 In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in Armagh and supplied it to the IRA in Dublin.This enabled the IRA to carry out a successful arms raid on 12 June 1954, with Garland's active involvement on the base.Garland deserted from the British Army in October of the same year, before his regiment was due to depart for Kenya.