Stephen Hayes ( Irish republican ) Stephen Hayes ( 26 December 1902 – 28 December 1974 ) was a member and leader of the Irish Republican Army from April 1939 to June 1941 . Hayes was born in Enniscorthy , County Wexford . During the Irish War of Independence , he was commandant of the Wexford Brigade of Fianna Éireann . He took the Republican side during the Irish Civil War , during which he was interned . Hayes was active in Gaelic Athletic Association circles in Wexford . In 1925 , he helped Wexford win the Leinster Senior Football title . He also served as secretary to the county board for ten years , from the 1920s to 1930s . IRA activities . Hayes joined the IRA and was on the IRA Army Council in January 1939 when it declared war on the British government . 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 . McGrath and Harte were both arrested and tried by Military Tribunal established under the Emergency Powers Act 1939 . They challenged the legislation to the Irish High Court seeking a writ of habeas corpus and ultimately appealed to the Supreme Court . They were represented in the Courts by Seán MacBride . The appeal was unsuccessful and they were executed by firing squad at Dublin ' s Mountjoy Prison on 6 September 1940 . Irish Executions 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 . Hayes was later sentenced to five year ' s imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court on account of his IRA activities . 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 . However , 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 . Later life . After his release , Hayes resumed his clerical position at Wexford County Council . He died in Enniscorthy on 28 December 1974 .