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The Indo Daily: Gaddafi, guns and the IRA: could the Libyan despot have started an Irish civil war?

Arms: From left, IRA volunteers had weapons on a par with those used by the British army; the Eksund was boarded by police in Brest, France, and found to be carrying a massive shipment of weapons for the Provisionals, supplied by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi Expand

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Arms: From left, IRA volunteers had weapons on a par with those used by the British army; the Eksund was boarded by police in Brest, France, and found to be carrying a massive shipment of weapons for the Provisionals, supplied by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi

Arms: From left, IRA volunteers had weapons on a par with those used by the British army; the Eksund was boarded by police in Brest, France, and found to be carrying a massive shipment of weapons for the Provisionals, supplied by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi

Arms: From left, IRA volunteers had weapons on a par with those used by the British army; the Eksund was boarded by police in Brest, France, and found to be carrying a massive shipment of weapons for the Provisionals, supplied by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi

A massive Libyan arms shipment to the Provisional IRA in the 1980s had the potential to dramatically escalate the Troubles into a civil war, with one senior politician remarking “Christ — the IRA could start a civil war with that lot. And win. ”

The Libyan dictator saw the IRA as comrades fighting British imperialism and sent on a boat called the Eksund, a thousand Kalashnikov rifles, seven missiles, 430 grenades and ten heavy machine guns.

Gaddafi's hatred of the British grew after Gaddafi's daughter was killed by US bombing raids launched from UK bases.

The Indo Daily speaks to Irish Independent Political Correspondent John Downing about the Eksund gun-running affair.

The Indo Daily: Gaddafi, guns and the IRA: could the Libyan despot have started an Irish civil war?

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"It was deeply personal by then, and he just kept stipulating. Use them, Use them, Use them. My only condition."

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