S-Plan

The S-Plan or Sabotage Campaign or England Campaign was a campaign of bombing and sabotage against the civil, economic, and military infrastructure of Britain from 1939 to 1940. The campaign was conducted by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It was conceived by Seamus O'Donovan in 1938 at the request of then IRA Chief of Staff Seán Russell. Seán Russell and Joseph McGarrity are thought to have decided on launching a strategy of IRA attacks on Britain in 1936.

Immediate context

Following a power struggle within the IRA during the mid 1930s, Seán Russell was reinstated to the IRA in April 1938 and elected to the IRA Army Council in absentia. At a subsequent IRA General Army Convention, Russell and his supporters secured enough support to get a controlling majority vote within the IRA Army Council. It was at this time that Russell began the process of preparing for a campaign of attacks on British soil - a strategy he had decided upon from the mid-1930s onwards.

Seamus (Jim) O’Donovan had been asked by Seán Russell directly after his election to IRAdrgh Chief of Staff in 1938 to formulate his ideas on the possibilities of successful acts of sabotage on British soil. O’Donovan was the former Director of Chemicals of the "old IRA" and an acknowledged expert in the use of explosive material. He had not been active in politics since retiring from public life in 1923. Russell's request followed directly from him taking on the role of IRA Chief of Staff of the "new IRA" army council. The notes which O'Donovan created for Russell became the S-Plan or Sabotage Plan. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 37, Macdonald & Co. 1963]

On 17 December 1938, the "Wolfe Tone Weekly" newspaper published a statement issued by a group signing itself the "Executive Council of Dáil Éireann, Government of the Republic". This group perceived itself to be the legitimate government of the 32-County Irish Republic and refused to recognise the legitimacy of partition. In the statement, seven Second Dáil TDs declared that they had delegated what they believed to be their governmental "authority" to the IRA Army Council. [ [http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0074/D.0074.193903020012.html Dáil Éireann - Volume 74 - 02 March, 1939, Offences Against the State Bill, 1939—Second Stage] ]

This announcement, coming immediately prior to the S-Plan attacks, [The decision had already been taken to proceed with the S-Plan, before this announcement. Russell wanted the recommendation of the 2nd Dáil group because he knew their public support would lend his plans more credibility amongst IRA volunteers. He approached them just after returning from an inspection tour of units in Britain. Bowyer Bell, J. for details- page 152-154.] sought to present the actions of the IRA as those of a legitimate, de jure government. Within this context, with the IRA Army Council acting as government, with the right to use force and levy war against an occupying power, the IRA declared war on Britain in January 1939.

S-Plan details and preparation

The S-Plan contained many precise instructions for acts of destruction which had as their object the paralysis of all official activity in England and the greatest possible destruction of British defence installations.

It divided the IRA campaign into two main lines: propaganda and offensive (military) action. The document listed six different types of offensive action;

# Military action that was classified as not very promising
# The destruction of armanent factories to such extent as their strict security measures permitted
# The disruption of all civil/public utilities such as transport undertakings, gasworks, etc.
# Attacks that were planned against specific industrial plants
# Attacks that were planned against a large number of commercial premises
# Attacks against large newspaper organisations

Operations were strictly concentrated on the island of Britain, in and around centers of population where IRA volunteers could operate freely without drawing attention. No attacks on targets in Northern Ireland or other areas under British control were planned as part of the S-Plan.

Military preparations for the campaign included a series of attacks on British customs houses in Northern Ireland. On November 28 and 29, 1938, British customs posts along the border were demolished using explosives. The only fatalities were three IRA volunteers:
*Jimmy Joe Reynolds from Leitrim,
*John James Kelly from Donegal, and
*Charlie McCafferty from Tyrone.

They were killed by the premature explosion of a mine at a house in Castlefin, County Donegal on 28 November 1938. [See Bowyer, Bell J., "The Secret Army - the IRA" page 153, for details of the incident and other border activity in period.]

Russell is said to have distributed O'Donovan's notes virtually unedited to IRA battlegroups as an operational instruction from the Army Council. O'Donovan appears, at the time of writing the S-Plan, to have been oblivious to the decision to begin a campaign of attacks on British soil in 1939. However, because of his level of expertise, he was later involved in a new round of explosives training for IRA volunteers in Dublin from 1938 to 1939.

Sources of funding for the campaign are not known, but once the campaign was operating, the weekly expenses for operations in the field amounted to approximately £700 per week. Operational units were expected to raise any money needed themselves and the men who acted within IRA teams were unpaid and expected to support themselves while on missions.

The make up of these teams is thought to have been different from the cell structure employed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in their campaign against Britain in the 1970s. It is known from arrests made during the campaign that the IRA utilised material dumps in Britain built up in 1938, as well as devices improvised while on active duty in Britain. IRA volunteers arriving from Ireland were also intercepted by British authorities transporting war material for use in the campaign.

The strength of the IRA and Cumann Na mBan at this time was said to be estimated between 5,000 and 30,000 men and women at varying stages of training and ability. Training of volunteers was organized prior to the beginning of the campaign but the volunteers sent to Britain also contained new raw recruits such as Brendan Behan. However, IRA officials who went to Britain to assess the movement's strength there in spring 1938 reported that:

"In general it can be said that the state of the organisation in units which exist is poor and loose, and militarily should be described as almost elementary." [Smith, M.L.R: "Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish Republican movement", page 63 Taylor & Francis Inc. 1997 ISBN 0-415-16334-X]

Seán Russell left to pursue the propaganda phase of the S-plan in the United States in March 1939, after the S-Plan military phase began in January 1939. On leaving he appointed Stephen Hayes as Acting Chief of Staff of the IRA. Russell was not to return to Ireland and died from an untreated gastric ulcer in 1940.

Declaration of War on Britain

On 12 January 1939, the Army Council sent an ultimatum, signed by Patrick Fleming, to British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax. The communiqué duly informed the British government of "The Government of the Irish Republic's" intention to go to "war". Excerpt from the ultimatum:

I have the honour to inform you that the Government of the Irish Republic, having as its first duty towards its people the establishment and maintenance of peace and order here, demand the withdrawal of all British armed forces stationed in Ireland. The occupation of our territory by troops of another nation and the persistent subvention here of activities directly against the expressed national will and in the interests of a foreign power, prevent the expansion and development of our institution in consonance with our social needs and purposes, and must cease.

The Government of the Irish Republic believe that a period of four days is sufficient notice for your Government to signify its intentions in the matter of the military evacuation and for the issue of your Declaration of Abdication in respect of our country. Our Government reserves the right of appropriate action without further notice if upon the expiration of this period of grace, these conditions remain unfulfilled.:Oglaigh na h-Éireann (Irish Republican Army). :General Headquarters, Dublin, January 12th,1939, to His Excellency the Rt. Hon. Viscount Halifax, C.G.B. [Bowyer Bell J. P.166]

Chronology of the S-Plan/sabotage campaign

On Sunday, 15 January, with no reply from the British Government, a proclamation was posted in public places throughout Ireland announcing the IRA's declaration of war on Britain. This proclamation was written by Joseph McGarrity, leader of Clan na Gael in the United States, and was signed by six members of the Army Council: Stephen Hayes, Patrick Fleming, Peadar O'Flaherty, George Plunkett, Larry Grogan and Seán Russell. The seventh Army Council member, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, refused to sign as he believed the IRA was not ready to begin the campaign.

This proclamation also called upon Irishmen both at home and, "in Exile," to give their utmost support to compel the withdrawal of the British from the island of Ireland so that a free Irish Republic could be established. As the campaign began in Britain the same proclamation appeared posted around Irish communities in British cities. The proclamation referenced back to the 17 December 1938 statement by the group naming itself the "Executive Council of Dáil Éireann, Government of the Republic" and read:

"On the twenty-third day of April in the year 1916 in the City of Dublin, seven men, who were representative in spirit and outlook and purpose of the Irish Nation that had never yielded to nor accepted the British conquest, set their humble and almost unknown names to the foregoing document that has passed into history, making the names of the seven signatories immortal. These signatures were sealed with the blood of the immortal seven, and of many others who followed them into one of the most gallant fights in the history of the world; and the Irish Nation rose from shame to honour, from humiliation to pride, from slavery to freedom...."

"Unfortunately, because men were foolish enough to treat with an armed enemy within their gates, the English won the peace. Weakness and treachery caused a resumption of the war and the old English tactics of `divide and conquer' were exploited to the fullest extent. Partition was introduced, the country divided into two parts with two separate Parliaments subject to and controlled by the British Government. The armed forces of England still occupy six of our counties in the North and reserve the right `in time of war or strained relations' to reoccupy the ports which they have just evacuated in the southern part of Ireland. Ireland is still tied, as she has been for centuries past, to take part in England's wars. In the Six Counties, a large number of Republican soldiers are held prisoners by England. Further weakness on the part of some of our people, broken faith and make-believe, have postponed the enthronement of the living Republic, but the proclamation of Easter Week and the declaration of independence stand and must stand for ever. No man, no matter how far he has fallen away from his national faith, has dared to repudiate them. They constitute the rallying centre for the unbought manhood of Ireland in the fight that must be made to make them effective and to redeem the nation's self-respect that was abandoned by a section of our people in 1923."

"The time has come to make that fight. There is no need to redeclare the Republic of Ireland, now or in the future. There is no need to reaffirm the declaration of Irish independence. But the hour has come for the supreme effort to make both effective. So in the name of the unconquered dead and the faithful living, we pledge ourselves to that task. We call upon England to withdraw her armed forces, her civilian officials and institutions, and representatives of all kinds from every part of Ireland as an essential preliminary to arrangements for peace and friendship between the two countries; and we call upon the people of all Ireland, at home and in exile, to assist us in the effort we, are about to make, in God's name, to compel that evacuation and to enthrone the Republic of Ireland." [ [http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0074/D.0074.193903020012.html Dáil Éireann - Volume 74 - 02 March, 1939, Offences Against the State Bill, 1939—Second Stage] & Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 15 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

Events January 1939 - May 1939

*January 16 - S-Plan goes into effectThe first explosion occurred outside the control room of a large power station in London which supplied the whole of south-east England with electricity. It created a large crater in the forecourt of the building. There were no casualties and the control station was reportedly undamaged. A second explosion occurred in London that day, with an overhead cable running from Grand Union Canal to Willesden Power Station being badly damaged. There were also bombs in Birmingham and Alnwick- making a total of 5 that day. The results were panic, destruction of power infrastructure, and damage to business premises. "The Times" reported, (on 18 January), that an attack had been made on the main extra high trunk feeders from Hams Hall Power Station and 2 of the principal water mains supplying the station.

*January 17 - Further bombs were detonated The British Government sought to improve security of infrastructure in England. All power stations, gas works, telephone exchanges, and the wireless transmitter at Droitwich were put under police protection. Police patrols around the government buildings at Whitehall were strongly reinforced and all ships from Ireland arriving at Holyhead, Fishguard, and Liverpool were closely inspected. An attempt was made to explode an electricity pylon stretching across the Manchester Ship Canal at Barton. A faulty timer meant the bag of dynamite and gelignite failed to explode. Explosions at Hams Hall Power Station, the main source of Birmingham's electricity supply and a crucial link in the Midlands Grid System also occurred. A pylon carrying cable across the Great Barr had also been targetted, but remained standing on one strut. Damage to the Williams Deacons Bank in London was caused when a device exploded, blowing up the pavement and causing damage to gas mains.

*January 18 - "The Times" reported a total of nine explosions designed to "cripple electricity services" since the 16th January. 14 arrests were made in connection with the attacks. 7 in Manchester and 7 in London. Each of the men was charged under Section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act 1883. 8 barrels of potassium chlorate each containing 1cwt, 1 large quantity of powdered charcoal, and 40 sticks of gelignite were uncovered.

*January 19 - a small explosive charge in a tobacco tin exploded in the yard of Hawneys Hotel, Tralee, SouthWest Ireland, where Francis Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister's only son, had been staying during a shooting holiday.

*January 20 - Seán Russell had a notice printed in the Dublin newspapers in which he dissociated himself from the Hawneys Hotel attack the previous day. "IRA Headquarters had no knowledge of this attack, nor would it order or countenance such an action." This unsanctioned action is assumed to have been carried by a local non S-Plan-involved IRA unit. An unexploded package of gelignite and a stopped alarm clock timer were found attached to an electricity pylon in Lancashire. More arrests were made, with 1 London man charged with possession of 2 tons of potassium chlorate and 1 ton of iron oxide between October 1st and November 5th 1938.

*January 22 - Arrest made in Vauxhall in connection with the Southwark explosion.

*January 23 - Two women arrested in Manchester on possession of explosives. Items seized included one barrel of potassium chlorate, two Mills Bombs, 49 sticks of gelignite, and 10 electric detonators. Sir Dawson Bates, Bt., then Northern Ireland minister of Home Affairs, revealed the existence of an "execution list of NI officials" (that had been seized in Belfast) to the British press.

*February 4 - two bombs exploded in London's Underground- Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square stations. They were timed suitcase bombs stored in the left-luggage rooms overnight. There were no fatalities, although two people were seriously injured and severe damage was done to the facilities. This attack generated a good deal of panic and alarm amongst the British population. Questions were asked in the British Houses of Parliament about the IRA's January 12 ultimatum to the British government. The ultimatum had previously been publicized in the British newspapers following the 17 January attack. Sir Samuel Hoare, then British Home Secretary, informed the House of Commons that the police had already arrested 33 people in connection with the attacks up to that point and that the security authorities were doing everything within their power to find the perpetrators. An unsuccessful attempt was made to blow up one wall of Walton Gaol, Liverpool, but the wall was not penetrated. In London, fires broke out within half an hour of each other in shops in one of the suburbs. The British police established that in each case the fire was due to a chemical mixture which ignited when exposed to the air. Plans to blow up Buckingham Palace were reported by "The Times" to have been found in Belfast. As a result, night and day guards were placed around the grounds of Royal Lodge, and Windsor Great Park. All visitors to the state apartments at Windsor Castle and St. George's Chapel were also reported to have been stopped and searched before being allowed entry.

*February 5 - fires in four department stores in Coventry began and were attributed to incendiary devices, balloon bombs being suspected. The stores affected were Marks & Spencer, Owen & Owen Ltd., the packing department of Montague Burton Ltd., and Woolworths. Guns were issued to members of Bristol police after the discovery of a note in a petrol storage depot reading "BEWARE. These tanks are the next to be blown up." Watches were put on Avonmouth Docks, and Bristol Airport. Arrests were made and seven hand-grenades, gelignite, ammunition, and the S-Plan itself were seized. The S-Plan is thought to have been found on a detained IRA volunteer. Threats were received that the following buildings would be blown up: Bow Street Police in London, and the offices of the South Wales Echo. A man claiming to be the "Chief of Staff of the IRA in Cardiff" demanded the release of men held there.

*February 7 - in the streets of Londonderry/Derry IRA supporters burnt thousands of leaflets calling for, "voluntary national service," within the framework of the British defence plan.

*February 8 - Two Bills giving the Government of Éire, (the territory formerly known as the Irish Free State), extraordinary powers were introduced in the Dáil. The first of these, called the Treason Act, imposed the death penalty for persons guilty of treason as defined in Article XXXIX of the Irish Constitution. This penalty was to apply whether the act was committed within or outside the boundaries of the State. Its aim was curtailing IRA activity both within the borders of Éire and in Britain. The second measure, called the Offences against the State Act, made it possible for citizens to be interned without trial, and conferred elaborate powers of search, arrest, and detention upon the Civic Guards. It declared seditious any suggestion in a newspaper or magazine that the elected Government of Ireland was not the lawful government.

The IRA had been declared an illegal organization under the Declaration of Unlawful Organization Order passed June 18, 1936 but the Irish Free State Government had only used this power on a few IRA volunteers. De Valera spoke about the IRA and S-Plan in the Dáil for two hours. Saying the IRA had no right to assume the title "Irish Republican Government," and that the then Irish Minister for Justice, PJ. Ruttledge, planned to bring "energetic measures" before the house to combat the IRA.

*February 9 - "The Times" continued in its efforts to calm British public opinion when it printed;

"The signatories of the ridiculous ultimatum to Great Britain are men of no account. Nobody in this country would have taken them seriously, but for the recent outrages in Great Britain. As a political force in Éire, the IRA simply does not count."

*February 9 - Two bombs exploded at Kings Cross LNER coal bays. Bomb threats were made to the National History Museum in London.

*February 13 - An incendiary balloon device was set fire to the GWR steam ship St. David.

*March 2 - attacks made on the aqueduct for the Grand Union Canal spanning the North Circular Road near Stonebridge Park, London and on the Birmingham Navigation Canal by Ball’s Hill-Bridge, Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Both devices only damaged the concrete walls of the beds of the canals. It has been speculated that, had the dynamite been placed 18 inches lower, they would have caused considerable flooding over the lower-lying adjoining fields. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 15 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*March 3 - A railway man, Henry George West, succeeded in preventing a bomb attack on a railway bridge at Willesden during the night.

*March 23 - Five bombs exploded in London. Occurring at different times of the day, the bombs were all in the vicinity of the large wholesale food markets. The other main targets were the telephone and gas installations. The advertisement department of the News Chronicle in Fleet Street was also the target of a bomb. Bomb attacks were also made in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Coventry on the same day.

*March 29 - Two explosions on Hammersmith Bridge, London.

*March 30 - Bombs exploded in Birmingham, Liverpool, Coventry.

*March 31 - Seven more explosions around London.

*April 5 - Two explosions in Liverpool attacking the railway station and council buildings, one in Coventry.

*April 10 - At a Republican demonstration at the Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin during a memorial service for the Easter Rising of 1916, a communiqué from the IRA Army council was read out which announced that the "operation groups" of the IRA in Britain carried out their tasks in accordance with orders without causing casualties, the avoidance of which had been expressly ordered. The communiqué also stated that the order to avoid casualties could be countermanded if Britain had recourse to extreme measures. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 39 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*April 12 - Threat made to blow up Catford Bridge, Lewisham.

*April 13 - a total of 11 bombs in London and Birmingham. These had the appearance of being no more than trial explosions as all the bombs exploded in public lavatories. According to the announcement by public officials in Britain, these bombs contained new chemical mixtures which were mainly composed of carbide.

*May 4 - Appearance in court of men & women charged under Explosive Substances Act 1883 in a Birmingham courtroom. They were charged with belonging to an IRA team working from the "the headquarters in the Midlands for manufacturing incendiary and explosive bombs."

*May 5 - Tear gas bombs exploded in two Liverpool cinemas, causing 15 injuries. Later that day, four detonations occurred in Coventry and two in London.

*May 16 - Arrests made and seizure of 8lbs of potassium chlorate, two powder fuses, 12 26 and a half sticks of gelignite, two sticks of saxonite, fuses, a revolver and ammunition, 29 balloons, and street maps of Manchester, Salford, and Liverpool. An unexploded bomb, found abandoned on a bus, was identified with this material when the arrests were made.

*May 18 - Two men sentenced to 10 and 15 years penal servitude respectively for possession of 10 bundles of gelignite, a 5 pound pack of gelignite, 103 detonators, and 4 balloons.

*May 19 - Eight timed incendiary bombs, caused fires to break out in eight British hotels. Eight arrests made in Birmingham in connection with an explosion at a house in Manchester.

*May 29 - Four magnesium charges exploded in the Paramount Cinema, Birmingham.

*May 30 - IRA "General Call to Arms" sounded, with hundreds of IRA members running from house to house collecting gas masks and burning around 1000 in heaps in 15 streets. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 41 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*May 30 - Cinema audiences in Liverpool and Birmingham were thrown into a panic when magnesium and tear gas bombs exploded during the evening show. 25 people had to be taken to hospital but no material damage was done. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 41 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*May 31 - Seanad Éireann, the Irish Senate approved the Offences against the State Act and it was put into effect, after having been signed by President Douglas Hyde. [ [http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461501308/1939_Ireland_(Eire).html Encarta Entry] ]

Events June 1939 - December 1939

*June 7 - Seán Russell was arrested at the request of Scotland Yard, London. He was detained in Detroit, USA whilst conducting a speaking tour- part of the propaganda arm of the S-plan.

*June 10 - Bombs exploded in 30 post offices and pillar boxes. 17 explosions had occurred in a space of only 2 hours in London, with others in Birmingham and Manchester.

*June 24 - several bomb explosions in London following or preceding a demonstration in London (under police protection) in honour of Wolfe Tone. The banners the marchers carried demanded the release of IRA members who had been arrested by the British police. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 42 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*May 31 - cinemas in London attacked with incendiaries, causing the police to search every single London cinema for devices.

*June 9 - Attacks shifted to post offices, as letter bombs exploded in 20 postboxes, one went off in a London sorting office and also in a Birmingham mail lorry. Every postbox in London was searched for further IRA devices.

*June 24 - London branches of the Midland Bank, Westminster Bank and Lloyds Bank were targeted with a series of massive explosions. London police carried out mass arrests; interrogations of the Irish community in Britain with the majority being released soon after.

Sir Samuel Hoare, introduced the Prevention of Violence Act Bill (Temporary Provisions). The bill provided comprehensive powers for the British government to prevent the immigration of foreigners, for their deportation, and for extending to the Irish the requirement to register with the British police.

Hoare referred to the S-Plan of the IRA when presenting the bill to the British parliament. He also stated that a total of 127 terrorist outrages had been perpetrated since January 1939. 57 in London and 70 in the provinces. In the course of these one person had been killed and 55 seriously or less seriously injured. 66 persons had been convicted of terrorist activity. In all, Hoare repeated that the British police had seized;

*55 sticks of gelignite
*1000 detonators
*2 tons of potassium chlorate & oxide of iron
*7 gallons of sulphuric acid and
*400 weight of aluminum powder

He explained that up to the present the perpetrators of these attacks had restricted themselves to damaging British property, however recently the government had been notified that the campaign was about to intensify with no regard being paid to human life. He added that the IRA campaign "was being closely watched and actively stimulated by foreign organisations" (a reference to German Intelligence). Hoare went on to claim that Irish terrorists had come within an inch of blowing up Hammersmith Bridge, Southwark Power Station, and an aqueduct in North London. They had collected detailed information about important bridges, railway lines, munition dumps, war factories and airfields and even engaged in a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament. [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 43 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*July 3 - suitcase bomb in left-luggage area explodes in LMS railway station, London Road, Birmingham. Extensive damage caused to station concourse. [Beazley, Ben: "Wartime Leicester", page 13 2004 Sutton Publishing ISBN 0-7509-3671-1]

*July 26 - Two bombs placed in baggage stored in the left-luggage offices of LMS Kings Cross and Southern Railway Victoria Station explode. In the Kings Cross attack, one fatality occurs: a man severely wounded later died in hospital. Two counter attendants were also seriously wounded. A great deal of damage was done to the stations in the attacks. In the Victoria Station attack five were severely wounded with a similar amount of damage to the station. Following this attack the draft Prevention of Violence legislation in the British parliament was speeded up. The bill received its 2nd and 3rd reading in the House of Lords on the 28th July. The bill was disposed of in five minutes on its second reading and the 3rd reading was waived.

*July 27 - Three explosions in Liverpool. The first bomb in a suburb blew up a swing bridge spanning the canal. The wreckage of the bridge fell into the canal, with the result that all barge traffic was halted. The second bomb completely wrecked the front and large sections of the inside of a post office in the centre of Liverpool. The third bomb went off in a park. No injuries were reported.

*August 3 - the IRA announced that it would continue its campaign against Britain for another two-and-a-half years. From August onwards, deportations of Irish from Britain increased under the Prevention of Violence Act 1939 (Temporary Provisions). [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 44 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*August 25 - Explosion of a bomb in Broadgate, Coventry. The bomb was in the carrier basket of a bicycle that was leaning against the kerb outside Astley's store in the busy shopping district. Five people were killed and over 50 wounded. There was widespread revulsion at the attack in Britain and Ireland.

*August 29 - wires of a dozen telephone kiosks cut, assumed to be IRA activity.

*October - Russell made a speech which has been interpreted as attempting to shore up flagging belief IRA members had in the effectiveness the S-Plan was having:

"England's difficulty- Ireland's opportunity has ever been the watchword of the Gael.. Now is the time for Irishmen to take up arms and strike a blow for the Ulster people." [Smith, M.L.R: "Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish Republican movement", page 64 1997]

*December 11 - Trial opens in Birmingham of three men and two women indicted for murder as a result of the bombing of Coventry on 25th August 1939. The accused were
*29-year-old labourer Joseph Hewitt,
*29-year-old labourer James Richards,
*22-year-old Mary Hewitt,
*49-year-old Brigid O’Hara and
*32-year-old clerk Peter Barnes.

The Hewitts were a married couple and Bridgid O’Hara was Mrs. Hewitt’s mother. All pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering 21-year-old Elsie Ansell, (the prosecution had limited the charge to one victim). Three days later, the verdict of guilty was returned. James Richards and Peter Barnes were sentenced to death by hanging. This sentencing triggered off a whole series of IRA attacks on British post offices, pillar boxes and mail trains.

Events in 1940

*January 3 - Emergency Powers Act passed in Éire.

*February 5 - All over Ireland there were demonstrations and resolutions of protest against the executions of the bombers. "The New York Times" analyzed Irish public opinion so:

"opinion here is either that 2 innocent men will hang, or that it is the partition of Ireland by the British who forced these young Irishmen to perpetrate such outrages. Anglo-Irish relations could markedly deteriorate through the hanging of these men."

:De Valera appealed for a reprieve.

*February 6 - Three explosions occurred in mailbags. Two happened in Euston Station, London. One in the G.P.O. Hill Street, Birmingham. This attack was regarded by "The Times" as a reprisal for the failure to reprieve Barnes & Richards.

*February 7 - both Barnes and Richards are hanged in Birmingham.

Lot of protests followed this. Simon Donnelly, former IRA leader, made a speech in Dublin in which he proclaimed to the crowds jubilation:

"We know very well what outcome we want to this war. We want the enemy, who has kept our people in bondage for 700 years and who continues to pour insults on us, to be pitilessly vanquished. Until such time as the Irish Republic is established, Ireland's youth will continue to sacrifice itself. If the government does not bring foreign overlordship to an end, others must be entrusted with the task." [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 77 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

*February 14 - 5 bombs explode in Birmingham.

*February 23 1940 - "The Times" reports that since being enacted, the Temporary Provisions legislation has led to the expulsion of 119 people from Britain. Two explosions occurred in the West End, London. The devices had been placed in refuse bins. 13 people were injured.

Involvement of German Abwehr

It is unlikely that the German Intelligence Abwehr I & II had any input into the formation of the S-plan. However, interest in the S-Plan did become a feature of subsequent IRA/Abwehr contact following the British declaration of war on Germany in 1939. According to a 1939 discussion between Jim O’Donovan and Abwehr Director, "Dr. Pfalzgraf", (Captain Friedrich Carl Marwede Director of Office I West in Abwehr II, Berlin), the point of the S-plan was, "a final fight with England, whereby it was hoped to force the British to negotiations on the question of re-unification." [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 81 Macdonald & Co. 1963]

There is solid evidence from the Abwehr war diaries that methods employed by IRA units carrying out the S-Plan generated only annoyance and frustration in Germany. Attacks against mostly civilian targets while causing panic and loss of confidence in the authorities, were not perceived as helpful to damaging British capability for waging war.

Evidence of German Intelligence's frustration can also be seen in the message from Abwehr II’s Director which was hand delivered to Seamus O'Donovan on 9th February 1940 by Abwehr agent Ernst Weber-Drohl. [Hull, Mark M., "Irish Secrets: German Espionage in Wartime Ireland 1939–1945", Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2003, pp. 72–73.] :

"The Pfalzgraf Section very urgently requests its Irish friends and IRA members to be so good as to make considerably better efforts to carry out the S-plan, which they received some time last summer, and to be more effectual against military as opposed to civilian objectives." [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 81. Macdonald & Co. 1963]

By the time of Russell's journey back to Ireland in August 1940, German Intelligence chief Wilhelm Canaris appears to have lost faith in attempts to infiltrate into England via Ireland.

There is no evidence that IRA teams during the period were involved in co-ordinating or guiding Luftwaffe planes to, or within, the airspace of Britain, Northern Ireland, or the Éire. This was not a feature of IRA/Abwehr contact, during the period.

Significance of the S-Plan

The five deaths during the Coventry bombing on August 25th effectively ended the campaign. By late 1940, the introduction of the Treason Act 1939, Offences Against the State Act in Éire, and the Prevention of Violence (Temporary Provisions) Act in Britain had seen many IRA members interned in Éire, arrested in Britain, or deported from Britain. The granting of extra powers to the Irish Justice Minister under the Emergency Powers Act in January 1940 lead to 600 IRA volunteers being imprisoned and 500 interned during the course of World War II alone.

Increases in the security surrounding rich infrastructure targets in Britain also had a major effect on IRA team's ability to conduct operations. The seizure of war material and inability to get newly-acquired war material into Britain under wartime restrictions meant increased improvisation which in turn lead to increased exposure to discovery. It is also clear that the campaign generated a good deal of anti-Irish sentiment which increased the British public's suspicion of Irishmen/women in general. All these factors led to attacks tapering off around early to mid-1940. The death of Seán Russell on August 14th 1940, (he had already been effectively incommunicado since April 1939), and the succession of Stephen Hayes as IRA Chief of Staff also contributed to the petering out of the attacks.

At the time, the author of the S-Plan, Seamus O'Donovan noted his views on the S-Plan campaign in his diary entry for 23 August 1939 as:

"hastily conceived, scheduled to a premature start, with ill-equipped and inadequately-trained personnel, too few men and too little money....

..unable to sustain the vital spark of what must be confessed to have fizzled out like a damp and inglorious squib" [Hall, Mark M.: "Irish Secrets", page 307. Irish Academic Press. 2003]

Reflecting in the 1960s, O’Donovan, assessed the results of the campaign even more critically:

"It brought nothing but harm to Ireland and the IRA." [Stephan, Enno: "Spies in Ireland", page 38. Macdonald & Co. 1963]

M.L.R Smith writing in "Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish Republican movement", has argued that the S-Plan campaign:

"..can be seen not as a serious attempt to advance the nationalist cause, but as a sign of the movement reverting to type, as a vehicle for preserving the doctrinal purity of the republican vision. The bombing campaign underscored that a 'militarist caste' was exactly what the IRA had become." [Smith, M.L.R: "Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish Republican movement", page 66 1997]

The main outcome of the campaign was the Prevention of Violence Act in Britain which remained in force until 1954. Allowed to expire in 1953 and repealed in 1973, it was reintroduced in 1974 as the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act to combat the successor to the S-Plan- Provisional IRA attacks on British soil.

The final figures resulting from the S-Plan are cited as 300 explosions, seven deaths and 96 injuries. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1432240,00.html] "The Times" - published 9 January 2005] ]

Notes

ources and further information

* Mark M. Hull, "Irish Secrets. German Espionage in Wartime Ireland 1939-1945" 2004. ISBN 071652807X
* Enno Stephan, "Spies in Ireland" 1963. ISBN 1-131-82692-2 (reprint)
* Carolle J. Carter, "The Shamrock and the Swastika" 1977. ISBN 0-87015-221-1
* M.L.R smith, "Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish Republican movement" 1997. ISBN 0-415-16334-X
* J. Bowyer Bell, "The Secret Army - the IRA" 1997 3rd ed. ISBN 1-85371-813-0

* [http://wjcash.org/WJCash7/Charlotte.News.Articles/6-7-39.htm Seán Russell arrest]
* [http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/taubmancenter/pdfs/working_papers/donohue_00_civillib.pdf Prevention of Violence Bill and Prevention of Terrorism Act 1974]
* [http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/zza10y1939.1.html Treason Act 1939]
* [http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/zza13y1939.1.html Offenses Against The State Act 1939]

ee also

* Christmas Raid
* IRA Abwehr World War II - Main article on IRA Nazi links
* Northern Campaign (IRA)