Ahern says exposure of gun plot exacerbated violence in North Former taoiseach says trial cast a shadow over Fianna Fáil for a decade about an hour ago Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern at Leinster House. Photograph: Peter Thursfield Your Web Browser may be out of date. If you are using Internet Explorer 9, 10 or 11 our Audio player will not work properly.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said if the gun importation plot that led to the arms trial in 1970 had not been exposed, events in the North might have taken on a different, perhaps less violent, course. Mr Ahern also said that if the events had not occurred, Charles Haughey would probably have become Fianna Fáil leader much earlier than late 1979 and would have ensured a general election was not called in 1973, a full year before the end of that government’s term.