Category: IRA
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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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The Bloody Sunday Plot.
Introduction. The official position of the British Government relating to Bloody Sunday is based on the 2010 report of Lord Saville of Newdigate, i.e., that a group of paratroopers engaged in the massacre of thirteen innocent people in Derry, with a fourteenth dying later, for no reason. Unfortunately, Saville ignored or discounted substantial evidence indicating…
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Prime Suspects.
Introduction: Margaret Thatcher, MI5 and the cold-blooded murder of an Irish lawyer. The independent public inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane hopes to examine ‘to what extent were his killers encouraged, assisted, protected or directed’ by the British state, at least according to barrister Matthew Hill, its lead counsel. He added that, ‘There is…
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Bring Back The Phoenix, Part III. Check out 50 plus stories from 2025.
Continuing our campaign to bring back The Phoenix magazine, here is a selection of stories from 2025 which underline what we are missing. They cover MI5 and MI6 dirty tricks, neutrality, and much more besides. A selection from 2026 will appear next week. The PDF at the end of this article includes a selection of…
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Kitson’s Private Army.
By David Burke. Brigadier Frank Kitson ran the 39th Airborne Brigade area, i.e. Belfast, as if he were a mob boss with the city ashis patch. He let the paratroopers under his command run riot in that domain. Some of the more decent and honourable British Army officers were aghast at their excesses and asked…
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Bring back The Phoenix Part II: 50+ espionage and dirty trick stories from 2024.
Click on the link below to read a selection of stories from The Phoenix 2024, including: Brig. Frank Kitson’s dirty war; what really happened on Bloody Sunday (not the nonsense in the Savile Inquiry report); Patrick Crinnion, MI6’s spy inside the Gardaí; the Dublin and Monaghan bombings; Barrie Gane of MI6; Freddie Scappaticci; the Kincora…
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Bring back The Phoenix. In the meantime here are approximately 30 dirty trick intelligence stories from 2020 to 2023.
The Phoenix ceased publication in June 2026. The magazine was the only real source of articles about collusion, the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, Kincora, MI5 dirty tricks and attacks on Irish neutrality, etc, on Irish newsstands. It has to be brought back – somehow. Otherwise, we will be relying on The Irish Times and other similar publications…
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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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Missing UVF Bomb Massacre Files.
On 4 December 8:45 p.m., a UVF gang set out on a bombing mission. One of those involved was Robert James Campbell. The UVF bomb exploded outside a small pub in Belfast called McGurk’s, a cosy place where Catholics and Protestants from the same neighbourhood – all of whom knew each other well – met…
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Kitson-RUC plot to safeguard the UVF.
The campaign for the truth about the infamous McGurk’s bar bombing of 1971 has uncovered the existence of a covert intrigue hatched by the British Army’s counter-insurgency (i.e., dirty tricks) guru, Brigadier Frank Kitson, and the RUC, to conceal the truth about the UVF’s bomb attack massacre at McGurk’s bar in 1971. Kitson and the…
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Sir Garret (Webbook)
Introduction. Charles Haughey of Fianna Fáil and Garret FitzGerald of Fine Gael took very different approaches when dealing with Britain’s covert intelligence services and the more questionable diplomats assigned to the Dublin embassy. While FitzGerald was happy to dance with Her Majesty’s emissaries and spooks, Haughey recoiled. This contrast was never more apparent than when…
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Mooney (Webbook)
Hugh Mooney, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, worked at The Irish Times before becoming the UK’s foremost black propagandist in the early 1970s. Among his many successes, he distorted the truth about what happened on Bloody Sunday, the bombing of McGurk’s bar and circulated smears about John Hume. The Bloody Sunday and John Hume…
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Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil are promoting a book on FF’s ‘Bulletin’ newsletter which claims some of its ministers tried to arm the Provisional IRA. Here, IRA veteran Des Long debunks this as a ‘fairy tale’.
In this interview, Des Long debunks the myth about Charles Haughey and the Provisional IRA, as a ‘fairy tale’. It is one that has resurfaced in a new book, ‘Charlie v Garret’, which is being promoted on Fianna Fáil’s ‘Bulletin‘ newsletter. Long starts the interview by providing a brief outline of his career in the…
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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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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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Nest of Spies (Webbook).
1. Introduction. Part 1: A bloodsoaked start, after which cooperation was achieved. 2. From the elimination of the Cairo Gang to intelligence cooperation. 3. Spying on a Zionist TD for MI5. 4. Cooperation during the IRA’s Operation Harvest. Part 2. An aristocratic spy ring. 5. ‘It was as simple as picking up a phone.’ 6.…
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Running Stakeknife
The Operation Kenova report on Stakeknife makes it clear MI5 were aware of Scappaticci’s activities from his initial recruitment. They were involved in briefing and tasking him via his FRU handlers. MI5 broke into Kenova’s document safe while they were working in the Services offices. Kenova is a PSNI commissioned report, authored by two former…
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The strange death of Harry Breen. By Deirdre Younge.
In April 2017, Village magazine published this article by Deirdre Younge which revealed another side to Chief Superintendent Harry Breen of the RUC. Breen was shot dead by the IRA in 1989. He served as Commander H Division (Armagh and parts of Down) from March 1988 to ’89. His death was the subject of the…
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The Gathering Storm.
In this article, Roy Garland explains how Loyalist leaders such as William McGrath were making dire predictions about the intentions of the IRA as the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising approached. Roy Garland witnessed these developments at first hand. Soon, he was dedicating himself to the peace process believing in the “interconnectednes between everyone…
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From the Vaults: Ted Heath 1971
This is how This Week, an Irish magazine, perceived Ted Heath and his policy for Ireland in 1971. Heath was then in his second year as Britain’s prime minister. The article can be read and or downloaded by clicking on the link below:
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A Walk on the Dark Side. [WebBook.]
Part 1. British Agents in Ireland. The PPS in Northern Ireland will not charge an unnamed agent who worked undercover in Northern Ireland for UK intelligence services. This is despite the fact he admitted to carrying out murders in the course of working undercover. The agent’s admission was made while instructing intelligence officers in spycraft.…
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Running with Wolves. The questions the former RUC will face over their failure to prevent the Omagh massacre. MI5 appears undaunted. [WebBook]
Introduction: Peter Keeley and the Omagh Bomb. Q – Can I put it to you: he is a bit of a Newry wide boy who was involved in the IRA …And the reason he was involved in the IRA was because he was a Newry wide boy? A – Most likely. Q – And the…
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Hooded men.
1. No one shouted ‘Stop’. 2. The ‘Beasting’ of prisoners in Derry 3. Torture and mutilation 4. Torture and mutilation as a counter-insurgency tactic in Her Majesty’s Colonies 5. The Hooded Men. 6. Delegating murder and torture to British agents in Loyalist paramilitary gangs. 7. Torture, mutilation and murder by a British agent in the…
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The Judicial Fixer (Webbook).
1. Brigadier Frank Kitson subverts the law. 2. Judicial compromise. 3. An Allegedly Independent Judge pre-judges the Murder Victims by Attending a Meeting at which they were referred to as ‘the other side’ 4. Threats to Muzzle the Ever Compliant British Media 5. Black Propaganda 6. John Hume wanted an “independent authority” to conduct the inquiry 7. Fabricated Evidence. 8. Lord Saville…
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From the Vaults (1987)
In 1987 Eamon McCann visited Libya where he interviewed Col Muammar Gaddaffi for In Dublin magazine and Channel 4’s Diverse Reports programme. McCann published his account in the 19 February 1987 edition of the magazine. It is reproduced in full below:
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Omagh.
The Real IRA bombed Omagh in 1998. Twenty-nine people perished. Deirdre Younge, a former Current Affairs Editor in RTE, wrote this article for Village magazine in November 2021. Since then, the British Government has established an inquiry into the atrocity. It is being chaired by Judge Alan Turnbull. Peter Keeley, a British agent who had…
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Shooting to kill? [WebBook]
Author Michael O’Connell has long had an interest in the Stalker affair. He had the opportunity of discussing it at length with John Stalker during a visit the latter made to Nottingham in 1989, after his retirement from the Manchester police. O’Connell had developed his own sources about the killing of the six civilians described in this…
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Birmingham Six. [WebBook.]
The author of this article, Michael O’Connell, arrived in Ireland with his family from England in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War. He was then two years of age. After returning to England he was educated by the Marist Fathers and then at the Inns of Court Law School in London. He…
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Stakeknife, the spy with no name
Iain Livingston who now heads Operation Kenova since Jon Boutcher was appointed Chief Constable, is in the bizarre position of not being able to name the alleged British Army/MI5 superspy, ‘Stakeknife‘. Livingston took over Operation Kenova after Jon Boutcher was appointed Chief Constable of the RUC. He is now appealing to the British Government to…
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Gusty Spence
I met friends of Gusty Spence in the mid 1960s when I ran a small business that dad had formed in the early 1940s after I was born. I joined the Orange Order in the early 1960s, and often sat beside Gusty’s brother, who thought highly of him and said of someone who had criticised…
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Old Bailey bombing.
I woke with a start; an eye watering stench was catching in the back of my throat! My brother was sitting on the end of his bunk looking quite sullen, before I said anything, he pointed his finger at me and said, “Don’t say a bloody word!” I lay still, my body aching from another…
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From the Vaults (1987): The Workers Party and the Official IRA. By Derek Dunne.
In 1987, journalist and author Derek Dunne wrote a piece for In Dublin magazine in which he pointed out that the Official IRA was still in existence. At that stage, the Official Republican movement had transformed itself into the Workers Party and was holding itself out as an organisation which was dedicated to peace. In…
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Our Man in Dublin. [WebBook]
1. Introduction. There was a deeply clandestine aspect to the Troubles. It involved the manipulation of public opinion via propaganda. All of the parties involved in the conflict participated in the process to one extent or another. Britain’s Foreign Office was by far the most successful. The British Secret Service (MI6) and the Information Research…
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Hidden agendas.
1. The Irish Times gave a platform to the Official IRA during the Troubles. Dick Walsh, the political correspondent of The Irish Times during the Troubles, was an adviser to Cathal Goulding. Cathal Goulding was chief-of-staff of the IRA and, after it split in 1969, he held the same position with the Official IRA. The…
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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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Hyde Park
I first ‘blew in” to Ireland in 1965, to hunt down the alleged gay sexual partner of British Politician and Liberal Party leader, Jeremy Thorpe. I developed an affinity to Ireland, and later opened offices in both Belfast and Dublin providing the whole spectrum of PI services to the legal profession, industry and commerce and…
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From the Vaults: Blown Away. Fortnight magazine, March 1996. 13 page report on the breakdown of the NI ceasefire.
The March 1996 edition of Fortnight magazine reported on the breakdown of the Northern Ireland ceasefire. A copy of the cover story can be read and or downloaded by clicking on the graphic below.
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Scappaticci’s true barbaric value to MI5.
Contents: 1. Scappaticci, a sexually deviant, sadistic torturer and mass murderer. 2. MI5 controlled Scappaticci. Kenova has ignored his real – and barbaric – value to MI5. 3. The Baroness from MI5 purrs with delight. The operation was a ‘bad’ one, not to mention, ‘a disgraceful’ one. 4. Missing MI5 files turn up. 5. A…
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Life and Death in South Armagh. [WebBook.]
Deirdre Younge is a former journalist and Current Affairs Programmes Editor in RTE Television. She is now a writer and media production consultant. Part 1. Garda Sergeant Owen Corrigan, a victim of conflicting – and false – claims he was an IRA mole. This is a story about deception that runs through decades. It shows…
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Misrepresenting Haughey’s relationship with the Provos. The Irish Times promoted the Official IRA’s version of the Arms Crisis.
The Irish Times promoted the Official IRA’s version of the Arms Crisis
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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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Nobody Won: debunking the myth the Provisionals were brought to their knees by British spies. Margaret Urwin reviews ‘The Intelligence War Against the IRA’ by Thomas Leahy.
By Margaret Urwin. In ‘The Intelligence War against the IRA’, Thomas Leahy, Senior Lecturer in Politics in Cardiff University, challenges the growing dominant narrative that the IRA was brought to the negotiating table in the 1990s because they had been ‘brought to their knees’ by British intelligence. Since the outing of State agents, Stakeknife and…
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Paudge Brennan, the forgotten man of the Arms Crisis
A note from the editor: This article is about the late Paudge Brennan, the Fianna Fáil Minister who resigned a little over 50 years ago after the eruption of the Arms Crisis. It is written by his son, Sean. Not surprisingly, it is partisan. It does, nevertheless, yield an insight into a perspective on Irish…
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[Expanded] British Intelligence must have known that Seán MacStíofáin was a Garda ‘informer’.
By David Burke. The letter from the Garda officer who had served in C3. In 1973 a former Garda intelligence officer, Patrick Crinnion, wrote a letter which he addressed to three politicians: Garret FitzGerald, Conor Cruise O’Brien and Richie Ryan. All three were prominent government ministers at the time. Crinnion had served with the overarching…
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Minister for Justice confirms existence of unreleased “sensitive” Garda files about Arms Crisis but fails to commit to their release after Seán Haughey TD describes Seán MacStíofáin of the IRA as mis-informer in Dáil Éireann.
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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Vandalising history.
By David Burke. Introduction. The story of the Arms Crisis is a perfectly simple one. It only becomes complicated when the lies, fantasies and myths that engulfed it are entertained as if serious. Only two participants in the débacle told the full, accurate and unvarnished truth: Captain James Kelly and Colonel Michael Hefferon, both dutiful…
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Dick Walsh’s covert committee monitored OIRA media enemies. Future Irish Times Assistant editor put colleagues on lists.
By David Burke. THE OFFICIAL IRA AND OFFICIAL SINN FÉIN The IRA fractured in December 1969 into what became known as the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA. Sinn Féin split along the same lines the following month. Before the division, the IRA had been led by IRA veterans such as Cathal Goulding, who was…
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Irish Times fraud.
The Assistant Editor of the Irish Times distorted the truth about the Arms Crisis. He was a friend of both the chief of staff of the Official IRA and the Taoiseach, ‘Honest’ Jack Lynch. The Official IRA had a vested interest in manipulating the story. Over time, the journalist portrayed Lynch as the hapless victim…
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The Forgotten Arms Crisis Scoop: how a London newspaper reported details of what became known as the Arms Crisis nearly seven months before it erupted in Ireland.
Séamas Ó Tuathail was the first journalist to discover details of what was to become known as the Arms Crisis but chose not to report it. Unbeknownst to him, some of the information he dug up was relayed to a British journalist by a talkative senior member of the IRA. The resulting British newspaper article…
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