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Ivor Bell

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Ivor Bell was a Protestant member (volunteer) in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who later became Chief of Staff on the Army Council.

I.R.A. career

Bell was a socialist, anarchist, and a republican. Bell was involved with the IRA during the 1956-1962 campaign, but left over the decision to call a cease-fire. He rejoined in 1970, and become the commander of the B Company in the Kashmir Road area.

During Gerry Adams' initial leadership of the republican movement he took much of his direction from Brendan Hughes and Bell. At this time Bell was Adams' adjutant in the Second Battalion of the Belfast Brigade and Hughes was the commander of the D Coy. Adams looked to Bell for political strategy and to Hughes for the opinion of the "rank and file" volunteers.

Bell, now Belfast Brigade adjutant, along with Seamus Twomey, Martin McGuinness, and Gerry Adams had been flown to London by the Royal Air Force for secret ceasefire talks with British ministers in 1972..

Adams and Bell were skeptical about the proposed cease-fire and they did not trust the British Government. The truce soon broke down, followed by twenty deaths over three days.

Libyan connection

Bell was the IRA's ambassador to Libya, during the late 1970s and the early 1980s.

In late 1984 and early 1985 the Libyan Intelligence Service moved to put in place a supply of arms to the IRA in order that they could more effectively fight the British Army, and Bell and Joe Cahill were instrumental in putting in place the the Libyan arms smuggling plan.

Bell's demise was due to more than his opposition to the move on abstention. Bell was a hard militarist who opposed the use of cash for politics and resented moves to strengthen Gerry Adams' hold on the organisation. Bell emerged as the head of a group, which included senior figures like Danny McCann. In the end, a court martial held in June 1985 in his absence dismissed Bell from the IRA.

References

  1. Ed Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p.318, 2002. (PB) ISBN 0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X
  2. Ed Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p.114, 2002. (PB) ISBN 0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X
  3. Ed Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p.114, 2002. (PB) ISBN 0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X
  4. Dominic Casciani (1 January, 2003). "Adams and IRA's secret Whitehall talks". BBC. Retrieved 2007-02-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. Ed Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp. 14–15, 2002. (PB) ISBN 0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X
  6. Ed Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp 14–15, 2002. (PB) ISBN 0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X
  7. Brendan O'Brien, The Long War: The IRA & Sinn Féin, p.133, 1999. (PB) ISBN 0-86278-606-1
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