The release of secret documents by Ireland's National Archives, shows the extent of Libya's support for the Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army) in the 1970s and 1980s. The British intelligence was shocked at the amount of financial aid.

According to the documents released, the amount of money Libya gave to Provisional IRA figure was over $12.6m in cash which is equivalent of roughly $45m in today's money.

British officials said, "Libya has given PIRA (the Provisional IRA) far more money than we had thought".

Although the information about the number of arms shipments, which Britain immediately shared with the Irish government, was generally in line with London's own estimates.

Extensive sanctions were implemented on Libya, following the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. Therefore, in a bid to repair relations with Britain, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the summer of 1992 decided to reveal details of his support for the IRA. Gaddafi ruled Libya from 1969 until his overthrow and death during the Arab Spring in 2011.

Meanwhile, a Gardai memo to the Department of Justice in June 1992, part of the documents released on Tuesday, outlined in detail the arms shipments from Libya to Ireland between March 1973 and October 1987.

Supplied in five shipments – one in 1973, and two each in 1985 and 1986 – the arms were detailed as 1,450 Kalashnikov automatic rifles; 180 pistols; 66 machine guns; 36 rocket-propelled-grenade launchers; 10 surface-to-air missiles; ten flame-throwers; 765 grenades; 5,800kg of Semtex explosive; 1,080 detonators; and almost 1.5 million rounds of ammunition of various types.

The shipments finally came to an end in October 1987 when France intercepted a sixth shipment, stored aboard the cargo ship MV Eksund.

Libya also handed over the names of IRA members who had received military training in Libya. However, the vast majority of names appeared "to be nom de plumes which were assumed by PIRA personnel to disguise their travel to Libya".

The state papers released also showed that Libya had earlier tried to get Dublin to help in repairing relations with Britain.  In 1988, Tripoli told the Irish Embassy in Rome said it wanted its "good friends in Ireland to help them in their objective".

However, Ireland's foreign ministry was not interested, believing Libya was "trying to use us as a vehicle for gaining international respectability".

The documents also reveal that Irish Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and the British Prime Minister John Major met at Government Buildings in Dublin in December 1991 to discuss intelligence indicating Libya was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.

Image credit: AP