The administration used these claims to justify the internment of Sinn Féin leaders, who were actively opposing attempts to introduce conscription in Ireland.
The "plot" originated on 12 April when the British arrested Joseph Dowling after he was put ashore in County Clare by a German U-boat.
[2] Paul McMahon characterises the "Plot" as "a striking illustration of the apparent manipulation of intelligence in order to prod the Irish authorities into more forceful action".
[4] Even at the time, the proposition that the Sinn Féin leadership were directly planning with the German authorities to open another military front in Ireland was largely seen as spurious.
[5] Irish nationalists generally view the "German Plot" not as an intelligence failure but as a black propaganda project to discredit the Sinn Féin movement, particularly to an uninformed public in the United States.