Posted on 12/17/2005 9:02:43 AM PST by billorites
Unionists today demanded a public inquiry after Sinn Féin expelled a senior party official who had admitted working as a British spy.
Denis Donaldson, Sinn Féin’s former head of administration at Stormont, owned up to working for British intelligence and the Police Service of Northern Ireland/Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch for more than 20 years.
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said a public inquiry was now essential to explain the bizarre events, which unfolded just a week after the dropping of charges against Mr Donaldson and two other men accused of being part of a republican spy ring at Stormont in 2002.
“I think the only way to get the truth is a full public inquiry. There are so many unanswered questions,” said a party spokesman.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) also demanded more information.
“The reasons why this has come to light are not entirely clear and that’s why I’m not buying the reasons that are being given at present. It is critical that we get a statement from the British government about this,” said spokesman Ian Paisley Junior.
“I need to know, why if there was such a highly-placed agent moving in the upper echelons of the Sinn Féin-IRA movement, were the IRA able to get away with so much murder over the last number of years and so much mayhem? That remains totally unexplained and unexplainable by this event.”
In October 2002, Mr Donaldson, 55, was arrested and charged with having documents likely to be of use to terrorists.
His arrest, along with that of his son-in-law and a civil servant, became known as Stormontgate – a republican spy ring at the heart of government.
Unionists are still convinced that Stormontgate was the work of the IRA, while Sinn Féin has argued that it was designed to get unionism off the hook and escape the blame for the impending collapse of the Northern Ireland assembly.
related:
A veteran Sinn Fein figure has said he was a British agent for two decades.
BBC | 16 December 2005
Posted on 12/16/2005 2:00:59 PM PST by northmoor
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