Plan Kathleen
Kathleen took place in the context of then IRA chief of staff, Seán Russell, being incommunicado in the United States as he pursued the propaganda arm of the S-Plan.
Russell was attempting to arrange passage to Berlin (see Operation Dove), having left Stephen Hayes as Acting Chief of Staff back in Ireland.
While Russell's movements were unknown to Hayes, he sanctioned the drawing up an invasion plan to end partition and reunify the island of Ireland.
The Abwehr II war diary briefly records the entire incident beginning 20 April 1940: "A personal emissary of the chief Irish agent (Jim (Seamus) O'Donovan) has arrived in Germany.
"[10]According to Görtz, Kathleen consisted of a map, on which was the suggestion of a German landing similar to that at Narvik, in the vicinity of Derry — an amphibious assault.
However, the IRA plan gave no thought to how German troops were to be brought to Derry, how control of the sea approaches was to be obtained or where and how the coast of Northern Ireland was fortified.
The IRA planned a ground offensive beginning in County Leitrim with a front on the Lower and Upper Lough Erne which would, somehow, lead to the destruction of all British forces in Northern Ireland.
The bait for the Germans was supposed to be the change of neutralising the RAF's use of Lough Erne as a tactical base against the U-boat fleet.
"[13]It is accepted that the plan was poorly constructed and not treated with any seriousness by the Abwehr or German Foreign Ministry, although at this stage they did not yet recognise the IRA as "hopelessly immature".
[16] Plan Kathleen was sent to Germany in April 1940, and arrived around two weeks before Görtz was to parachute into Ireland as part of Operation Mainau on 5 May.
I immediately regretted having spoken about this at all because my remark led to wild and fantastic IRA discussions as to which island could be used for U-boat replenishment and which impossible bogs and mountains could be used as airfields.
[citation needed] On 22 May 1940, Held′s house was raided and equipment brought by Görtz to Ireland including his parachute and Plan Kathleen were seized.
[27] Plan Kathleen was blown, and the Irish authorities immediately sent it to MI5 in London who sent it to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Belfast.
At this point, Hitler was still considering an invasion of Britain and it was within this context that Student suggested a diversionary paratrooper attack on Northern Ireland, to coincide with German landings on the south coast of England.
But we could not avoid trespassing on a small scale, through units losing their way by emergency landings at night, by dropping in the wrong area.
The first and larger force would land in the triangle between the northern half of Lough Neagh and Divis Mountain above Belfast, capturing the RAF fields at Aldergrove, Langford Lodge and Nutts Corner.
At the same time, a second force of paratroopers would be dropped near Lisburn to destroy the planes on the Long Kesh airfield and cut road and rail links between Belfast and the south.
Student claimed after the end of World War II that he thought the first part of the operation would have been a success, but if the landings in Britain had gone badly, he and his men would have fought through to the territory of Éire and asked to be interned rather than be captured by the British Army.
Hitler made no decision on the matter and Student was told the next day by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring:"Do not trouble yourself needlessly about Ulster [Northern Ireland].
