The QE2 was allegedly used to smuggle weapons from New York to Britain in the early 1970s. A report in the British Sunday Times newspaper cites recorded interviews with a former member of the IRA, Brendan Hughes, before his death in 2008. The report states he was aided by sympathetic crew members aboard the QE2 who hid weapons in secret locations aboard the ship.
The report also reports that after the smuggling operation was uncovered by the Police the IRA planned to blow up the QE2 on Guy Fawkes night in 1975, however the plans were foiled in a Police raid on a block of flats in Southampton. Had the attack succeeded it would have represented one of the most high-profile attacks on UK interests by Republican forces.
Details of this story first emerged in 1997 and at the time a statement from Cunard stated categorically that the smuggling was done "without the knowledge of anyone at Cunard". The QE2 received other threats during her career - a bomb hoax in the mid-Atlantic in 1972 and concerns of a potential terrorist attack on a cruise to Israel in April 1973.
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