What is it about Captain Kelly that arouses such vindictiveness? He is beset by enemies on three sides: revisionist, Lynchite and a number of Official IRA hold-outs. (It should be said that not all the erstwhile Officials go along with denigrating Jim Kelly, and some have acted quite honourably towards the Captain in the past, including Cathal Goulding.) Even after death, the assaults go on. Indeed, they are pursued with greater vigour than ever, now that he can no longer vindicate his good name in the courts.

The latest, and perhaps most crudely vicious of all, attack happened on the afternoon of 16th July. It took place virtually to the minute on the first anniversary of his death. The location was Derry. A large assembly of 70 people had gathered to launch an organisation which would campaign and petition to clear Captain Kelly's name. His wife, Sheila, and two of his children were present. The event was attended by an array of well-wishers, including Neil Blaney's nephew, Niall, John Kelly, Dr. and Mrs. MacLean, Paddy 'Derry' Doherty, and Fr. Des Wilson. The meeting was chaired by Fionnbarra Ó Dochartaigh, who himself as a republican had been involved in the Civil Rights movement.

Ó Dochartaigh had been instrumental in inviting a group who attended the campaign launch with destructive intent: a group of former Official IRA people who sat together and viewed the proceedings with sinister and cold faces. They had come to blacken Captain Kelly's name.

Right at the beginning of the meeting, one of them, John White, IRA Officer Commanding in 1969, stood up to make some angry and vile allegations against Captain Kelly. He claimed that in 1969 "fucking Jim Kelly" had offered him personally £50,000 to kill six fellow republicans. He claimed that Kelly did this on behalf of "fucking Fianna Fail". All this was supposed to have happened in Derry City, on the staircase of a private house. White alleged, "I was offered £50,000 on condition I would be responsible for killing six of my comrades".

White's allegations were supported by another of that group, Peter Collins, Derry Brigade Intelligence Officer in 1969, who claimed to have witnessed the attempt to bribe White and who declared that "Kelly put his finger in my face". Why Kelly would have risked making a criminal proposal in front of a witness was not explained. Nor was the state of relations between the three men brought up. Was Kelly stupid enough to canvass assassins he hardly knew? It must be assumed that anyone in his right mind would only make such a proposal to people he knew well and would have reason to believe would give it a ready hearing. But Kelly did not know John White or Mr. Collins. If there had been much of a connection between them, his wife, Sheila, in whom he confided closely, would have been familiar with them. And what might have led Captain Kelly to believe that OC White was open to any suggestion of killing republicans?

However, neither White nor Collins filled out chapter and verse of the allegations. In particular, they refused to say in which house this offer was allegedly made, nor did they give the date. If any detail had been offered, it could have been tested against known facts.

Quite apart from anything else, it would have been out of character for Captain Kelly who - strangely for a soldier (though perhaps not in the Irish Army) hated violence. He abhorred bloodshed and was particularly upset by some of the senseless incidents of the war - such as the killing of Ranger Best by the Stickies in Derry City, which caused revulsion against that tendency in the town. It is said Mr. White has not been seen much around there since then.

If any date had been given, it would have been something to test. Captain Kelly made only two visits to Derry in that period, one in August when he witnessed the Battle of the Bogside in a personal capacity and one in September 1969 on behalf of the Irish Government. He did not enter Northern Ireland at all after September 1969. His habit was to meet Northern Ireland community leaders south of the Border, as his chief, Army Director of Intelligence Colonel Hefferon, had ordered him to stay out of the North.

The Chairman of the launch and moving spirit of the campaign to clear Captain Kelly's name was Fionnbarra O Dochartaigh. He afterwards told the Irish Sunday Mirror:

"I was in the Republican leadership at the time this meeting is supposed to have taken place.

"If it had happened I would have known about it, I would have been privy to that information, so I totally dispute what he said.

"I do not know what his agenda is in bringing this up at this time more than 30 years later, but it is the first time anyone has heard of this allegation." (18.7.04)

The sum of money mentioned is also bizarre. The total amount spent on Northern Ireland relief - including arms purchases for Northern Ireland Catholic communities - by the Irish Government in 1969-70 was £100,000. Was half as much again was offered just to get six republicans killed? The files of the Irish Government in the National Archive show signs of frugality throughout. Any expenditure of £50,000 would have been thought about very carefully. And Kelly himself would not have had ready access to that kind of money. He had to justify every request for funds he made - including for arms purchases - to Minister of Finance Charles Haughey and his Secretary.

Quite apart from the logistics, it is hard to see what Captain Kelly or anyone else had to gain from any individual Republican deaths, Stickie or otherwise. During this period the whole effort of the Southern State—of which he was a leading edge - was to enhance the capacity for self-defence of various Catholic communities under attack. And the whole State machine, domestic and diplomatic, was bent on making Ireland's case on partition to the world. Now, if White had declared that the British Government was ready to pay that kind of money for Republican killings, that would have been credible. But it strains belief that the Lynch Government - however bad it became after mid-April 1970 - would go to such lengths. Whatever the differences between the various strands of Catholic-nationalist - on the ground in Derry and in Government in the South - there was an underlying community of feeling between them at the time in question.

A query which springs to mind is why did OC John White wait 35 years to mention this alleged bribe and incitement to murder? He declared at the meeting that he had been angered by the civil rights context in which people were trying to clear Captain Kelly's name. Even so, why did he wait 35 years to expose such a heinous crime?

Another peculiarity is that Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff at the time, went out of his way to clear Captain Kelly's name in 1971, when Garda Superintendent Fleming told a pack of lies to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee hearing into the alleged arms smuggling affair. The Republican Publicity Bureau issued a statement on 9th February 1971, rebutting allegations made by Fleming in relation to Kelly's contacts with him, and thus put information in the public domain which would tend to clear Kelly's name. Would Goulding have done that for someone who had tried to get his men killed a year before? It must, after all, be assumed that OC White told his superior officer of Kelly's approach.

And how come the Irish Special Branch - and the whole Lynchite establishment - harboured such an animus against Kelly if he had been intent on getting republican 'troublemakers' killed on their behalf?

It might be remarked in passing that OC White gave anonymous evidence at the Bloody Sunday Tribunal. Whatever he said, he certainly had questions to answer in relation to Official IRA actions on that day when he was in command - a day on which the Provisionals exercised a restraining influence on Officials intent on complicating a difficult situation with gun-shots at the British forces.

What is certain is that the more the White allegations are considered, the more absurd they appear. They relate to the pre-split IRA. Within four months of that split, which occurred on 28th December 1969, Captain Kelly himself was under interdict in the Irish State.

What seems likely is that people like OC White are determined to maintain the legend that the Provisional/Official split in the IRA was engineered by the Lynch Government because it was afraid of the new class struggle objectives of the movement. And spreading this false story about Captain Kelly helps to sensationalise and give colour to the fiction that passes for history on this matter. Not only did the Irish Government split the IRA but, before doing so, it tried to kill the anti-militarist faction, using anti-militarist republicans as tools!?!

But I believe that there was sufficient reason within the republican movement for the division in the IRA: it did not need external interference to happen. The split was not between 'politics' and 'militarism' as is suggested nowadays, but between those who insisted on continuing a divisive debate on abstentionism and suchlike issues even after the North had lapsed into a state of disorder in August 1969 and those who thought that such theoretical questions should be set aside in the face of the needs of the moment in the North. (It is noteworthy that Roy Johnston in a letter to the Irish Times made a gesture to reality when he conceded that Gerry Adams was continuing the policy of demilitarisation of republicanism started by himself!)

As for Captain Kelly's good name: the politically-motivated intervention by yesterday's men in Derry failed to prevent the launch of a movement to vindicate his reputation. After these Officials had vented their spleen, the meeting adjourned and reconvened without them.

However, the incident strengthens demands for a proper public inquiry into the events of 1969-70. The information to vindicate Captain Kelly as a good and faithful officer of the Irish State is all there in Government files. What already has been made public clears his name. But a policy of obscuring Taoiseach Lynch's role is evident in the pattern of document releases in the National Archive - and it is also evident from the Arms Trials in the conduct of both the Judges and crucial witnesses like Charles Haughey.

Despite being a defendant, with his political career in the balance Haughey gave minimalist information to the Court. He was clearly protecting Jack Lynch. He and others could have revealed Cabinet discussions and amplified the decisions taken - which would have exonerated all the defendants in the Arms Trials. They failed to do so, not from any personal regard for Lynch and his cronies, but to protect Fianna Fail - the national party - and Ireland as a State.

Whatever the justification for the reticence of Haughey and others 35 years ago, there is no reason for it now. The truth can no longer damage the essential Fianna Fail - but it would totally discredit the Lynch/O'Malley element who destroyed republican tendencies within the party on the basis of a false account of what happened in 1969-70.

Angela Clifford

PostScript:

Since the above was written, the Derry Journal (20th August) has carried extracts from an interview given by White and Collins in the Starry Plough, official paper of the Irish Republican Socialist Party. The intervention of the two was because they were "so incensed" that someone who they have "intimate knowledge of attempting to split the republican movement in 1969 should be lauded as an innocent victim of injustice…". They say that:

"[The Irish Government wanted to] eliminate those from within the [IRA] leadership who would have been considered Socialist or Communist.

"This would then have laid the groundwork for the formation of a right wing and Catholic leadership that would have been prepared to dance to the tune of the Dublin regime.

"The meeting [with Capt Kelly] lasted only a few minutes. Kelly, after explaining his role, offered those present arms, training and money (£50,000).

"When those present asked Kelly what the government wanted in return, Kelly said, 'a guarantee that the struggle would be contained within the Six Counties'.

"The OC then pointed out to Kelly that he knew as well as him that such a situation was already guaranteed as the standing orders of the IRA prevented any attacks within the 26 counties.

"At this point, the OC then demanded to know exactly what Kelly wanted in return for these weapons and money and aggressively demanded, while pointing his finger towards Kelly that he give him a straight answer.

"Kelly then said: 'the elimination of certain members of the leadership of the republican movement'."
The claim that the meeting, at which such a serious assassination proposal was made, "lasted only a few minutes" shows just how much credence can be placed on the episode!

The Derry Journal cites the Starry Plough to the effect that two other IRA men at the meeting then joined in. One asked Kelly how many IRA men were to be eliminated and he replied, "Six". At which -
"Kelly was then told, in no uncertain terms, to f••k off. The meeting then ended."

Messrs White and Collins then made contact with their leadership in Dublin, seeking an urgent meeting - which took place the following day in South Derry. Apparently, higher authority did not quite take the incident seriously. The story continues:

"The Chief of Staff told the Derry Brigade OC that he should have got the £50,000 first and then told Kelly to f••k off."

The men were told the leadership would "take care of it from then on".

OC White and IO Collins went on to say the Irish Government offered this deal because -

"…they feared less an armed struggle contained within the Six Counties than an armed struggle throughout the 32 counties.

"They feared a scenario where tens of thousands of working class men and women would take to the streets and challenge their authority and attempt to change their system into one that put working class people first.

"As the republican movement was to the forefront of that struggle, it would have been important to divide the movement and form an organisation that would have been prepared to pay lip service to the Free State Government."

In so far as there is a grain of truth in any of these ravings, it is that the Irish Government in August 1969 was helping with the organisation of Citizens' Defence groups which had the single purpose of defending Catholic communities. Six Intelligence Officers, one of whom was Captain Kelly, were sent North to liaise with nationalist leaders and republicans willing to work in the community interest. If Captain Kelly talked to republicans in Derry - as he did to Cathal Goulding himself six or seven times - it was entirely to see which individuals were prepared to put community defence before crackpot schemes.

PPS:
Liam O Comain Joins The Mud-Slingers

On 25th July Liam O Comain produced a jumble of unfounded allegations and erroneous statements in support of OC White's assault on Captain Kelly in The Blanket, a web-magazine. In this he complains of "a form of censorship being placed around those who agree with Johnny White's action".

But was O Comain himself the greatest censor? An extract from his Memoirs and Thoughts appears on a web-site, Ireland's OWN (web download made on 23rd August 2004). Here he speaks of Captain Kelly contacting Republicans to split them. And he mentions that "the Dublin agents used the possible supply of weapons as a means of courting those [who saw the gun as the only means of uniting the country]. In addition, they used the well-worn 'communist or red scare' in their attempt to undermine the republican leadership of the time" etc. A catalogue of what these 'agents' were up to is given, but there is not a word about trying to bribe republicans to kill each other (for, of course, any killing would have brought retaliation).

Liam O Comain says that he himself "took on the role of organising for the movement", was in contact with Dáithi O'Connail - whom he tried to bring out of retirement - and was close to the late Malachy McGurran, as well as Sean Garland and Cathal Goulding. Yet there is no inkling that he knew of the proposed assassination plot. If there had been such a proposal, as one of the people strongly agitating on the 'political' side of republicanism, surely White, Collins or any of the others would have taken him into their confidence and warned him of what was afoot? After all, he had been approached by an agent of the Irish State in Monaghan and felt out about "the need to defend the nationalist people" and the strength of his allegiance to Cathal Goulding.

If O Comain had had any hint of money for assassinations, he would certainly have dramatised the story in his web autobiography. He is certainly not shy of having a highly-coloured story about the parting of the ways with Martin McGuinness on the site.

Here are the arguments which O Comain adduces to support his insistence in the Blanket piece that there was "truth in the allegations made by Johnnie White that he as OC of the Derry Brigade was offered money by Captain Kelly to get rid of certain republicans at the time".

His first seems to be that "the birth and development of extra-parliamentary activity in the north in the late nineteen sixties and early seventies helped as a catalyst to plant hope in the nationalist people".

It seems that O Comain is here trying to claim the credit for the Stickies for the self-activity of Northern Ireland communities under far more mainstream leaderships. He also goes on to imply that the Provisionals-to-be regarded such social agitations with distaste, being wedded to pure militarism. But that is nowhere near an accurate description of a chaotic and messy parting of the ways within republicanism.

Looking backwards, O Comain is over-emphasising the importance of republicanism in the North at this time - which is easily done considering how it is now eclipsing all other political tendencies on the nationalist side. In reality, the Citizens' Defence Committees - comprising republicans of all tendencies as well as members of the minority in other parties and with no party affiliation - were "in constant contact" with the Irish Government in 1969, while the IRA "had been conspicuous by its inactivity" (Kevin Boland, Indivisible Faith, p51).

Quite apart from these organisations, the single most de-stabilising and agitating force in Northern Ireland at that point was Miss Bernadette Devlin - who was a thorn in the side of officialdom everywhere.

Why does O Comain describe Captain Kelly as a "Civil Servant"? He must know very well that he was an Army Officer and that he was Personal Assistant to the Chief of Military Intelligence - a completely different kettle of fish to the civilian garda intelligence organisation - the body which was in fact the premier Intelligence-gathering body of the Irish State.

His major allegation in the Blanket is that:

"…recent southern state papers… reveal Captain Kelly's mandate was to split the Republican Movement in order to disable its more progressive elements and via the dissenters to manipulate the movement in the north… as a means of bringing to an end the increasing agitation in relation to housing, ground rents, etc. in the south".

I have been through many files relating to this period in the National Archive. I have yet to see a word which indicates that this was Captain Kelly's mandate. If Liam O Comain can produce the evidence for this, let him publish it. If not, he should apologise to the Kelly family for the character assassination of a man who cannot answer for himself.

AC

PPPS

Since the above was written, Fionnbarra O'Dochertaigh has responded to claims that he is in no position to rebut the White/Collins claims about Captain Kelly, as he was not involved in the Republican Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was therefore was not in a position to know what really happened. He said:

"I don't know how Johnny White can claim that I was not in a position of leadership with the movement.

"I attended the Ard Fheis in 1969 and supported the leadership position on taking seats.

"My involvement with the Derry Citizen's Action Committee, where I was secretary is there for all to see.

"A he claims that I wasn't even in Derry at the time of these happenings all I can say is that I went to Cork long after these events an anyone who was around in the late 1960's knows of my involvement.

"All I can say is that if Johnny White's memory is such that he cannot remember my role in the republican movement in those days then I have to call into question how reliable his memory he claims to speak of regarding Captain Kelly."

Sean McGouran adds:

The Official IRA was dominant in Derry until the killing of Ranger Best in May 1972, when there was a wave of revulsion against it.

In 1974 virtually the whole of the Official Republican movement in Derry seceded as a result of J. White's mismanagement.

The Starry Plough, having been the publication of the Officials/Republican Clubs in Derry, ceased to be a Stickie publication overnight, and became the IRSP paper.

The allegations against Captain Kelly made by J. White and P. Collins did not appear in the pamphlet produced by the Officials which alleged that Fianna Fail had set up the Provisionals.