THE inside story of the 1970 Arms Crisis is to be told in a new RTÉ documentary to be broadcast tonight.
GunPlot recalls the political scandal which saw Irish government ministers Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey - a future three-time taoiseach - dismissed over an alleged plot to smuggle arms to the Provisional IRA.
Amid fears for the nationalist population in the north following the outbreak of the Troubles in the summer of 1969, a £100,000 aid fund was set up.
Haughey, whose parents were from Co Derry, and Blaney, a Donegal TD, were sacked from Taoiseach Jack Lynch's cabinet amid allegations that funds had been used to import arms for the Provisionals.
The pair went on trial in Dublin along with Irish Army intelligence officer Captain James Kelly, IRA leader John Kelly and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx.
All charges against Blaney were dropped before the main trial in late 1970.
The first trial collapsed and, in the second, the other four defendants were cleared.
Featuring newly-discovered recordings from the trial proceedings, the documentary tells the story from the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969 to the acquittals in October 1970.
Contributors include DUP MP Gregory Campbell, Neil Blaney's son Eamonn, Charles Haughey's son Seán, and Captain James Kelly's daughter Sheila.
A podcast series, also called GunPlot, is being broadcast on RTÉ in tandem with the documentary.
An RTÉ spokeswoman said the Arms Crisis was "arguably the most dramatic and sensational moment of modern Irish life".
"It split the Dublin establishment, threatened the stability of the Republic and created divisions in Fianna Fáil that would last generations," she said.
GunPlot will be broadcast on RTÉ One tonight at 9:35pm.
