GANGSTERS' PRIVILEGE
THANKS appatently to the services of an informer—, that character who is seldom lacking in any Irish political drama—the Irish Republican Army has lost the haul of arms and ammunition stolen from the depot at Arborfield on Saturday. The Services and the police are now prepared against the other raids which will surely be attempted. For many months it has been known that the IRA has been overhauling its organisation and preparing to mount a fresh campaign of terrorism in Ireland and Britain. No one has any certain knowledge of the real strength of the organisa- tion, but it is very unlikely that in its new form the old factions which split it and made concerted action difficult have completely disappeared. If the plans for the new campaign were as weighty as the secret leaders of the IRA would like to have them thought, there would not have been one raid at the weekend, which put every other camp in the country on the alert, but several. At any rate, it would be a mistake to over-estimate the IRA's effectiveness and, by call- ing for draconian measures, create the very conditions in which it would find greater unity within its own ranks and a more fervent public support in the Republic. But a terrorist cam- paign does not depend upon numbers for its success; the fanati- cism of a few can create widespread disorder; two or three `martyrs' could raise the temperature in the Republic to boil- ing-point; and the leaders of the IRA, securely hidden at the centre of their secret society, will certainly not hesitate to issue orders for bomb-throwing when they judge the time ripe.
In Britain, where the organisation is not illegal and where its junior leaders can with impunity go about their business of recruiting and propaganda, the security forces can do little more than watch and wait. In Northern Ireland the IRA is illegal, but the forces of order are hindered by the Republic's refusal to consider an extradition treaty. This, and the care which Stormont is taking not to be stampeded into the panic measures which the leaders of the IRA would like to see, enables the gangsters to come and go pretty well as they please. In the Republic itself the situation is farcical: while the IRA is formally 'illegal,' and while Government and Church from time to time utter their condemnation of violence, it is in fact free to recruit-, drill, and organise its weapon-training openly. If a terrorist campaign broke out in the Six Counties and in England, the Dublin Government, which is certainly not lack- ing in full information about the IRA's organisation and leadership, would have to stir itself out of its present timid mood. If it then failed to co-operate with the Northern Irish and British Governments, extreme pressure would have to be 'put on it at the highest level.
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