She reckons it was de lefties dat blew de whistle...
Some people would certainly dismiss Mcguire as a fantasist, though one cannot deny that she was involved with the republican movement for a year or so. Her idealism can be summed up by her attraction to the 'rugged heroes' of the leadership at that time. She was never what could be called an active service volunteer but appears to have coasted along with some big players in Dublin. The operation that was to bring her notoriety was in typical fashion for those times a farce.
Dave O'Connell,(Daithi OConnail) the Provisional I.R.A.'s political-military swing man, took Maria along as interpreter on an arms-buying trip to Europe. Their mission began as Irish low comedy and ended in fiasco. In Amsterdam their cover was blown, their planeload of Czech bazookas, rocket launchers and hand grenades was impounded, and Maria and Dave lammed out just ahead of the cops. She returned to Dublin a celebrity—too much so for the taste of Sean MacStiofain, the transplanted Englishman who was then the Provisional I.R.A.'s chief of staff. Maria McGuire hated the dour, puritanical MacStiofain and certainly attempted to undermine him also. Bowyer-Bell reckoned she was selected for the ballsed operation due to her 'flower child past due date' image.
Ruaria O'Bradaigh in his
autobiography is also scathing of the role she may have played in the movement.
It is most surprising that someone had not made the link with her and Ireland before. As well as her book she is cited in a number of 'authoritive' accounts by Martin Dillon and Bowyer Bell amongst others. For fecks sake I had even heard of her, but not under her married name Gatland (in 1976).
One must bear in mind that in this period the Dublin leadership held sway in the IRAs military phillosophy and there were tensions between it and the eventual leadership in Belfast. Allegedly she cut herself loose after
bloody Friday.A dark day on 21 July, 1972, which killed nine people including two soldiers, and injured 130 civilians. That year 479 people died due to the 'troubles', the largest casuality loss in the long war. Some commentators have alluded that the Fridays actions were in respose to
Bloody Sunday in Derry 6 months earlier. 1300 bombing campaigns blew all around the six counties that year. Allegedly Adams was very active in that year.
These were hard times for nationalists with oppressive measures brought in shortly after Bloody Friday.
McGuire skipped away when the going got tough. Liberation movements are often attractive entities for 'educated dreamers' who cant hack the real implications of the ugliness of war. A lot of her suppositions of what occured during her time was 'hear say' as such. She wrote 'To Take Arms: My Year with the IRA' in 1972 which Time Magazine called a 'kiss and tell'
Bottom line there will have to be a lot of questions answered. How the feck didnt the Tories know nothing of her past? and why has it came out now?
As far as im concerned she is a muppet and deserves the fallout that may ensue...
Maria Gatland: career profile
Her Croydon Council webpage
.
