Disgruntled Nation

As the hunt for Mrs. Tayto, to share in his trials and tribulations, continues Mr. Tayto can’t stop to pick a prospective match. Instead he’s jetting off to save the Irish economy and setting up shop in the I’m-Making-Up-My-Own-Brand-Of-Islamic-Communism Republic of Libya.

In May Largo, the company that produces Tayto crisps, announced that it was establishing a small manufacturing site in the North African country so as to avoid the 25c tariff on crisp imports.

But while Libya had been hit by trade sanctions for decades until recent years this isn’t the first trade that’s occurred between our two nations. During the early 70s and late 80s the IRA shipped hundreds of tons of weapons from the country and even had its own embassy there. Former IRA and Sinn Fein luminary Joe Cahill was arrested on board the Claudia in 1973 which contained over 500 rifles, anti-tank mines and the IRAs favourite, Semtex. In the 1980s they became a bit more creative with their requests and began shipping Rocket propelled grenades, Surface to Air missiles and even American military flamethrowers for the campaign in the North. While 120 tons of weapons were captured by Irish and French authorities in 1987 with the interception of the Eksund, Ed Moloney in his book Secret History of the IRA claims this only made up 1/3 of what had been sent in the late 80s.

The IRA and Colonel Gadafy would fall out shortly afterwards and bring to an end a chapter in Irish trade closed until now when Ireland finally upholds its end of the “Guns-for-Crisps” plan. And who knows but Mr. Tayto might even find true love under the sultry Libyan sun.

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