Posted on 12/16/2005 2:00:59 PM PST by northmoor
A veteran Sinn Fein figure expelled from the party today has said he was a British agent for two decades.
Denis Donaldson headed the party's administration office at Stormont before his October 2002 arrest over an alleged spy ring led to its collapse.
Mr Donaldson said he was recruited in the 1980s as a paid agent and deeply regretted his activities.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams claimed he was about to be "outed" by the same "securocrats" who set him up as a spy.
Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive collapsed in October 2002 following the arrests of three men, who had all charges against them dropped "in the public interest" last week.
The government said on Friday that the Stormont raid more than three years ago was solely to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering.
The Northern Ireland Office said it "completely rejected any allegation that the police operation in October 2002 was for any reason other than to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering".
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -
4 October 2002: Three men arrested following raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont office. Power-sharing executive collapses and government restores direct rule to NI a week later
8 December 2005: Charges against three men dropped "in the public interest"
16 December 2005: Sinn Fein says one of the men was a "British agent" and expels him from the party: he later says he worked as a spy since the 1980s Government and police reject the party's claim raid was politically motivated
It said "the fact remains that a huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police".
In a statement on Friday, Mr Donaldson said: "I was a British agent at the time. I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life.
"Since then I have worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch. Over that period, I was paid money."
Mr Donaldson said the "so-called Stormontgate affair" was "a scam and a fiction invented by (police) Special Branch".
At a news conference on Friday, Mr Adams claimed Mr Donaldson had been approached by police officers earlier this week and told he was about to be "outed" as an informer.
He said Mr Donaldson was not under any threat from the republican movement.
If... one of Sinn Fein's top administrators in Stormont turns out to be a British spy, this is as bizarre as it gets Bertie Ahern Irish prime minister
Police sources earlier reiterated that the "Stormontgate" affair began because a paramilitary organisation was involved in the systematic gathering of information and targeting or individuals.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said if "one of Sinn Fein's top administrators in Stormont turns out to be a British spy, this is as bizarre as it gets".
etc
Those of us in the south of Ireland have, for the most part (drunken singsongs excepted!), left it behind. Those in Northern Ireland lived under a corrupt Unionist hegemony until the early 70s and a paramilitary war from 1969 until the mid-90s. There is a huge amount of bitterness on both sides of the cultural divide in Northern Ireland, and its going to take some time for the wounds to heal. Britain and Ireland have a very close relationship now, economically and culturally, and most of the residual bitterness will heal in time, providing things continue to progress in the north.
This was mere weeks after the world saw those horrific newsreels of the liberation of the death camps with piles of bodies.
And bear in mind that during the Second World War, relations between Dev and the US embassey was very strained, while relations with the Nazi embassey was good!
I like that idea!!
I'll tell you guys a funny story.
In the early 80's i was an army officer stationed in Germany. We frequently went to Grafenowoehr and Hohenfels to train. A fellow officer in my battalion was of Irish descent.
One day we all went to the officer's club for a brewski after a hard couple of weeks of training in the field. There was a British artillery regiment also training and their officers were at the club also.
This idiot in our battalion starts yelling all sorts of obscenities about the queen of England. Naturally, I don't really care one way or the other about the "royals" (they seem like attention starved spoiled people who really need to get a life...but I digress...), but I sure wasn't going to be put in the position of defending a brother officer of my battalion in a knock down bar fight for trying to antagonize the Brits. So we told him to either shut up or we would join with the Brits in giving him an a$$ kicking.
He shut his mouth.
Had DeValera not held Collins back the way he did (and then had him murdered) we might see a much different Ireland today. Collins was a giant amongst men, DeValera a mere insect.
The bullet that changed history.
Better watch out for Sean Dillon.
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