Tag: IRA
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Sir Garret
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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The Smearmeister from the Irish Times
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.
© 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)) The British Government is introducing new Legacy legislation and has reached an agreement with the Irish Government on the issue. Inquests are to restart but…
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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.
1. Introduction. I remember being struck by a passage in the late Kennedy Lindsay’s book, ‘The British Intelligence Services In Action’ (1981). Lindsay, a Unionist politician, alleged that MI6: ‘has numerous agents and informants [in the Republic of Ireland], including many at high levels in the civil service, police, and armed services. The territory had been part…
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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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The Judicial Fixer.
1. Brigadier Frank Kitson subverts the law. Brigadier Frank Kitson of the British Army was a so-called counterinsurgency guru. He was sent to Northern Ireland in 1970 to tackle the IRA. The following year, his astonishingly indiscreet book, ‘Low Intensity Operations’ appeared on the bookshelves. In it, he explained that there were two ways of administering…
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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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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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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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Has Jon Boutcher, the head of Operation Kenova, passed through the shark infested waters of British Intelligence? (Kenova Part 3.) By Deirdre Younge.
Chief Superintendent Jon Boutcher and Operation Kenova’s first report on Agent Steaknife aka Freddie Scappaticci, has now, surprisingly, been approved by the British Cabinet Office without redactions or changes. It is now being considered by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) of Northern Ireland. Boutcher seems optimistic that the report will be published soon. [Since this…
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