"Tom Barry, the IRA's director of intelligence, visited Germany and met with the Abwehr in 1936, after the IRA was declared an illegal organization," she went on. "This was followed by a visit in 1939 by Jim O'Donovan, their director of chemical warfare."

"Chief bomb maker," Cosgrove interpreted.

"Yes. O'Donovan developed the IRA S-Plan, S meaning sabotage. With funds from Germany, he put together a bombing campaign against England early in the war. There were over three hundred explosions, some of them quite small and most ineffectual. They hit railroad stations, cinemas, post offices, that sort of thing. Seven people were killed. The attacks ended in 1940."

"Pathetic, really," Cosgrove said. "But it alerted us to increase security in sensitive military areas."

"So what are you worried about?" I asked.

"The IRA is more effective closer to home," O'Brien said. "During the S-Plan operations, they broke into Magazine Fort, the regular Irish Army ammunition storage depot in Dublin."

"The Christmas Raid," I said. I remembered a long night of celebrating and toasting the IRA at Kirby's, my dad and Uncle Dan slapping each other on the back while singing the old songs. It had sounded like Robin Hood and his merry men had pulled off a marvelous heist.

"December 1939," O'Brien acknowledged. "They broke in, disarmed the guards, and took over a million rounds of ammunition. No one killed or even hurt. It was a grand coup, except they hadn't planned for success. They took away so much, there was no place to hide it all. And the Irish Army was so red faced they tore the countryside apart looking for it. Most was quickly recovered."

I hadn't heard about that. Or if I had, there'd been no celebrating to help me remember.

"What worries us, Boyle," Cosgrove said, leaning forward as if to whisper a secret, "is that one of these IRA schemes might actually work. They've no shortage of imagination, I'll grant you. But we've been lucky so far that they have as much talent for mucking things up as they do for concocting grand schemes."