![1914 UVF gun running commemoration flag Glenarm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/1914_UVF_gun_running_commemoration_flag_Glenarm.JPG)
The Larne gun-running was a major gun smuggling operation organised in April 1914 in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
by Major
Frederick H. Crawford and Captain
Wilfrid Spender
Sir Wilfrid Bliss Spender (6 October 1876 – 21 December 1960) was a British Army officer, colonial administrator and civil servant who helped re-organise the Ulster Volunteers (UVF) into the Ulster Special Constabulary and was responsible for ...
for the
Ulster Unionist Council
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
to equip the
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign ...
.
The operation involved the smuggling of almost 25,000 rifles and between 3 and 5 million rounds of ammunition from the
German Empire, with the shipments landing in
Larne
Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...
,
Donaghadee
Donaghadee ( , ) is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor. It is in the civil parish of Donaghadee and ...
, 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
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
formed a secret committee to oversee the creation of a force in
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
to fight against the imposition of
Home Rule
Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
, which was proposed to give Ireland self-government within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...
.
The Council approached Major
Frederick H. Crawford 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 and the German
Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken
''Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken Aktiengesellschaft'' (German Weapons and Munitions public limited company), known as DWM, was an arms company in Imperial Germany created in 1896 when '' Ludwig Loewe & Company'' united its weapons and am ...
, 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
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign ...
(UVF), consisting of men who had signed the
Ulster Covenant
Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant, commonly known as the Ulster Covenant, was signed by nearly 500,000 people on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year. ...
.
They wanted to co-ordinate the
paramilitary 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
The Government of Ireland Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5 c. 90), also known as the Home Rule Act, and before enactment as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide home rule (self-governm ...
, which had been introduced on 11 April 1912 by Prime Minister
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...
.
These threats had been regarded as a "gigantic game of bluff and blackmail" by
Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
leader
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond (1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918) was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) from ...
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 during the Second World War, and again from ...
.
UVF membership grew to around 90,000 members, led by retired officers of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
, with the organisation under the charge of Lieutenant-General
Sir George Richardson 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
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
and
Imperial Germany
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 hereditar ...
, but vigilant customs officials had seized the goods at the docks.
In one instance, patrol boats thwarted a gun-running attempt to
Carrigart
Carraig Airt (anglicised as Carrigart or Carrickart) is a small Gaeltacht village in the barony of Kilmacrennan to the north of County Donegal, Ireland.
The village is on the R245 route between Letterkenny and Creeslough. Situated as it is at t ...
in northern
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...
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 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
Edward Henry Carson, 1st Baron Carson, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC, Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Unionism in Ireland, Irish u ...
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
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
.
Included in this cache was; 11,000
Mannlicher rifles brought from the Steyr works in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
; 9,000
Gewehr 1888
The Gewehr 88 (commonly called the Model 1888 commission rifle) was a late 19th-century German bolt-action rifle, adopted in 1888.
The invention of smokeless powder in the late 19th century immediately rendered all of the large-bore black powd ...
s; 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
The Kiel Canal (german: Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, literally "North- oEast alticSea canal", formerly known as the ) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the N ...
.
On 30 March 1914, these weapons were being loaded onto the ''SS Fanny'' on the Baltic island of
Langeland
Langeland (, ) is a Danish island located between the Great Belt and Bay of Kiel. The island measures 285 km2 (c. 110 square miles) and, as of 1 January 2018, has a population of 12,446. when
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
customs officials seized the papers of the ship. The customs officials suspected that the cargo might contain weapons to arm militant
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
ic 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
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' 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
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. On 19–20 April off
Tuskar Rock,
County Wexford, 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 during the
Siege of Derry
The siege of Derry in 1689 was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland. The siege was preceded by a first attempt against the town by Jacobite forces on 7 December 1688 that was foiled when 13 apprentices shut the gates ...
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
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
commander,
General Sir William Adair
General Sir William Thompson Adair (21 June 1850 – 29 December 1931) was a Royal Marines officer and Ulster Unionist.
Biography
Educated at Cheltenham College, he entered the Royal Marine Light Infantry as a lieutenant on 6 December 1867, an ...
, 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
Ballyclare () is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,953 according to the 2011 census, and is located within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area.
It sits on the river Six Mile Water. The town ...
,
Ballymena, and
Glenarm
Glenarm () is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies on the North Channel coast north of the town of Larne and the village of Ballygalley, and south of the village of Carnlough. It is situated in the civil parish of Tickmacreva ...
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 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
Belfast Lough is a large, intertidal sea inlet on the east coast of Northern Ireland. At its head is the city and port of Belfast, which sits at the mouth of the River Lagan. The lough opens into the North Channel and connects Belfast to ...
as a decoy to attract attention from authorities, to investigate it for smuggled armaments, in what the UVF leadership called the ''
Hoax''.
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.
![Larne Harbour from Inver](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Larne_Harbour_from_Inver.jpg)
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 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
The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...
, formed in late 1913, attracted many new members.
At the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, 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 rifles were used to arm the new
Ulster Special Constabulary
The Ulster Special Constabulary (USC; commonly called the "B-Specials" or "B Men") was a quasi-military reserve special constable police force in what would later become Northern Ireland. It was set up in October 1920, shortly before the part ...
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
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting w ...
after the
Battle of France. They were first fired in action during the
East African Campaign of 1940-41, arming the militias of
Haile Selassie I
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia ('' ...
.
[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
The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was the police force of Dublin, Ireland, from 1836 to 1925, when it was amalgamated into the new Garda Síochána.
History
19th century
The Dublin city police had been subject to major reforms in 1786 and ...
(DMP), aided by troops of the 2nd
King's Own Scottish Borderers
The King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSBs) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Scottish Division. On 28 March 2006 the regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's O ...
, 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
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
.
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
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
*
Ulster Volunteers
The Ulster Volunteers was an Irish unionist, loyalist paramilitary organisation founded in 1912 to block domestic self-government ("Home Rule") for Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom. The Ulster Volunteers were based in the ...
*
Ulster Solemn League and Covenant
*
Home rule
Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
*
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...
*
Howth gun-running
The Howth gun-running ( ) involved the delivery of 1,500 Mauser rifles to the Irish Volunteers at Howth harbour in Ireland on 26 July 1914. The unloading of guns from a private yacht during daylight hours attracted a crowd, and the authorities or ...
*
Irish issue in British politics
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 UVFCAIN - 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