>>>>>I don't think HMG ever quite knew what to do about the IRA. I certainly wouldn't. If they were, as they said, soldiers that implied they had to be treated as POWs. If they were criminals they had to be accorded British justice. And of course the result was an ever shifting a somewhat schizophrenic policy that satisfied few. And then there was the fact that the IRA, the Provos, the UVF etc were all engaged in truly criminal activities both in and out of the UK.
>>>>>
>>>>and was financially supported in part by some Catholic Irish-Americans...
>>>
>>>An Irish friend informed me on that matter.. It seemed that the US government was directly involved in financing the IRA. He mentioned Ted Kennedy . Only after 9/11 this stopped for self-explanatory reasons.
>>
>>With respect to your Irish friend - that's nonsense. Irish Americans were directly involved in financing the IRA. The US government was not. Ted Kennedy was of course sympathetic to the Irish just as his father had been anti-British (and pro-German) while ambassador to the Court of St. James.
>
>I should refrase that... (individual) politcal members were involve in financing the IRA. Ted kennedy supported the funding of the IRA.
>Again this is what I've been told.

Oh I think that's quite correct. Actually created some friction between our government and MI-5 and MI-6. Reagan and Thatcher got on pretty well (though both Reagan and Casey were Irish, they were more interested in our relations with Britain) but Tip O'Neil and Kennedy were quite powerful so there wasn't much effor to stop anything but direct gun-running or money directly to the Provos.

After the IRA tried to kill Thatcher in Brighton it got pretty tense with MI-5 putting a *lot* of pressure on for a tightening of US controls and we moved much more proactively.