Category: Gardai
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Phoenix, Part IV.
The last edition of The Phoenix appeared on 5 June 2026. In this, the last of this series, we look at the spooky stories that appeared in The Phoenix in 2026. There were two articles about Sean O’Callaghan and the murder of John Cocoran. This is the second of the pair. There was a story…
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From the Vaults: Capt. Robert Nairac.
Many articles, books and documentaries have been written about Capt. Robert Nairac, who was killed by Republicans on 15 May 1977. This article appeared in November 1977. His body has never been recovered. Covert History’s account of his role in the Dublin and Monaghan bombing and the UVF’s Glenanne Gang can be found in the…
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From Russia with Lethality.
By David Burke. In October 1977, Hibernia, a weekly Dublin periodical, published an article by Brian Trench about the assassination of Seamus Costello, Chief of Staff of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The Hibernia article is rich in detail about the feuding between the INLA and the Official IRA. Costello had once been a…
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Double Standard
Introduction. In Dáil Éireann, Taoiseach Micheál Martin called on the British Government to name Agent Stakeknife, who he says is known to be Freddie Scappaticci. This transparency and openness, Martin believes, will help relatives of those killed by the IRA’s brutal Internal Security Unit, led by agent Stakeknife, among others. His appeal followed calls by…
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The Resistance Men (Webbook).
© Deirdre Younge. Introduction. ‘What were they trying to do around here .. create civil war?‘ (Willie Frazer, referring to the intelligence services operating in the 1970s in Armagh. (2016)) During the ‘Troubles’ Armagh, Tyrone and Down were the cockpit of a vicious war which descended into sectarianism fuelled by collusion. Intelligence material submitted to…
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Psyop (Webbook)
In November 2025, a British ‘security expert’ inadvertently disclosed the broad outline of a British-led psychological operation (PsyOp) to undermine Irish neutrality to London’s Financial Times. The paper revealed that an anti-neutrality campaign was underway, although ‘still far from fruition and would have to be extremely carefully managed‘. The purpose of the operation was to…
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Marie and Noel Murray. By Eddie Walsh.
On 11 September 1975, Noel and Marie Murray participated in a bank raid in Dublin. Garda Michael Reynolds from Galway was shot dead as he gave chase to the robbers. The Murrays were arrested and charged with involvement in the robbery. They were sentenced to death, though their sentences were later commuted to lengthy prison…
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Hi-tech.
© Deirdre Younge 2025. ‘Fergus directs me around the streets of Omeath until we pull up outside a bungalow, “hang on there”, he says and strides inside purposefully. Seconds later, he emerges with someone called Johnny, a bomb making graduate. ‘”Follow us”, says Johnny, and we do, along the winding back roads around Carlingford Bay,…
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Libya
The British Government are refusing to directly compensate victims of IRA Libyan supplied weapons and semtex explosives out of the former overthrown leader Muammaur Gaddafi’s funds frozen in British banks. They also refuse to publish a report they commissioned on the issue of compensation from ex-journalist and member of the Charity Commission, William Shawcross.The PSNI…
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Abuse of Privilege.
In April 2000 Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of the DUP, stood up in the House of Commons and made the heinous allegation on live television that former Special Branch sergeant in Dundalk Garda Station, Owen Corrigan, had colluded in the murders of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, Commander H Division, and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, while…
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The Artful Dodger:
By Sean Brennan. I have just read the article in the Sunday Independent [20 June] concerning whether RTE contacted Des O’Malley first while the station was producing the GunPlot series. It is the second article which the Sunday Independent has produced about the issue. The earlier one – written by Des O’Malley – appeared on…
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Sean Haughey
By David Burke. Deputy Sean Haughey has repeated his request for the release of certain Garda files from the Department of Justice. There is a lot more to his question than readily meets the eye. In the late 1960s and 1970s C3 was the most secretive and sensitive department within an Garda Síochána. It provided…
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Captain James Kelly’s family phone was tapped
By David Burke. The family phone of Captain James Kelly and his wife Sheila, in Terenure, Dublin, was tapped by the gardai in 1970. Captain Kelly was one of the Arms Trial defendants who went on trial 50 years ago this week. He was acquitted. It is inconceivable that Mícheál Ó Móráin, who served as…
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Seán Haughey TD.
By Michael Smith. Justice Minister Helen McEntee has confirmed the existence of secret and “sensitive’” Garda files relating to the Arms Crisis. She did not rule out releasing them in “appropriate” circumstances. Her comments were made on Tuesday evening in response to Seán Haughey TD of Fianna Fáil who was asking her to confirm that…
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THE ‘TRIAL’ OF LARRY WREN.
No one who had the misfortune to serve in the Garda during Larry Wren’s bible thumping Reign of Terror as Garda Commissioner, 1983 – 1987, is in the least bit surprised by the Medieval cruelty meted out to former Garda Majella Moynihan by Wren and his lackies when she was a young recruit. Majella Moynihan Wren…
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An Offence Against The State
On 1 December 1972 a car bomb exploded beside Liberty Hall in Dublin. Fortunately no one died but George Bradshaw, a CIE bus driver, and Thomas Duffy, a bus conductor, perished in a second explosion at Sackville Place. No one has ever been charged with these crimes. The UVF belatedly claimed sole responsibility for them…
