Albert Luykx

Albert Antoine Luykx (born 1917, Lommel)[1] was a Flemish businessman, living in Ireland, who was involved in the 1970 Arms Crisis.

An acquaintance of Neil Blaney, he was approached by Captain James Kelly, and asked to help in acquiring arms in Germany with the intention of arming the Irish Republican Army.[2] Luykx was subsequently tried, together with Kelly and Charles Haughey. He claimed that the operation was sanctioned by the Minister for Defence, Jim Gibbons. All four were acquitted.[3] Journalist Vincent Browne, writing of the Arms Crisis in July 2003, said "the gravest injustice was done to Albert Luykx...who never had reason to believe that in lending money to the operation and giving otherwise of his services, he was not acting on behalf of the Irish state".[4]

In 1971 it was revealed, under privilege, in the Dáil that Luykx was "a convicted Nazi criminal" who was wanted by the Belgian authorities.[5][6] A Flemish nationalist, Luykx had escaped from Belgium having been sentenced to death for having denounced people to the Sicherheitsdienst during the Second World War.[7] He arrived in Ireland as a political refugee under the name "Francis J. Faes" in October 1948 and became an Irish citizen in 1954.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dermot Keogh,Jack Lynch, A Biography, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 2009, page 269
  2. ↑ Dillon, Martin (2012). The Dirty War. Random House. p. 17. ISBN 9781407074801. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  3. ↑ Dillon (2012), p. 20
  4. ↑ Browne, Vincent (20 July 2003). "Lies, arms and the (wronged) man". Sunday Business Post.
  5. ↑ "Dáil Éireann debates, Volume 251 - 18 February 1971". Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  6. ↑ Archives including documentation on his conviction in 1946/47 in Hasselt
  7. ↑ Gerry Mullins, Dublin Nazi No. 1: The Life of Adolf Mahr (Liberties Press, 2013) page 197.
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