The IRA, dissidents and drugs- so who's telling the truth?

It's the main bone of contention between physical force Republicans and their opponents- the involvement, or lack of thereof, of the Provos and dissidents in the drug trade, both North and South. In the North, the main allegation being that the Provos, at least in some areas, allow for the dealing of recreational drugs (no heroin, crack, crystal meth) in return for payment. The allegation in the South, that they have in the past shaken down gangs for money in order to be allowed to continue operating, or that they have left the gangs alone in return for them importing firearms with their shipments.

So where does the truth lie? Much like the stoner who bangs on about how nobody in recorded history has died from cannabis use despite a handful of cases to the contrary, Republicans will counter that nobody who has ever been convicted of membership of the IRA has later been convicted of drug dealing (although some have certainly skirted the line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McCann_(drugs_trafficker)). The opposing argument will be that this defence is irrelevant, the Provos didn't sell drugs but rather taxed their sale through violence and intimidation- given that a drug dealer is unlikely to report to the police that the IRA are extorting his illegal profits, it isn't the type of thing anyone is likely to ever be convicted of. Further evidence would seem to lie in the relative non availability of heroin in the North- I have never heard that it is particularly difficult to score recreational drugs in the North yet heroin is near non existent. While it could be a case of the North's drug traffickers simply having more of a moral compass than their Dublin friends, it sounds unlikely for a start. Not to mention the unpopularity. The Republican movement depends on the co operation of the local community, in the North at least. Young people like getting high- they have done in this country for the past 40- 50 years. The IRA restricting the availability of cannabis and other recrational drugs would surely simply be bad PR. Even a cursory look at which of my friends "like" the SF and Gerry Adams pages- of 15 people giving the SF page a like, at least eight are current or previously heavy users of recreational drugs. At least four of them sold drugs for a reasonable amount of time (I'm leaving out people who attempted to sell smoke- I think pretty much every stoner has attempted to set himself up as a dealer at some brief stage). On Gerry's personal page, I count four heavy users and two dealers. Basically, no drugs equals bad PR.

In saying that, most of what we might term the household name drug lords in the North are Loyalists (indeed, from my experience Ireland is nearly the only country I've ever seen where gangsters are as well known to the public as celebrities. Even in NYC the days of the household name gangster went out with the demise of Gotti)

As for the dissidents, their links appear to be more obvious. There has been, if memory serves me correctly, been anti RIRA (or New IRA as they now call themselves) raids in which drugs have been seized in the Republic. Dissidents are known to have had a role in the Regency Hotel attack (while there doesn't even seem to be a "Hutch mob" as the media describes them, and rather the attack seems to have been organised by friends and relatives of Gary Hutch, the dissidents involved knew full well at least some of those hiring their guns and services were knee deep in the drug trade). Not to mention that Michael Barr, a New IRA member who was likely involved in the Regency, had a large quantity of drugs seized from his home for which his mother took the rap.

So, what is your view (from experience and people you know rather than what you read in the papers). My 2 cents would be that I know a few people who knew Alan Ryan, or at least knew him to see, and all of them agree that he detested drug use on a personal level. Whether he was the fearless vigilante gunning down vicious gangsters and beating up people for selling to kids or whether he was Donaghmede's answer to Omar from The Wire seems to be a matter of variable opinion among them.

So, did the Provos licence selling in the North? Do the New IRA actively sell? With many sworn Provos in the North approaching retirement age by now is their influence waning? I'd be interested in hearing opinions of the man on the street (any Nordies here in particular) than Paul Williams take on it.