Ireland: a laughable invasion plan

With the benefit of hindsight, observers of the Irish political scene can sit back and snigger at the notion - which emerged over the weekend in advance of a TV documentary to be broadcast in Ireland tonight - that 40 years ago the Republic's army could have invaded and liberated Northern Ireland.

The idea that a nation with one of the smallest armies in Europe could attack, seize and hold territory defended by a Nato power resembles the 1960s British comedy classic The Mouse that Roared in which a bankrupt Ruritania declares war on America.

Back in the tense, frenetic days of August 1969, however, after Irish taoiseach Jack Lynch said his government would no longer stand by and watch innocent people being hurt in the north, there were some in Northern Ireland, unionist and nationalist - including the then Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark - who believed the Irish Army was preparing to cross the border to 'liberate' Catholic dominated towns such as Newry and Derry's west bank.

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Indeed there were harridan voices inside the Irish Cabinet who advocated military intervention even in the face of overwhelming odds as a means of completing the 'unfinished business' of1916 and ending partition on the island.

Plans drawn up by Irish army strategists under the codename Exercise Armageddon envisaged a series of guerilla attacks on vital installations in Belfast, including the BBC's television studios, the docks and airport.

The programme - titled What If Lynch Had Invaded - explores what would have happened to the Irish army had it ventured north in August/September 1969: in all likelihood, they would have been massacred. It also examines what would have happened to Ireland diplomatically and politically if Lynch had listened to hard-line nationalists in his Cabinet such as Kevin Boland and Neil Blaney.

The documentary's two presenters, one of whom is a former Irish Army officer, conclude that the Republic would have been painted as the aggressor, censured in the UN, isolated in Europe and Ireland's entry into the EEC put back for years. In short, the whole adventure would have set the Republic's development back for decades.

Finner Camp was a symbol of hope for besieged nationalists in Derry

A number of the Irish soldiers deployed along the border during the August 1969 crisis came from Finner Camp near Ballyshannon in County Donegal, the main Irish military base in the northwest of the country. It was from this camp that any invasion into the nationalist-dominated west bank of Derry would have been spearheaded.

By a cosmic irony, Finner Camp was back in the news this August. Only this time the controversy concerning the base actually underlined the durability of partition and the two-nations attitude that exists on both sides of the border.

Finner Camp needs upgrading and the Republic's Department of Defence went across the border and signed up a Northern Ireland firm for the €1.5 million building programme. The decision to award the contract to a company based on official UK territory, in Omagh, provoked a storm of protest across Donegal, one of the poorest regions of the Irish Republic.

Ireland's small business lobby group urged the Irish Defence Minister Willie O'Dea to order a rethink. The Mayor of Ballyshannon, Eugene Dolan, described the decision as "unthinkable" at a time when the Republic is mired in recession. "You couldn't make it up," Mayor Dolan thundered. "What about all those pleadings from ministers to the people to demonstrate their patriotism and shop locally instead of seeking bargains across the border?"

Although Dolan has a point regarding double standards, his anger reflects a Janus-like stance that many in the Republic have towards the North.

Under the Irish Constitution, those people living in Northern Ireland are supposed to be Irishmen and women too. In an ideal world, they would all be living in a single unitary state. They have equal rights to their fellow citizens in the Republic and can hold Irish passports even while they reside in the UK. Yet when it comes to jobs or indeed services... well maybe they're not quite as Irish as those in the south.

Forty years ago Finner Camp was a symbol of hope for besieged nationalists in places like Derry during the Battle of the Bogside; four decades on, the row over who refits the same base is proof positive that southern economic concerns far outweigh any emotions about reclaiming the lost province.