O'Donoghue accused of misleading Dail

Captain James Kelly, the army officer at the centre of the 1970 Arms Trial, has accused the Minister for Justice John O'Donoghue, of misleading the Dail last year.

Captain James Kelly, the army officer at the centre of the 1970 Arms Trial, accused the Minister for Justice of misleading the Dail last year.

Speaking at a press conference today, he said that newly-acquired evidence of an invasion plan for the North, which was available to the trial in 1970, was deliberately suppressed by the State. John O'Donoghue told the Dail last July that no such evidence existed.

However, a document retrieved from the National Archives showed that then Army Chief of Staff, Sean McKeown, discussed an invasion plan and the possible purchase of arms.

Another document from 1969 presented this morning showed that army plans for an unconventional operation to invade the North was being hatched. Capt Kelly said that these documents showed that Minister O'Donoghue's statement last summer was untrue.

He also accused former Taoiseach Jack Lynch of lying at the time of the trial, saying that Mr Lynch had made it clear that no plan existed then for Irish armed forces to invade the North.