EDUCATION secretary Ruth Kelly's grandfather was an IRA officer imprisoned in the 1920s shortly after partition, it is reported.

Philip Murphy is described as a quartermaster of the West Fermanagh IRA Battalion.

And Ms Kelly's office confirmed that Philip Murphy was the Bolton West MP's grandfather but said she would not comment on private family matters.

The details emerged In documents unearthed by The Times in the Northern Ireland Public Records Office.

Ms Kelly has not seen documents relating to her grandfather and would be interested to look at them, the spokesman said.

Mr Murphy, who was a railway porter, was one of 700 suspects arrested in May 1922 as a result of the bombing and shooting campaign orchestrated by Michael Collins along the newly defined border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.

In his file held in the Public Records Office, Mr Murphy is described as a 'quartermaster', a role making him responsible for the distribution and hiding of all IRA weapons in his brigade area.

According to The Times, the then Northern Ireland Home Affairs Minister Richard Dawson Bates signed his interment order which states: "It is expedient that Phil (sic) Murphy in the County Fermanagh, who is suspected of being about to act in a manner prejudicial to the preservation of the peace and the maintenance of order in Northern Ireland, should be interned."

Mr Murphy was taken to Londonderry and from there to a workhouse in Larne, County Antrim before being transferred to the notorious prison ship SS Argenta.

He was released unconditionally in June 1924 after Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin put pressure on the Stormont Government to end internment. After his release Mr Murphy married and became father to a son and two daughters who all became teachers. One of his children was Gertrude, Ms Kelly's mother.