Soon gun-running routes back to Ireland were established that fuelled the fledgling Provo campaign. Billy ‘Blue’ Kelly a veteran republican - who helped negotiate an arms deal with Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi IRA man Joe Cahill. Denis Donaldson Billy ‘Blue’ Kelly photgraphed in Long Kesh during the early 1970s Billy ‘Blue’ Kelly was present when Gaddafi agreed to supply the Provisional IRA, with weapons and explosives to help kick-start its 25-year terror war.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi (Photo by Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) A veteran republican who once did a deal with Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi for guns and bombs says the IRA terror war was a failure. Ex-IRA man Billy ‘Blue’ Kelly (75) was in his twenties when he flew to North Africa with IRA leader Joe Cahill and fellow volunteer Denis Donaldson. Their quest was to persuade the oil-rich state’s leader Muammar Gaddafi to part with weapons for use in an all-out ‘Brits Out’ war in Northern Ireland.
Soon gun-running routes back to Ireland were established that fuelled the fledgling Provo campaign. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi (Photo by Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) But in an interview with the Sunday World , ‘Blue’ Kelly hit out at the change of direction adopted by the republican leadership. He said: “We ended up in the same place we started.
The fundamentals remain the same. The British still rule. You can’t get away from that fact.
” Kelly added: “But a lot of republicans ended up with big houses and big cars. Is that what it was all about?” Kelly’s IRA boss Joe Cahill was a republican legend. He was sentenced to death by hanging in the 1940s for his part in the murder of a Catholic RUC officer in west Belfast.
But it was reduced to life imprisonment when fellow IRA man, 19-year-old Tom Williams, took the rap and confessed to the crime. When the Troubles erupted, Cahill helped form the Provisional IRA. By the time he went to Libya, he was chief-of-staff.
He died 20 years ago, aged 84. Belfast-born Billy Kelly was nicknamed ‘Blue Boy’ because of his striking resemblance to High Chaparral TV series actor Mark Slade, who played Blue Boy. ‘Blue’ was personally chosen by Cahill for the Libyan trip because he had a smattering of conversational French.
According to Kelly, Denis Donaldson, a former IRA man and senior Sinn Féin figure, also travelled with them. Donaldson was shot dead at his remote cottage in Donegal after being outed as a British agent nearly 20 years ago. Kelly revealed how he and the others travelled through France and on to Libya.
Through a contact, they were smuggled into ‘The Splendid Gate’ military barracks in Tripoli. Billy ‘Blue’ Kelly was present when Gaddafi agreed to supply the Provisional IRA, with weapons and explosives to help kick-start its 25-year terror war. Minutes later, they were introduced to Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi in his bullet-proof luxury tent inside the army complex.
At the time, Gaddafi’s oil-rich state was suspected of bank-rolling Arab terrorist organisations and left-wing paramilitary groups and the IRA wanted a slice of the Libyan cake. Through an interpreter, Gaddafi expressed surprise that his Irish guests opted to speak English — the “language of their oppressor” — and not their native Irish. But according to ‘Blue’ Kelly, both parties found common purpose in their hatred of the British.
“That was good enough for both of us,” he said this week. Kelly also revealed he was present when Gaddafi agreed to supply the fledgling Provisional IRA with weapons and explosives to kickstart its terror war. “Gaddafi was good to us.
That’s all I can say about it,” said Kelly. The Gaddafi tent talks attended by Kelly, Cahill and Donaldson were the first of several IRA ‘begging bowl’ trips to the Libyan capital. Billy ‘Blue’ Kelly photgraphed in Long Kesh during the early 1970s Over the years, Gaddafi’s rogue state supplied the IRA with thousands of high-powered rifles, handguns and explosives, including deadly Semtex.
More than 1,700 people — including 644 civilians — lost their lives as a result of two and a half decades of IRA violence in Ireland, Britain and a number of European countries. But ex-IRA man ‘Blue’ Kelly now believes many people died for nothing. “We are in exactly the same position we were in at the start of the Troubles 50 years ago,” he told the Sunday World.
“Britain still holds all the cards and there’s no sign of a united Ireland. That’s the reality.” ‘Blue Kelly’ also revealed for the first time that Colonel Gaddafi toyed with the Irishmen before agreeing to hand over weapons and explosives.
“We kind of knew he was joking, but we got the better of him and he liked that. Gaddafi told us he didn’t think he could give the IRA any guns because he didn’t believe our volunteers were brave enough. IRA man Joe Cahill.
“Joe asked him what he meant by that. And through his interpreter, he said: ‘Watch this.’ “He signalled to a Libyan soldier to come forward.
And he ordered him to throw himself from the highest building in the barracks. “The soldier marched towards the exit. But just as he reached the door, Gaddafi ordered him to stop, telling him to ignore his previous order.
“Gaddafi then asked Joe if he had a volunteer who could match his soldier’s bravery. Joe turned to me and said ‘Blue, throw yourself off that building’. I looked at him and said: ‘Away and ‘eff’ yourself Joe!’ “Joe then turned to Gaddafi and said, ‘Would one of your men have the balls to talk to you like that?’ Everyone laughed and we knew then we were onto a winner with Gaddafi.
He agreed to give us the guns. He really hated the Brits,” said Kelly. He added: “We liked Gaddafi and he liked us.
And he was as good as his word.” ‘Blue’ Kelly also told how he travelled to Algeria and later Lebanon on behalf of the IRA. He and Donaldson were arrested at a French airport on their return journey from a terrorist training camp in the Lebanon.
“We were the Overseas Department,” he said. “I went into the Kasbah in Algiers. We were told no Europeans were allowed to enter.
But I went in, entirely on my own, and I spoke to the local people before going back to the Eurasia Hotel where I was staying. Denis Donaldson “The Algerians didn’t like Europeans because of what the French had done in their country when they were the colonial masters. “Everyone was looking at me because I was European.
But I left when I was ready and not before.” He added: “Using my Irish passport, I could travel anywhere.” ‘Blue’ Kelly also recounted how he escaped from Long Kesh — which was later renamed the Maze — where he had been interned.
He said: “Alex Maskey and me and another republican from west Belfast called Geordie Burt hatched a plan to go over the wire fence. “The next thing a guard dog came running down with soldiers. The dog was barking and they grabbed Alex and Geordie, but they never saw me.
“I waited until they had all gone and then I climbed over the fence to freedom. “I made my way up onto the M1 motorway, but I was as green as a leprechaun with crawling through the grass. “I thumbed a lift and the driver who stopped was a UDR man in a van.
I thought I was caught. He said he was going to Girdwood Barrack in north Belfast. “He saw the state of me, but he still gave me a lift to Shaftsbury Square in south Belfast.
From there I made my way down to a republican club in the Market area. “I walked into the bar and although I could hardly speak, I managed to tell the woman behind the bar that I had just escaped from Long Kesh. “She gave me a pint and the next thing the place was full of IRA with guns who wanted to know who I was,” said Kelly.
“Thank God one of them recognised me and I was taken to safety across the border.” Kelly’s IRA career was interspersed with several stints behind bars. Although he was never actually sworn into the IRA, he notched up 12 years as an IRA prisoner.
“To tell you the truth, I quite enjoyed prison. You were given three meals a day and the craic was good,” he says. Today ‘Blue’ Kelly lives alone in a small flat in north Belfast.
He survives on benefits and his old-age pension. It’s all light years away from the opulence he witnessed in Colonel Gaddafi’s luxury Bedouin tent. Kelly spends his evenings reading and he recently finished two books by Scottish comedy king Billy Connolly.
He is also a life-long Celtic fan . But the one-time IRA leader says he feels sorry for former republican comrades who have difficulty coming to terms with the IRA climbdown. “Personally, at 75, I’m doing OK.
I’m comfortable enough. But a lot of my old IRA friends find it a struggle and you ask yourself, what was it all for?” said Kelly. “Especially when a lot of people ended up with big houses and cars.
”.
