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The Larne gun-running was a major gun smuggling operation organised in April 1914 in Ireland by Major
Frederick H. Crawford Colonel Frederick Hugh Crawford, CBE, JP (21 August 1861 – 5 November 1952) was an officer in the British Army. A staunch Ulster loyalist, Crawford is most notable for organising the Larne gun-running which secured guns and ammunition for ...
and Captain Wilfrid Spender for the Ulster Unionist Council to equip the Ulster Volunteer Force. The operation involved the smuggling of almost 25,000 rifles and between 3 and 5 million rounds of ammunition from the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
, with the shipments landing in Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor in the early hours between Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 1914. The Larne gun-running may have been the first time in history that motor-vehicles were used "on a large scale for a military-purpose, and with striking success".


Background

In November 1910 the Ulster Unionist Council formed a secret committee to oversee the creation of a force in Ulster to fight against the imposition of Home Rule, which was proposed to give Ireland self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Council approached Major
Frederick H. Crawford Colonel Frederick Hugh Crawford, CBE, JP (21 August 1861 – 5 November 1952) was an officer in the British Army. A staunch Ulster loyalist, Crawford is most notable for organising the Larne gun-running which secured guns and ammunition for ...
to act as its agent to purchase the guns needed to equip such an organisation. Crawford wrote to five arms manufacturers, including the Austrian
Steyr Steyr (; Central Bavarian: ''Steia'') is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd l ...
and the German Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, seeking quotations for the purchase of 20,000 rifles and one million rounds of ammunition. In January 1913, the Ulster Unionist Council instituted the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), consisting of men who had signed the Ulster Covenant. They wanted to co-ordinate the
paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
activities of Ulster’s unionists, as well as to give military backing to the threats of the Ulster Covenant to resist implementation of the Third Home Rule Bill, which had been introduced on 11 April 1912 by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. These threats had been regarded as a "gigantic game of bluff and blackmail" by Irish nationalist leader
John Redmond John Edward Redmond (1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918) was an Irish nationalism, Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was best known as lead ...
as well as most Liberal MPs, including
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
. UVF membership grew to around 90,000 members, led by retired officers of the British Army, with the organisation under the charge of Lieutenant-General
Sir George Richardson Lieutenant General Sir George Lloyd Reilly Richardson (20 September 1847 – 9 April 1931) was an officer in the British Indian Army from 1866 to 1909. He served across South East Asia, becoming a veteran of the Second Anglo-Afghan War and Boxe ...
KCB, a veteran of the Afghan Wars. By 1913 the UVF had over £1 million pledged to it, and £70,000 invested in attempts to import arms. Throughout 1913 Major Crawford, with the use of aliases and disguises, had attempted to smuggle in arms bought in Great Britain and Imperial Germany, but vigilant customs officials had seized the goods at the docks. In one instance, patrol boats thwarted a gun-running attempt to Carrigart in northern County Donegal carried out by Lord Leitrim. Lord Leitrim had been carrying out a weekly small-scale gun-smuggling operation since February 1913, run by his chauffeur. In early June 1913, around seven thousand rifles being stored by Crawford in a disused inn in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...
were seized by police. The inn was being rented out to Crawford by a brother-in-law of staunch Unionist Sir William Bull, 1st Baronet. One week later, with the intention of forcing the government to accept that there was a real risk of armed resistance to Home Rule in Ulster., Crawford openly transported weapons to Belfast from several locations across England. These were intercepted by customs officials, Major Crawford convinced the Ulster Unionist Council that he could provide the weapons and ammunition needed "to equip the entire UVF". In February 1914, when Crawford spoke with Edward Carson in London, Carson said "I'll see you through this business even if I should go to prison for it. You are the bravest man I have ever met."


Preparations and transport

Crawford secured the services of the ''SS Fanny'' to transport 216 tons of guns and ammunition which he had purchased from Benny Spiro, an arms dealer in Hamburg. Included in this cache was; 11,000 Mannlicher rifles brought from the Steyr works in Austria; 9,000 Gewehr 1888s; 4,600 Italian Vetterli-Vitali rifles; and 5 million rounds of ammunition in clips of five — much of which was transported from Hamburg via the Kiel Canal. On 30 March 1914, these weapons were being loaded onto the ''SS Fanny'' on the Baltic island of Langeland when Danish customs officials seized the papers of the ship. The customs officials suspected that the cargo might contain weapons to arm militant Icelandic home rulers who sought independence from Denmark. The ''SS Fanny'' managed to escape into a gale and sailed outside Danish territorial waters. In covering the incident on 1 April, '' The Times'' newspaper predicted that the guns were destined for Ulster rather than Iceland. In a bid to evade the authorities as the ''SS Fanny'' neared Ireland, Major Crawford purchased the '' SS Clyde Valley'' in Glasgow. On 19–20 April off Tuskar Rock,
County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...
, the entire cache of weapons was transferred from the ''SS Fanny'' onto the ''SS Clyde Valley''. On 24 April, the ''SS Clyde Valley'' was renamed the ''"Mountjoy II"'', with the use of strips of canvas painted with white letters on a black background. This referred to the ''Mountjoy'' that broke the boom across the
River Foyle The River Foyle () is a river in west Ulster in the northwest of the island of Ireland, which flows from the confluence of the rivers Finn and Mourne at the towns of Lifford in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, and Strabane in County Ty ...
during the Siege of Derry in 1689, providing historic symbolism for unionists. In Ulster, the UVF were given instructions for a full test-mobilisation. The UVF Motor Corps was summoned by the County Antrim commander, General Sir William Adair, and instructed as follows: This was all part of a "meticulous" and "elaborate" plan to ensure that the operation succeeded; only 12 people knew the full details and reason for the mobilisation of the UVF members. This was officially only a "test mobilisation". Captain F. Hall, the military secretary to the UVF recorded details of these plans in a memorandum. These included tapping of the private telephone line connecting Hollywood Barracks to Exchange, as well as the short-circuiting of phone and telegraph wires into Larne after the last train, and the "shorting" of the main rail lines. On the date of the landings, UVF members manned pickets and patrols along the length of the coast road between Belfast and Larne, as well as the roads leading to the towns of Ballyclare,
Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...
, and Glenarm amongst others. The men at these pickets were to give directions to any who needed them and were provided with reserve supplies of petrol and tools for repairing any vehicle that had problems. In Larne, UVF members wearing armlets stood "in line silent as soldiers on parade", and manned cordons that blocked the roads, preventing vehicles without a special permit from entering or departing Larne. Captain
James Craig James or Jim Craig may refer to: Entertainment * James Humbert Craig (1877–1944), Irish painter * James Craig (actor) (1912–1985), American actor * James Craig (''General Hospital''), fictional character on television, a.k.a. Jerry Jacks * ...
took command of the operations in Bangor, with Adair taking command in Larne. Sir George Richardson, overall commander of the UVF, remained in Belfast on the night of the landings and was kept fully informed of proceedings by dispatch-riders.


Hoax and real landings

On the date for the UVF Motor Corps "test" operation, a decoy ship, the tramp steamer ''SS Balmerino'', was dispatched into Belfast Lough as a decoy to attract attention from authorities, to investigate it for smuggled armaments, in what the UVF leadership called the ''
Hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
''. In addition, the UVF arranged for a large truck to be waiting at the Belfast docks as if for an incoming load. The captain of the ''SS Balmerino'' ensured that by making his ship's approach as suspicious as possible, the authorities would be alerted. Once the ship was docked, the captain set about stalling the authorities for as long as possible with excuses, and the authorities believed that they had intercepted the real cargo. Eventually the authorities searched the ship's contents, discovering its papers were in order and it was carrying only coal as described. Whilst this was happening, twenty miles away the ''"Mountjoy II"'' brought the real arms cache into Larne harbour unhindered. After the ''"Mountjoy II"'' docked, a motor-boat came alongside and cranes transferred "thousands" of rifles to it. After it had motored away, a second vessel came up to receive more arms. These vessels transported their loads to Donaghadee. There the weapons were transferred to the motor vehicles; each batch was counted and its destination noted by counting clerks. Due to the volume of weapons, temporary arms-dumps had been set up in the surrounding districts so that the vehicles could return as quickly as possible to receive another load. ''The Belfast Evening Telegraph'' remarked that all present "put their backs into it" and that it "illustrated the old adage, 'One Volunteer is worth three pressed men'" and they "toiled like galley slaves". The local population of Larne were noted as having lined the streets exchanging salutes and running makeshift canteens to supply the workers with refreshments throughout the night. At 5 am the ''Mountjoy'' set sail from Larne harbour for Bangor to unload the rest of its cargo. Three cheers for "The King" and three more for "the Volunteers" were let out by the ship's skipper and its crew as they stood to attention, with the cheers reportedly reciprocated by all those ashore. By 8:30 am the ''"Mountjoy II"'' had completed its mission, and it set course for the
River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
to confuse any coast-guards. On its way, crew cut away the canvas sheets bearing the name ''Mountjoy II,'' revealing the ship's real name, and it proceeded south along the Irish Sea. After offloading Major Crawford at Rosslare, County Wexford, the ''SS Clyde Valley'' set sail for the Baltic Sea, travelling along the coasts of France and Denmark. It rendezvoused with the ''SS Fanny'' to bring back the Ulstermen contingent of its crew. After that was done, the ''SS Fanny'' was disposed of at Hamburg.


Aftermath and consequences

One of the key figures in the operation was Captain Wilfrid Spender, a member of the UVF headquarters staff who is alleged to have been responsible for the entire scheme and helped in the ''Hoax'' masquerade. His wife recorded details of the landing in her diary for the dates 24–25 April: ''The Belfast Evening Telegraph'' reported on the events on 25 April: For the Unionist leaders, the Larne gun-running was even more of a political coup than a military feat. The Ulster Volunteers remained inadequately armed, as the weapons shipment contained three types of weapon and insufficient proper ammunition for them. The Larne delivery markedly increased the amount of arms for the UVF. Many much smaller weapons purchases had resulted in the UVF as having just over 37,000 rifles by June 1914. The Larne gun-running put the gun back into Irish politics. The Irish Volunteers had been working on their own plan to acquire weapons, and the success at Larne heightened nationalist suspicions that the authorities were acquiescent towards unionist militants in Ulster. After the events in Larne, the nationalist Irish Volunteers, formed in late 1913, attracted many new members. At the outbreak of the First World War, the government requested all arms and ammunition of the UVF for the war effort. By 1916 the ammunition had largely been transferred, but none of the rifles. In 1920 after the outbreak of the
Irish war of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
, the rifles were used to arm the new Ulster Special Constabulary that was formed (by the same Wilfrid Spender). The USC was largely recruited from former Ulster Volunteers. In 1940 the rifles were released to arm the British Home Guard after the
Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
. They were first fired in action during the East African Campaign of 1940-41, arming the militias of Haile Selassie I.ATQ Stewart, op. cit., appendix. The Irish Volunteers arranged their own gun-running operation in July 1914, transporting the guns on a private yacht and unloading in daylight at the harbour, in front of a crowd. The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), aided by troops of the 2nd King's Own Scottish Borderers, tried unsuccessfully to confiscate the weapons. On their return to their barracks in Dublin, some troops, baited by a hostile crowd, killed three people and wounded 38. A fourth man died later. Some nationalists interpreted the contrast between the inactivity of the police and military in Larne (which operation took place in the middle of the night) and the heavy-handed response in the middle of the day in Dublin that authorities were biased in favour of the UVF. The whole episode heightened tensions in Ireland, pulling it closer to the brink of civil war.


Representation in media

*The events of the Larne gun-running and the voyages of the ''SS Fanny'' and ''SS Clyde Valley'' are remembered in the loyalist songs, "Gunrunners" and "Gallant Clyde Valley".


See also

* Ulster Unionist Council * Ulster Volunteers * Ulster Solemn League and Covenant * Home rule * Irish Volunteers * Howth gun-running *
Irish issue in British politics The issue of Ireland has been a major one in British politics, intermittently so for centuries. Britain's attempts to control and administer the island, or parts thereof, has had significant consequences for British politics, especially in the 19 ...


References


Further reading

* Bowman, Timothy. ''Carson's Army: The Ulster Volunteer Force, 1910--22'' (Manchester UP, 2007). * Bowman, Timothy. "The Ulster Volunteers 1913-1914: Force or Farce?." ''History Ireland'' 10.1 (2002): 43-47. * Crawford, Frederick. ''Guns for Ulster'', Belfast: Graham & Heslip, 1947. * Jackson, Alvin. "The Larne Gun Running of 1914." ''History Ireland'' 1.1 (1993): 35-38.


External links


History of the 1912 UVF



CAIN - University of Ulster Conflict Archive


{{DEFAULTSORT:Larne Gun-Running 1914 in Ireland Arms trafficking Larne Military history of County Antrim Ulster Volunteers 1914 crimes in Ireland ga:Óglaigh Uladh