(Thanks to Paul Boyd; Larry McGahey; Dorothy Hatchett; Jon Wiener)

A member of the Irish Republican Army has claimed that he met with John Lennon to discuss a benefit concert to help raise funds for the IRA in 1972.

The person making these claims wishes to remain anonymous - which of course makes corroboration or proof of the claims impossible to obtain.

IRA-X says he met with John at his NYC apartment in 1972 and said John was up-to-date on events in Ireland. He also says John was very knowledgeable about the politics of the day. He claims John suggested staging a benefit concert "for families and Republican prisoners." As we know, no concert of this kind was ever held.

Professor Jon Wiener, who has been researching the FBI files on John Lennon for several years, pointed out to me that the IRA in 1972, was not a terrorist organization. But rather, the "Provisional IRA" favored armed struggle at the time. So even if John and Yoko had donated funds to the cause of "giving Ireland back to Ireland," it would not have been a "peacenik" funding "terrorist" causes as the press is headlining this story around the world.

Yoko has insisted that she and John did not give money to any pro-violence groups, but rather donated money to women, children and orphans in need when such funding was requested - from many countries, including Ireland.

In the Observer article from February 20, 2000, Tariq Ali, a member of the International Marxist Group in the 70's and a friend of John's said, "We talked about these issues all the time and I'm sure (John) would have told me if he was thinking of giving money to the IRA. I think M15 has got it wrong, through a combination of sloppiness and bull---t." Ali also denied that John had funded Red Mole.

Roger Smith, then a member of the Trotskyist Workers' Revolutionary Party said, "There was absolutely no connection between us and Lennon that I knew of. We would have considered ourselves very lucky if he'd given us money."

Professor Wiener told the BBC that while John was sympathetic to the Irish civil rights movement, the British intelligence service could have been misinformed about any link with the IRA.

http://www.itn.co.uk/Entertainment/ents20000229/022901.htm

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