Chief of Staff of the IRA

stuartfanning

I have read that Thomas 'Slab' Murphy is now the former IRA Chief of Staff. If this is the case who is thought to now hold the position?

mike65

Pat Dougherty? Gerry Adams? Martin McGuiness? anyone else fancy a mad guess?

Mike.

Villain

Originally posted by mike65
Gerry Adams? Martin McGuiness?

Mike.

Doubt it very much,

stuartfanning

It was rumoured that Brian Keenan was going to take over as Chief of Staff, but I understand he has Cancer and is being treated for it so presumeably it isn't him. So has anyone heard or read anything?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

spongebob

Originally posted by stuartfanning
So has anyone heard or read anything?

Could it be Paddy20 ?

mike65

Originally posted by daveirl
I heard it's a guy called P O'Neill

He's a construct invented many years ago as a hook for the media, it just seemed better than a statement with no name attatched.

Mike.

dahamsta

Originally posted by mike65
He's a construct invented many years ago as a hook for the media, it just seemed better than a statement with no name attatched.

Ditto Paddy20.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

mike65

Originally posted by daveirl
Em... you do know I was joking.. right?? I'm not that stupid

Well I was'nt 100% sure and anyway there are proberly plenty here who did'nt know that so it seemed a good idea at the time...er....I'll get my coat!

Vader

Originally posted by daveirl
Em... you do know I was joking.. right?? I'm not that stupid

In all fairness I thought you were serious.

This is all I know about the origional subject;

Army Council: Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness,Martin Ferris,Mr X,Thomas "Slab" Murphy,Brian Keenan,Brian Gillen.

GHQ Staff: Martin Lynch, Bernard Fox, Bobby Storey, Patrick Thompson

Mr X cant be named for legal reasons and Im pretty sure Pat Doherty isnt the new anything.

Victor

This is an old piece, but is public domain. I have my uspicions that Gerry Kelly may have the inside track, but nothing other than that.

http://www.observer.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,2-564692,00.html

McGuinness made IRA chief of staff in guns ploy

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday October 7, 2001
The Observer

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace process, has been appointed chief of staff of the IRA. But far from signalling a threat to the IRA's ceasefire, the move, confirmed by security sources on both sides of the Irish border, has fuelled hopes that the terrorists are ready to destroy their weapons.

Senior British and Irish government sources last night described the IRA's appointment of McGuinness - a key architect of Sinn Fein's peace strategy - as a 'major breakthrough' in the stalled peace process.

The Observer has learnt that McGuinness, who is also Northern Ireland's Education Minister, was elected to the post by the IRA's seven-man 'army council' at a meeting in the Irish border town of Dundalk on 27 September.

Security sources said his appointment was a significant 'victory' over hardliners who had been bitterly opposed to handing over weapons.

But the political climate has changed dramatically in the wake of last month's terror attacks in America and the launch by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of a global war on terrorism.

One of the most senior officers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary said: 'His elevation to that post fits in with the intelligence over the last two months. It seems there has been a very subtle shift in emphasis towards those who only see a political role for the movement now.

'The "politicos" are in the ascendancy but without causing a schism at the top.'

McGuinness is regarded by both governments as 'pragmatic' and open to a major IRA gesture on arms. Once one of the key advocates of IRA violence and second in command of the Bogside IRA on Bloody Sunday in 1972, McGuinness has played a pivotal role in the peace process.

He told BBC Northern Ireland last week: 'As far as I'm concerned it [decommissioning] couldn't happen quick enough_ if it happened tomorrow morning it would not be quick enough.'

The peace process has remained deadlocked over Unionist refusals to share power in the Northern Ireland Executive with Sinn Fein while the IRA hangs on to its weapons.

A senior Irish security source described McGuinness's elevation, which took place two days before Sinn Fein's annual conference last weekend, as 'a massive but totally bloodless coup'.

He said the 51-year-old had replaced Thomas 'Slab' Murphy. He added that McGuinness had also faced down objections to IRA decommissioning from Brian Keenan, a member of the army council.

The move to replace Murphy with McGuinness is seen by the RUC 'as the preparatory step towards some kind of decommissioning'.

Devolved government is set to collapse this week when Ulster Unionists resign in protest from the power-sharing Stormont coalition - four months after giving the IRA a deadline to decommission.

The RUC officer said: 'Putting McGuinness in place sets the ground for a big move but it will be done on the IRA's terms, possibly within the next seven weeks, rather than under any Unionist timetables.'

poneill

Originally posted by mike65
He's a construct invented many years ago

Mike.

I am a she, where do you live Michael ?

sceptre

Originally posted by poneill
I am a she, where do you live Michael ?

<IRA pantomime and norn accent>
Shouldn't you know where he lives?:D

Victor

Lots of info at http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch73.htm

A google throws up these REPUTED results for Chief of Staff at at various points:

John Joe McGirl
Daithi O Conaill
Cathal Goulding (1967-1972?), note PIRA / OIRA split
Joe Cahill (1971)
Sean MacStiofain (197?-73?), note PIRA / OIRA split
Séamus Twomey (1973-7?)
Martin McGuinness (-1982, 2001-)
Kevin McKenna (1987-????)
Thomas 'Slab' Murphy (??-2001)
Brian Keenan (2001)
Gerry Adams
Gerry Kelly

Interesting, but seems to be stuck in 1983 http://www.sfiraexposed.8m.net/names.htm

www.ulsterloyalist.co.uk/banner1.htm

mike65

Originally posted by poneill
I am a she, where do you live Michael ?

:ninja: I'm outahere, **** Concorde don't fly anymore! :eek:

Mike.

Vader

A leaked document to the "Sunday Times,25th March, 2001"
names the men who run the IRA and it claims Brian Keenan is the IRA Chief of Staff, but I must point out the source is Ian Paisley

stuartfanning

Originally posted by Vader
A leaked document to the "Sunday Times,25th March, 2001"
names the men who run the IRA and it claims Brian Keenan is the IRA Chief of Staff, but I must point out the source is Ian Paisley

Yes I think this was discounted. About a year or more ago it was reported that Brian Keenan was Deputy Chief of Staff to Thomas 'Slab' Murphy. Since then it was reported that Keenan was been treated for serious Cancer and his position in the Army Council and as the IRA representative to de Chastelaine was in doubt. I have read anything since about him and his position.

stuartfanning

I have just found the article I have reprinted below. It is very interesting in itself but it confirms that Thomas 'Slab' Murphy is still the IRA Chief of Staff. Although they don't print his name the description identifies him.
***************************************************


Provos demand to keep terror war chest

Sunday October 12th 2003


ALAN MURRAY

THE IRA is seeking financial immunity from its huge war chest being impounded by asset-seizing agencies of the British and Irish governments.

Wealthy IRA godfathers in south Armagh are demanding Sinn Fein negotiators get commitments that their assets will be treated as those of a "legitimate" army and fenced off from probes into criminal finances.

Republican sources in south Armagh say IRA leaders there and in east Tyrone have discussed the risk of raids by the Assets Recovery Agency in Belfast and the Criminal Assets Bureau in Dublin.

Knowledge of accounts kept for arms purchases and terrorist campaigns in Ireland, Britain and Europe for 30 years is entrusted to a few respected IRA figures, including Belfast veteran Joe Cahill.

The godfathers argue the accounts, some offshore, are the legitimate finances of an undefeated "army".

Informed sources in south Armagh say the issue has replaced the surrender of weapons as the hardliners' number one concern. Leading organisers in the still-active terrorist organisation argue that the head of the Weapons Decommissioning Commission, General John de Chastelain, already knows the locations of some arms dumps.

"They say de Chastelain already knows some dump sites and they also suspect that the police on both sides of the border have acquired knowledge of other dumps over the last nine years which are being left unraided for political reasons," a source revealed.

"The Provos won't touch those dumps again because they expect many to be compromised with listening or movement sensor devices.

"But the money is vital to the organisation and that's what they're debating at the moment. If they still have money secreted in accounts then they can buy guns in the future, but if they haven't any cash then they have to go back to bank robberies and all that 1970s stuff, and that's messy."

The prospect of the Assets Recovery Agency led by former RUC Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan identifying accounts operated by republicans, freezing transactions and eventually seizing the contents is a nightmare scenario for IRA leaders.

The IRA's current chief of staff, whose farm holding straddles the south Armagh border, has accrued enormous personal wealth and considerable assets for the organisation through his absolute control of an enormous network of smuggling, counterfeiting and fuel doctoring scams since the late 1970s.

His personal fortune is reputed to have been used by the IRA to finance Sinn Fein election campaigns and underwrite weapons purchases when the organisation has been short of funds.

It is now believed by police on both sides of the border that the IRA is sufficiently asset-rich to sustain a new military campaign if the peace process collapses.

So far the Assets Recovery Agency in Belfast has concentrated on identifying and seizing ill-gotten gains of loyalist terrorists and ordinary criminals. But it is under political pressure to balance its investigations by hitting a major account of a senior IRA figure.

The Criminal Assets Bureau in Dublin was reportedly examining Swiss accounts allegedly controlled by the IRA chief of staff with a view to freezing and eventually seizing the contents.

Tens of thousands of litres of petrol and diesel are illegally traded between Northern Ireland and the Republic every day, generating cash directly to the IRA or through the issuing of "licences" by the IRA chief of staff to criminals to ply their illegal trade without paramilitary interference.

The IRA is resisting unionist demands for the winding-up of the organisation more than it is resisting moves to decommission more weapons, sources indicate. Many senior IRA figures argue fiercely that signalling the disbanding of the organisation would provide the green light for the asset-seizing agencies to loot its coffers.

"They fear that if the disband issue is conceded it will lead to a wholesale raid on all IRA accounts and do much more damage than weapons decommissioning. Weapons can always be replaced with better, more modern kit, if you have the money," said one security source.

Unionist Party leader David Trimble, who has held meetings with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and the organisation's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, both members of the IRA's Army Council, said the issue had not been raised in discussions.

"I wouldn't expect it to be because it would be the two governments only who could deliver on that," he said.

"But I would totally resist any attempt to agree to place these assets or loyalist paramilitary assets beyond the reach of both the ARA and CAB. They are the proceeds of illegal and despicable activities, and I would not endorse any shady deal on this issue.

"I want to see the assets of all paramilitary organisations seized and their activities stopped, either of their own volition or by compulsion."

© Irish Independent