Irish soldier who joined IRA denies Prince Charles plot

A former Irish soldier, who “aided” the Provisional IRA while a member of the Defence Forces, and later joined the nationalist paramilitaries, has denied that when he and colleagues in an IRA active service unit were arrested in Belgium in 1990 they were preparing to assassinate Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Examiner, Kieran McCarthy, now a Cork county councillor, reveals that he faked a baptismal certificate to get into the Irish army, came to sympathise with, aid, and then join the IRA, and ended up in a Belgium jail.

He also says he knows a number of other former Irish army soldiers who ended up fighting for the Provisional IRA, because they, too, did not like the way the British were treating their fellow countrymen north of the border.

Mr McCarthy said British media reports that he and his IRA colleagues were going to kill the royal couple were unfounded.

“They were due in Belgium a few weeks after we were arrested,” he said. “We didn’t even know they were coming. It was pure coincidence. It wasn’t the operation we were planning. We were planning a variety of operations at the time.”

When asked if the active service unit was planning to attack British army bases, he declined to comment.

Mr McCarthy and two others had a variety of weapons when arrested by the Belgium authorities.

“I got two years, but I served 10 months,” he said.

He also speaks of an incident in the summer of 1976, when he and a couple of other Irish soldiers crossed the border to buy a few goods at a market in South Armagh.

He says they were badly treated by the British army patrol, even though it was obvious that they were Irish soldiers.

“They grabbed us and put us up against the wall, with their guns trained on us,” he said. “They knew we were Irish army. They were just making an example of us in front of the community. They were saying it was their country. That was a turning point for me.”

The following year, he was “giving the IRA assistance” and left the army in 1978. The 1981 hunger strikes “were the final tipping point”, he says, and he joined the IRA.

He remained in the IRA up to the Good Friday ceasefire. He is writing a book about his experiences.