Irish Northern Aid (Noraid was the best known and most important Irish-American republican support group during the course of the Northern Ireland conflict (Hanley, 2004). As American citizens, Noraid members have a constitutional right to be able to speak out and raise funds to affect issues and causes that concern them. Despite the United States trying to find evidence to shut down Noraid pertaining to arms smuggling, and where its fund raising is being displaced to, there is no reason Noraid cannot choose who they support just like a political party (Hanley, 2004).
Noraid officials have been outspoken supporters of the Provisional IRA's use of assassinations and bombings as a means of trying to end British rule in Northern Ireland. But they say the funds they raise do not go toward the purchase of bullets and bombs (Wittig, 2014). Rather, they say, Noraid funds are earmarked exclusively for charitable relief programs that help the families of imprisoned IRA members. The funds are distributed through groups like An Cumman Cabhrach in Dublin and Green Cross in Belfast, they explain (Wittig, 2014).
It is clear from public records and interviews with government officials and Noraid officers that Noraid would prefer not to make public any of the details of its inner workings or finances (Wittig, 2014). What is not clear is why an organization claiming to do exclusively charitable fund-raising work should be so secretive about its operations.
Security officials in Northern Ireland, Britain, and the US have long suspected that part of the reason for Noraid's reluctance to make full, public disclosures is that some of the group's funds may be diverted for other than charitable relief work. They say Noraid may also be bankrolling part of the IRA's supplies of guns and explosives. If it is only speculation on Noraid, then the United States knows that there is no action that can be taken against the group other than public pressure through the media.
Noraid has most recently come into the public spotlight following reports that the US was the source of seven tons of IRA arms confiscated Sept. 29 off Ireland's southwest coast aboard the Irish fishing trawler Marita Ann (Wittig, 2014). Irish officials used the occasion to condemn Noraid, though there was no established Noraid link at the time. Noraid is being made the escape goat and the main group to blame for any arms coming out of the United States that may or may not reach the IRA. All the blame being pointed at Noraid with such little evidence could just be a ploy to undermine the fund-raising efforts of the organization in the United States.
Bibliography
Wittig, T. Understanding terrorist finance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Hanley, Brian. “The politics of NORAID.” Irish Political Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1–17., doi:10.1080/1356347042000269701.
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