The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) received weapons from the U.S. in the early 1980s, despite a public ban on selling arms, recently released files show.
A former senior police official in Northern Ireland has stated that the Reagan administration turned a blind eye when guns were shipped despite a White House order banning gun sales to the discredited police force which was eventually disbanded and replaced by the PSNI.The ban on RUC arms was hailed at the time as a huge victory for the Irish American lobby but now it appears it was completely circumvented
The police force in Northern Ireland not only acquired weapons from the U.S, but they also obtained spying equipment, according to files released in Belfast under the 30-year-rule, the Belfast Newsletter reports.
Congress introduced the weapons ban after allegations of sectarianism in the RUC emerged.
A confidential 1981 memorandum to the Secretary of State shows that the ban was ignored so as to ensure that arms requested by the Chief Constable were obtained.
Based on the files alone, it is difficult to determine whether the U.S. Government was aware of the arms shipments.
One former senior RUC official told the Belfast Newsletter that he understood President Reagan was aware of the shipments but had “turned a blind eye to the issue” because of the country’s relationship with the UK.
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The Newsletter reports that the RUC had placed three orders for a total of 9,000 Ruger revolvers, but the Chief Constable subsequently decided that 6,000 would be sufficient.
Half of the order was delivered in mid-1979, just before the U.S. government suspended its export licences for weapons for the RUC, “pending a review of policy”.
The review was still incomplete in March 1981, prompting much anger among unionists in Northern Ireland.
In parliament, one Tory MP described the situation as ironic, considering that the U.S. government was selling the Trident nuclear missile system to the UK but would not allow a UK police force to buy arms.
The recently released files now show that the force was continuing to receive the U.S. made weapons despite the ban.
The memo to the secretary of state said, “In fact, despite the ban the RUC have continued to receive small supplies of Rugers from the UK agents with whom the contract was placed, and now await delivery of only 735 of these weapons.
“However, we have carefully avoided publishing information about arms supply in any detail because we are conscious that if it became known that the RUC is receiving arms and ammunition from the US including Rugers [underlined], despite the ban, attempts might be made in Congress to stop these supplies which the Reagan Administration might not be willing or able to counter.”
Another confidential document from March 1981 reveals that during the financial year, the RUC had received from the US — all via UK suppliers – 2,235 Ruger revolvers, 130 Smith and Weston pistols, and more than 1.3 million rounds of various ammunition.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.STEVENSTAR | Apr 29, 2012, 02:24 PM EDT
AS AN IRISHMAN LIVING IN IRELAND I TOTALLY AGREE THAT ALL AMERICANS SHOULD KEEP OUT OF IRISH AFFAIRS .. THEY HAVE CAUSED ENOUGH WARS AND MAYHEM ALL OVER THE WORLD AND ANY INTERFEREANCE FROM THEM IS N O T WELCOME HERE IN MY COUNTRY..
STEVENSTAR | Apr 29, 2012, 02:23 PM EDT
AS AN IRISHMAN LIVING IN IRELAND I TOTALLY AGREE THAT ALL AMERICANS SHOULD KEEP OUT OF IRISH AFFAIRS .. THEY HAVE CAUSED ENOUGH WARS AND MAYHEM ALL OVER THE WORLD AND ANY INTERFEREANCE FROM THEM IS NOW WELCOME HERE IN MY COUNTRY..
BrianO | Apr 29, 2012, 12:53 AM EDT
Proudcanadian ie proudcoward.
seanomelbourne | Jan 06, 2012, 05:34 PM EST
A little secret Joycean the IRA ceased to exist with the GFA nd Sinn Fein recieves a major proportion of its finances from the USA. BTW Joeboy1 Hizb'Allah chased the marines out of Beirut not Iran.
IrelandNorth | Jan 06, 2012, 07:15 AM EST
9,000 rugers? A thousand for every county of Ulster! Subsequently reduced to 6,000. A thousand for every country of Northern Ireland. It's a wonder poor old Ronnie didn't choke on that pint of the devil's buttermilk he was drinking in Ballinspittal, when statues were breakdancing in a churhyard up the road. Jeez. What a world we live in.
Kilsally | Jan 06, 2012, 06:21 AM EST
Rebel force, three RUC name was not decommissioned it was incorporated into the current title deeds if three PSNI, the FBI routinely conduct joint training services with the RUC, PSNI and various other UK police forces and agencies
oTuachair | Jan 06, 2012, 05:25 AM EST
This was the wrong thing to do, but it is not hard to understand. The starry plough was viewed the same as the hammer and sickle, and at the height of the cold war, the last thing either country wanted was a potential Warsaw Pact ally (read: Cuba) on Britain's back doorstep. International politics is all about who needs who more. The US needed Britian's support against the Soviet Union, and this was included in the price Britain demanded. Sadly, this decision was made at the expense of the Irish people against whom these weapons and technology were used, which is why it was wrong.
joycean | Jan 05, 2012, 04:57 PM EST
occassio, As far as I am aware, Dublin has no jurisdiction over Washington or London.
occassio | Jan 05, 2012, 02:42 PM EST
Perhaps this is an opportunity for the Irish government to supboena Presidential records?
joycean | Jan 05, 2012, 09:48 AM EST
I've read Irish thought it very clever to say that "9/11 was the best thing that ever happened to Ireland," because Irish-Americans stopped sending IRA money for terrorism. So efforts by sympathizers in this country led to further hatred of Americans in Ireland and for desire by RUC for weapons to fight terrorism in NI.
lcobryan | Jan 05, 2012, 06:33 AM EST
I don't understand what "ProudCanadian" means by Mommy ran the country-nor does he. Reagan was a reactionary, white-male supremacist who plunged the US into unproductive debt-the 1st 3yrs of his Admin doubled the cummulative debt of all prior Presidents. He went on to raise taxes on middle income earners on 10 diff occaisons. He and his fellow US republican mysogynists and racists layed the groundwork for the acceptable rise of right-wing lunacy culminating with the Tea Party. Nancy was a side show. She was no Betty Ford; much less an Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton. Reagan and Thatcher were all about consolidation of power in the wealthiest institutions of the private sector. No surprise that the industrial output, @ the time, in NI was deemed as threatened. Don't forget Churchill said fire at will at Irish Republicans
ProudCanadian | Jan 05, 2012, 12:57 AM EST
Now why does this not surprise me, seeing the Americans for a buck would send guns to anywhere and anyone to start a war. They have sold missles and everything else. Reagan was a waste of skin let a lone a good President. Mommy ran the country.
oliviadeoyl | Jan 05, 2012, 12:21 AM EST
I always knew that if Thatcher said squat he would. Never a friend of Ireland.
cillowen | Jan 04, 2012, 11:18 PM EST
That's what friends are for - I always knew the connection that was and is. The propaganda that is so thick that Jews and Italians would be as bold as you please - confront Irish me, asking me what I contributed. A manager no less, in number 1 company, with brazen ridicule, telling me of the half a million (a measly sum) that was shipped to the Irish boyos in that one particular year of the freedom seekers efforts trying to fix the apartheid statelet that such souls were in. How dare they, was his tone.
cillowen | Jan 04, 2012, 11:17 PM EST
The Iron Lady and "a well" Reagan were up each others kirster but sheep unable to connect dots rave about such nothings.
kilgara | Jan 04, 2012, 09:42 PM EST
Any sympathy the Reagan administration may have had for our suffering and grossly discriminated against brothers and sisters in illegally occupied Ulster took a far back seat to maintaining friendly relations between the USA and Blighty.Like Hitler, Downing Street and the Anglophiles who controlled the White House considered our beloved Eire just "an unimportant little potato patch".
joeboy1 | Jan 04, 2012, 08:55 PM EST
Look what happen after the Iran Contra gun deal the Iranians,s blew up the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Thanks for the gun,s Reagan
oaklongan | Jan 04, 2012, 07:01 PM EST
OBPiper... Pres. Reagan also spent his afternoons enjoying old Hollywood movies, according to sure report.
oaklongan | Jan 04, 2012, 06:55 PM EST
It's Smith and WESSON...(article reads Smith and WESTON) !! Perception in the U.S. is that Margaret Thatcher seemed to have a serious CRUSH on Pres. Ronald Reagan...
seamus60 | Jan 04, 2012, 06:39 PM EST
This should be of no surprise to anyone. The big players will always have a way round such export banns without fear of exposure. After all they send other peoples children off to die in various countries whilst their own stay at home. All of them old enough to kill or be killed yet many of them too young to be trusted with a beer.
seanomelbourne | Jan 04, 2012, 05:52 PM EST
What the white house did was also illegal. lest we forget the Iran/Contra affair which the WH also secretly backed,allowing murderers like Ollie North and the master spy Gates to roam free and never to account for the thousands of deaths they are responsible for. Those Turning their backs on illegal activities perpetrated by government should be punished.As I Said before Reagan was a failed human being.
joycean | Jan 04, 2012, 04:49 PM EST
maireadinmelb, Actually, from the article, it isn't clear what the government was doing when it says, "despite the public policy...." Maybe the policy was just to keep the things from becoming contentious. We were allies of the UK, not he IRA. What the private citzens were doing was illegal.
seanomelbourne | Jan 04, 2012, 04:32 PM EST
Reagan was a failed human being. He started his political career as a union boss using that position to tout for Hoover naming and shaming whom he beleived to be communist sympthitiser(along with his middle of the road fascist friend J.Wayne).The career of Aaron Spelling and other hollywood notables were destroyed by these morons,although some did make a comeback.I only mention this period of his life as goes to the honesty and integrity of the failed human being called Ronald Reagan.
maireadinmelb | Jan 04, 2012, 04:28 PM EST
there is a difference joycean between private citizens and government and/or government policy!
OBPiper | Jan 04, 2012, 04:25 PM EST
A lot of points were made by the readers, not all valid but giving the picture I accept: Reagan's ancestry is only partly known publicly, but his feebleness was manifest. He was rabidly anti-communist and thereby presided upon (perhaps as a stooge) staggering crimes, e.g., Iran-Contra arms smuggling and crack-infestation, establishment of Bin Laden and the Taliban as an international cancer, a ruinous economic war on the USA middle class coupled with the ruinous arms race, and involvement in the lose-lose bilaterally assinine politics of Norther Ireland. He was a great communicator surrounded by a covey of criminals though perhaps not nearly so in pari delicto.
joycean | Jan 04, 2012, 03:49 PM EST
What about the munitions that Irish Americans provided to the IRA?
PatriciaMarya | Jan 04, 2012, 03:38 PM EST
The thing to remember is that Pres. Reagan was suffering from dementia when he entered the White House and that was one of the reasons why he was chosen: to be our "Grandfather" - no one talks against Grampa. However, the ex-head of the CIA, Veep George H.W. Bush was running the place in his own high Imperial style. When RR said he had no idea regarding IranContra, he was being truthful - he was nowhere included in the loop that was bearded by Oliver North and that other "patriot," Grover Norquist. Can't help thinking that that is the same script here. Speaking of scripts, it seems that the POTUS was given note-cards, "scripts" if you will, to use during meetings. Appointments were also rearranged to make sure he was in good health when he appeared and the First Lady was in charge of that decision. It boggles the mind how little is known and keeps on seeping out years later.
Rebelforce | Jan 04, 2012, 01:08 PM EST
The US Congress was right and justified to institute a ban on weapons to the sectarian RUC during the Troubles. Their judgement was proven correct when that disgraced and discredited name, Royal Ulster Constabulary, was "decommissioned" as it were, and unceremoniously dumped into the trash bin of history.
slainte9 | Jan 04, 2012, 12:34 PM EST
Yawn. The ban was symbolic. James Bond used Beretta and Walther pistols. Did the Germans and Italian have a ban on supplying the ROC?
citizen69 | Jan 04, 2012, 12:11 PM EST
The US government considered the Provisional IRA to be a far-left Marxist terrorist group with connections to middle-eastern terror groups & dictators. As well as other far-left extremists from Europe & Latin America. And we all know Ronnie wasn't very fond of Commies!
rainbowbrew | Jan 04, 2012, 12:09 PM EST
torbreezy sorry you are wrong reagan was not one of the top 3. reagan started the crack epidemic, he is not a star, he also had that Iran Contra scheme, he also ruined the economics of the USA through his stupid trickle down theory. Hi wife startede teh harshest time for the drug war with her stupid Just say No campaign.. Police were being militarized by his admin. no reagan was no friend, but I will give him credit for some of the dissolution of the USSR. he spent a lot of money on "Star Wars" which never cam eto fruition but we spent a ton of money.
Springfield9 | Jan 04, 2012, 11:59 AM EST
Ronnie probably forgot it all.
Rebelforce | Jan 04, 2012, 11:53 AM EST
Ronald Reagan mentioned his Irish ancestry on many occassions. I never once heard him say anything about being "Scotch-Irish". If you asked Reagan if he was Scotch-Irish, he'd probably tell you he didn't drink. And let's not forget that Reagan's father, Jack Reagan, made sure that both Neil and Ronnie were duly baptized as infants in a good Roman Catholic Church.
torbreezy | Jan 04, 2012, 11:50 AM EST
Your citation of spurious sources (an unnamed senior official @ the RUC) is still another example of your persistent attack on one of our 3 greatest presidents and not unlike the lambasting performed by Thomas Nast which you resuscitate for whatever purposes . . . .
oldboreen | Jan 04, 2012, 11:42 AM EST
Hardly astonishing given that Regan was of Protestant Scots-Irish Loyalist stock!. Maggie's contempt for all things Irish was well known in London's Whitehall.
merefalow | Jan 04, 2012, 11:29 AM EST
surprised?why?.reagan was so up the brits,two faced dumbo puppet shamrock wearing plastic paddy president.know thy enemy.
Rebelforce | Jan 04, 2012, 11:18 AM EST
If this report is to be believed, it is interesting that the disgraced and discredited "Royal ulster constabulary" had to obtain weapons from the US the same way the IRA did, by stealth and secrecy.
RockNReel | Jan 04, 2012, 10:55 AM EST
Reagan was a dope and had no clue about Irish politics
mgnolala | Jan 04, 2012, 10:49 AM EST
Anyone remember Iran-Contra? Not surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.
Sectionhand | Jan 04, 2012, 10:15 AM EST
Big deal .
EamonnDublin | Jan 04, 2012, 09:59 AM EST
Well, now, "one former senior RUC official" said that he understood that President Reagan was aware ........!! And some of your readers apparently accept this word of a former senior RUC official as "proof"!!!!! I'm afraid their knowledge of Ireland and the RUC is very sadly, badly lacking. Éamonn, Dublin.
PhoenixZouave | Jan 04, 2012, 09:59 AM EST
Prez Reagan absorbed the attitudes of his WASP mother from a very early age.He thirsted for the approval of Thatcher at any costs. Reagan's father was weak man who battled the bottle most of his life. Any Irish consciousness the father may have had was caved in by the strength of his wife. On March 17, Prez Reagan could wear a plastic Green Derby with the best of the American soupers. Remember Jack Warner taught Reagan the value of Public Relations back in the 1940's. Strangely enough, declassified documents exist that Errol Flynn (who disliked Reagan personally) wanted FDR to commission Flynn as a captain in the U.S.Army. Flynn then intended to to go to southern Ireland to recruit "Cannon Fodder" for the allied cause.
pounder | Jan 04, 2012, 09:56 AM EST
Boycott the "The Iron Lady".
faberm1 | Jan 04, 2012, 09:40 AM EST
The article states "Based on the files alone, it is difficult to determine whether the U.S. Government was aware of the arms shipments." The premise of the article doesn't make much rational sense or have much evidentiary weight because the UK does not "need" any help from the US in terms of weaponry or spy equipment. The US has a long history of meddling in the affairs of Mid-East and Latin-American countries because of vital interests in those areas (even though I don't agree with such meddling). The USA has no vital interest at all in keeping Northern Ireland within the UK, so the probability that this happened is greatly lessened and marginalized.
hollabackgurl | Jan 04, 2012, 09:24 AM EST
Well that proves it, he was no friend to Ireland, as most of us already knew. What GOP administration ever was?
GeorgeDillon | Jan 04, 2012, 07:45 AM EST
Interesting tho not surprising. The Reagan administration armed thugs throughout the world.