Jimmy Carter urged end to RUC arms ban

Former US president Jimmy Carter urged one of the most powerful American politicians of his time to lift a ban on arms sales to the RUC.

Government papers released under the 30-year rule revealed Carter privately pleaded with US Speaker Tip O’Neill to end the embargo at the request of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

O’Neill, a renowned Irish-American Congressman, said arms deals would benefit the IRA whose supporters would stir up publicity for fund raising.

“Immediately after her (Thatcher) visit the President made a private plea to Speaker O’Neill to change his position in regard to the arms sales,” the Foreign Affairs documents revealed.

“The British were, he said, among the best US supporters in dealing with terrorists who were holding US hostages in Iran and it seemed reasonable that they should expect similar support in their efforts to deal with terrorism in Northern Ireland.”

British Ambassador to Washington Peter Jay, who met Tip O’Neill on June 5, 1979, said the ban created an “alleged imputation” that the RUC was a sectarian force and an instrument of repression of the Roman Catholic minority in the north.

The Speaker refused to back down.

The British had ordered 3,000 .375 Magnum handguns and 500 .223 semi automatic rifles from the Sturm Ruger Corporation of Connecticut.

Thatcher went to Washington on December 17, 1979. Her pleas to lift the ban were unsuccessful but she pushed ahead with another order of 3,000 Ruger revolvers.

“She said she had made it perfectly clear, that, if that order were rejected it would not only be wrong, but a propaganda victory for the IRA,” the document stated.

Tip O’Neill met Lord Carrington, British Foreign Minister, on May 6, 1980, and claimed his ban had been severely misinterpreted.

He said he would not allow a licence for arms trade “because such action could only benefit the Provisional IRA who would use the affair to collect more money and to try and gain support from politicians running for election in Irish-American districts”.

The documents revealed that the pro-British establishment press in America understood and accepted Tip O’Neill’s position from early on.

The papers also revealed that President Carter was keen to allow arms trade.

This point in relations with the US was also regarded by Irish officials as the time when the Northern question took on an international dimension.

“The fact that an Anglo-American summit communique referred at all to NI is a remarkable departure which represents a significant inter-nationalisation of the issue,” the Foreign Affairs papers showed.

“This departure is attributable largely to Irish Government influence on the Irish issue, via Speaker O’Neill, on the US administration.”