Yoko Ono denied on Sunday (Feb. 20) that her late husband, ex-Beatles singer/guitarist John Lennon, gave money to the Irish Republican Army, according to Reuters. Ono made the denial at the opening of her new art exhibit in Madrid, Spain. The English weekly the Observer reported on Sunday it had seen a court statement by a former spy who said he was shown secret files that included references to Lennon's having given money to the IRA in the early 1970s. "My husband did not give money to the IRA. My husband gave money ... when it was asked [for] by people who were in need,'' Ono was quoted as saying. The IRA fought a 30-year armed campaign to try to force Britain to abandon its rule over Northern Ireland.