in Shannon, County Clare in December 1974 which led to the theft of £159,000. He was arrested by Gardaí in Youghal, County Cork, on 14 February 1975, along with two other IRA members, viz., Danny O'Sullivan and Robert McNamara. The Gardaí had been on the alert after a robbery at Central Dairies in Dungarvan, County Waterford. They were later tried by the Special Criminal Court where O'Sullivan was sentenced to six and eight years concurrently. Ferris was not convicted of robbery but was remanded to Portlaoise Prison pending further charges of membership in the IRA as a proscribed organisation. He was sentenced to 12 months in Portlaoise. He was released after nine months in November 1975. He was arrested again in February 1976 at a Garda roadblock in Ballinrobe, County Mayo after attending the funeral of Frank Stagg. On 16 February, he was charged with IRA membership at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In March 1977, Ferris took part in a hunger strike along with 20 other prisoners, demanding a public inquiry into conditions in the prison. After 32 days he was transferred to Curragh Military Hospital. The hunger strike ended after 47 days. A guarantee had been given to the prisoners by Bishop James Kavanagh that the government would work to improve prison conditions. Although conditions improved somewhat, Tim Pat Coogan—a nationalist historian and former editor of The Irish Press—noted that after a visit in 1977 tensions still remained, and mentioned reports of visitors being denied visits after long distances and that strip searching was still carried out. Ferris was released two months later in June 1977. In September 1984, Ferris attempted to import seven tons of explosives, firearms and ammunition, as well as medications, training manuals, and communications equipment, using the fishing vessel Marita Ann, which was piloted by Mike Browne, another IRA member. The plan involved rendezvousing with the trawler Valhalla, captained by Bob Anderson, which sailed from Boston, Massachusetts, transferring arms and ammunition to the Marita Ann and sailing to the south coast of County Kerry, where a number of cars were on standby to deliver the weapons to various Provisional IRA arms dumps. The Marita Ann was intercepted by the Irish Navy vessels the LÉ Emer and the LÉ Aisling off the south coast of Kerry with the weapons and ammunition on board. The crew were arrested.