cumbria
Banned
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.
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' of
1916 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.
Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/52933...rescue-catholics-on-the-bogside#ixzz19byUpaSx
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.
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' of
1916 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.
Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/52933...rescue-catholics-on-the-bogside#ixzz19byUpaSx