Stephen Hayes (Irish Republican)

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For other persons named Stephen Hayes, see Stephen Hayes (disambiguation).

Stephen Hayes was a member and leader of the Irish Republican Army (1922–1969).

From County Wexford, Ireland, Hayes was active in Gaelic Athletic Association circles in Wexford and served as secretary to the county board in the early 1930s. He joined the IRA and was on the IRA Army Council in January 1939 when it declared war on the British government.^[1]^[2]

When IRA chief of staff Seán Russell departed on IRA business to the USA (and subsequently to Nazi Germany), Hayes was left in control of the organisation. After Russell's death in August 1940 on board a German U-boat en route to Ireland, Hayes became chief of staff. His time in office was marred by controversy and it is widely believed that he served as an informer to the Garda Síochána.

Hayes had sent a plan for the invasion of Northern Ireland by German troops to Germany in April 1940. This plan later became known as Plan Kathleen. Hayes is also known to have met with German agent Hermann Görtz on 21 May 1940 in Dublin shortly after the latter’s parachuting into Ireland on 5 May 1940 as part of Operation Mainau. Hayes is known to have asked Görtz for money and arms to wage a campaign in Northern Ireland, although shortly after this meeting the original plan Kathleen was discovered. The discovery of the plan led to the acceleration of joint British and Irish military planning for a German invasion known as Plan W.

Another meeting on 15 August 1940 on Rathgar Road, Dublin organised by Hayes and attended by senior IRA men Paddy McGrath, Tom Harte and Tom Hunt, was also raided by the Garda Síochána.

On 30 June 1941, Northern-based IRA men kidnapped Hayes, accusing him of being a spy. By his own account, he was tortured and "court-martialled" for "treason" by his comrades, and would have been executed, but he bought himself time composing an enormously long confession. He managed to escape in September 1941, and handed himself in to the Garda for protection.

The Officer Commanding (O/C) of the IRA's Northern Command, Seán McCaughey, was convicted on 18 September 1941 of the kidnapping. After a long hunger and thirst strike in Portlaoise prison, McCaughey died on 11 May 1946.

Within IRA circles, Hayes is still considered a traitor and an informer. One of the main allegations against him was that he informed the Garda Síochána about IRA arms dumps in Wexford. This was later blamed on a Wexford man named Michael Devereux, an officer of the Wexford Battalion of the IRA who was subsequently abducted and murdered by an IRA gang in Tipperary on Hayes’ orders. George Plant, a Protestant IRA veteran, was later executed in Portlaoise for Devereux's murder.