After a bloody civil war, during which Britain, France and Japan supported the counter-revolutionaries, the communists established control over most of the former Russian empire, which they renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In 1924 Lenin died and Joseph Stalin began to consolidate power. By November 1927 he had achieved complete control with the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Communist Party.

During the mid 1920s the USSR was conscious of the military threat from the capitalist countries. Following years of war and the implementation of disastrous economic policies, the country was almost bankrupt, there was widespread famine, the Red Army's equipment was obsolete, and as a pariah state she had no powerful friends or allies abroad. The major threat was felt to be from an attack in the west led by Poland and Romania. Another possibility, though considered less likely, was an attack across the Chinese border led by Japan. Britain was regarded by the Soviets as their most dangerous enemy, and it was assumed that she would (at the very least) provide material support for any invasion.
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In 1927 Soviet concern about the long-term possibility of war was replaced by fear of an imminent invasion. This ‘war scare' swept the Soviet Union and was widely promoted both at home and abroad by the government. Recently released documents reveal that the Soviet leadership did not actually believe war was imminent but that the scare was largely a deliberate fabrication, which provided Stalin with the cover to eliminate his rivals.
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