The Irish Northern Aid Committee — Noraid, as it was generally known — was accused of involvement in various activities to support the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Its alleged offences included purchasing M-60 rifles, paying for ships to cross the Atlantic with weapons cargo, and even robbing a Brink’s armored car of more than $7 million.

In a new documentary about the group’s history, veteran Noraid activists categorically deny such claims. As the New York priest Pat Moloney puts it, “I had absolutely nothing to do with the Brink’s robbery before the fact, or after the fact.” Father Moloney lives like a monk, but a British intelligence officer once described him as “the underground general” of IRA gunrunners.

Noraid always maintained that the money it collected went to Irish political prisoners and their families, not to pay for guns. Produced by Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ, Noraid: Irish America and the IRA tells the story of Irish American fundraising for the Irish republican movement in the heat of the Troubles.