During the most violent period of The Troubles, sympathy for Irish nationalism and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was very common in South Boston, as were efforts to raise money and smuggle weapons for the IRA's campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland. From the start of his involvement with the FBI, Bulger "insisted ... that he would never give up the IRA." Bulger had previously donated to NORAID and shipped weapons—"guns and a block of C-4 plastic explosives"—in a van to the IRA in the early 1980s. After meeting with IRA Chief of Staff Joe Cahill, Bulger and Nee raised $1 million "by shaking down drug dealers in South Boston and Charlestown." This money was used to buy weapons for the IRA which would be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in the trawler "Valhalla". Bulger also personally donated some of his own weapons. Before the use of "Valhalla", he oversaw a shipment of guns and C-4 in a van at least once. Bulger was annoyed when he learned that the IRA members he supplied had burned the van that contained the weapons.