When photographs of John Noonan helping Gerry Adams shoulder the coffin of a famous IRA volunteer through the streets of Belfast appeared in newspapers last February, Sinn Fein reacted in horror. Noonan was a former adjutant officer of the Provisional’s Dublin brigade and had stood for Sinn Fein in the European elections of 1984. Adam’s former comrade had also served a prison sentence for possession of firearms in the 1970s, which further enhanced his republican credentials.

But that was then. By the time the Sinn Fein leader realised that Noonan was standing behind him at the funeral of Brendan Hughes, a founder member of the Provisional IRA when it broke away from the Official IRA in 1970, the cameras had already recorded the moment for posterity.

Adams, peacemaker and politician, didn’t need to be photographed with a man who was the subject of an in-depth investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), the elite garda unit established to seize money derived from criminal activity. Noonan was one of the few people who knew where the IRA had invested the funds it had robbed and extorted throughout the Troubles.

With the Provisional IRA’s killing machine dismantled, the focus has switched to turning off the republican movement’s money machine. Noonan, like other former republicans being targeted by the CAB, has become a liability and an embarrassment to Sinn Fein.

Since 2004, the CAB and its British equivalent, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), have mounted a succession of fiscal investigations into the IRA which are intended to strip the terrorist organisation and its key members of their wealth.

It was Michael McDowell, the former justice minister, who made it clear that the agency’s remit was to chase down the IRA’s finances and its godfathers. McDowell was looking for instant results but the intelligence services, including MI5 and Garda special branch, had a long-term strategy: they wanted to ensure republicans would never again have access to the type of funds that would allow them to rearm.

THE strategy of stripping militant republicans of their wealth was first used after the Real IRA bombed Omagh in 1998, killing 29 people and unborn twin girls. As part of the Irish government’s offensive against the dissidents, the CAB launched an inquiry into Liam Campbell, the Real IRA’s director of operations for Ulster.

Campbell, a smuggler, was later issued with a tax demand for €500,000. Other dissidents were also targeted and forced to make substantial settlements, albeit in secret. The bureau’s operation, which was later adapted to counter the Provos, had a crippling effect on the struggling dissident paramilitary group and was instrumental in its collapse.

Dealing with the Provisional IRA, however, has proved to be more complicated. Over the years the movement has invested millions in front companies and offshore accounts. A report by the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in 2002 estimated that the Provisional IRA’s annual running costs were €2.8m and that its annual fundraising capacity was between €9.25m and €14m. If the IRA was a company, it would have been reporting profits of about €11m a year.

So where’s the money?

John Horan, an expert on money laundering and a former member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said the IRA has invested heavily in bars, clubs, taxi firms, shops and hotels. The terrorist group also operates bureau-de-changes in France and Britain which are used to launder money. IRA Inc, as it is known, also maintains extensive investments in offshore properties and investment schemes.

“In the 1970s, the IRA was a ramshackle group, but that changed over 30 years of war,” said Horan. “What made them particularly successful at managing money was the fact that they bought in expertise. The IRA realised that it could use professional people who supported their cause but were unwilling to take up arms. So they hired investment brokers and accountants. “This ensured that their financial controls were very good. They also learned how to launder money and invest it wisely. You could say they kept a tight control on their finances. If anyone dipped into them, they were usually found on a dark roadway in south Armagh,” he added.

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