http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/n...nd/8241393.stm
Libya's 30-year link to the IRA
Monday, 7 September 2009 10:15 UK
Links between the IRA and Libya can be traced back to 1972 when the country's leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi first praised the group as allies in a struggle against Western imperialism.
Gaddafi later helped provide the IRA with the weaponry they needed to wage an armed campaign which lasted more than 30 years and claimed more than 1,000 lives.
It is not known when the first arms shipments began, but the relationship became public knowledge in March 1973 when the Irish Navy boarded a ship called the Claudia, off the coast of Waterford.
On board, they found five tonnes of weaponry supplied by the Libyan government and veteran IRA man, Joe Cahill.
....A year later, another boat was stopped on its way to Northern Ireland
The Eksund was carrying a massive haul of arms including 1,000 AK-47 machine guns, a million rounds of ammunition, more than 50 ground-to-air missiles and two tonnes of the powerful Czech-made explosive, Semtex....