It's November 1972.

A plane is flying across the Atlantic with two pilots on board.

They're on a journey that will change the course of their lives,

and those of thousands of people in Northern Ireland.

This flight is heading to North Africa

to pick up weapons gifted to the provisional IRA

by Colonel Muammu Gaddafi of Libya.

Further information about the extent of Libya's support for the IRA.

Gaddafi's support of the IRA was only fully revealed in 2021,

when the 30-year-old state papers in Ireland were released.

His officials told the British all about their contacts with the IRA.

He said they were arranged through the Soviet Union and began in 1973,

and there were five shipments.

Gaddafi had actually revealed his support of the IRA to British intelligence services,

detailing how he'd provided them with five shipments of weapons and cash.

One and a half thousand Kalashnikov automatic rifles, 180 pistols, 66 machine guns, 10 surfaceware, missiles, 10 flame throwers,

a total of 12,600,000 dollars. That works out as something like 40 million euro.

But those state papers don't tell the full truth. They can't tell it, because the intelligence

community didn't know it. And they didn't know it because Colonel Gaddafi never told anybody about the very first time

he helped the IRA. In fact, the story you were about to hear has been hidden for more than half a

century. A story that up until now No one really knows anything about.

I'm Liam O'Brien

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