We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Updated at midday
THE POLICE OMBUDSMAN for Northern Ireland is carrying out a major investigation into whether the British security forces could have prevented murders of alleged IRA informers in the 1980s and ’90s.
First revealed by The Guardian, the inquiry will reportedly focus on the role of a double agent known as ‘Stakeknife’ who ran the republican movement’s counter-intelligence squad. It centres on at least 20 murders of people who were believed to be informers.
In a statement today, the Ombudsman’s office confirmed the investigation arose from a number of separate complaints made to the office by members of the public as well as matters referred to it by the PSNI.
“They included allegations that some murders carried out during this period could have been prevented and that a number of people were subsequently protected from investigation and prosecution.”
The Ombudsman’s office said that while most complaints it receives concern allegations relating to individual incidents, in this case they identified “wider issues connected to a series of murders” which need further investigation.
This investigation was then broadened and has been underway for more than a year now.
“It is making good progress but there is still work to be done.”
“We are at a stage where we can now confirm that we are carrying out such an investigation. The issues involved are extremely sensitive and we will not be providing any further information at this stage, either publicly or to any individuals.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The Gardai also let informer Sean O’Callaghan away with the murder of a fellow IRA informer in the south. He even told all about it in his biography. The guards have never even questioned him about it, though his handlers knew all about it
PIRA Kangaroo Courts were a proven means of judicial fairness and due process.
Especially when the cops approved of it and covered up for the perpetrators
“If a person admits to something after being repeatedly hit with a hammer then who are we to argue with that person”
- Gerry Adams, 1984
Great film……..never knew he was in that too!!!
“It wasn’t uncommon for people to tie themselves up, blindfold themselves and shoot themselves in the back of the head while jumping from a moving vehicle, that’s the kind of things that were happening during that era in the North of Ireland. SF are glad they brought peace to the 1.8 million citizens of the North”
- Martin McGuinness, SF Ard Fheis, 2013
Antrim has someone hijacked your account or have you just gone mental?
Priceless retorts from A/K to the fact that state agents in paramilitary groups on both sides of the border were given free reign to kill people. I ask you, Antrim/Kurdistan, why have the Gardai never questioned Sean O’callaghan about his self-confessed torture and murder of Sean Corcoran in 1985? The Gardai knew he did it. He wrote about it. He told journalists about it. His handlers probably gave him permission to do it to cover up his own tracks. Why is this man untouchable?
Untouchable to who? The British? The PIRA? Who can’t touch him?
Like a lot of things in life, It is certainly anything but straight forward. So many genuine arguments can be made from all sides point of view.
I don’t doubt the brits could have stopped some of them, but as is true in many ways, the little guy at the bottom seldom matters.
I wonder how many (if any) were framed as informers, to protect the real informer. Hard to believe that didn’t happen
Tom
Actually that did happen in belfast i think it was. The guy in charge of sniffing out informers was in fact an informer himself and had guys killed who werent informers at all.
Stakeknife
Bit of a side issue, the predominant guilt for these murders lies with those PIRA cowards who murdered them.
Diarmuid did you not bother to read the actual story… MI5 along with the British State actually gave Loyalists the names of innocent Catholics like Francisco Notarantonio who was murdered to cover up the work of double agents.. Francisco Notarantonio was specifically targeted because his name was similar to that of the real Stakeknife Freddie Scappaticci… It’s reckoned 40 innocent people were murdered to cover up the work of Stakeknife..
They could have prevented a lot of killings. They could have stopped Omagh. They could have not decided to indiscriminately bomb the shopping streets of Dublin and Monaghan. They always played a sneaky game, fought a dirty war.
To get someone to turn informer you have generally 2 types . Those who have ideological reasons and by and large the majority who are blackmailed into it. Blackmailing people usually centres on people who have gambling or other addictions, threat of long prison terms unless they cooperate or sexual indiscretions. The last one is particularly apt as there is now a growing clamour into how MI5 used the sexual abuse of boys in the Kincora Boys Home to compromise Loyalist politicians and paramilitaries. No doubt they used this against Republicans as well, not that you will hear a peep about this in the Dail or the Southern media.
More often than not it was more beneficial for the Brits to “untie” an “asset” in case they were caught by their Paramilitary group and used as a propaganda tool. Imagine a Republican or Loyalist informer telling the world that serving police officers, civil and military intelligence officers allowed an informer to continue to abuse children so as to gain intel on the group they belonged to. It’s a lot easier to have them killed and they whole thing covered up.
Fact is that all sides have their hands dirty and no side can say that they have the moral high ground.
Republicans certainly can’t anyway
Neither can Loyalists Antrim or for that matter the British State.
The British state have cleaner hands than the Republicans anyway. 1000 security forces murdered while in return they took 350 lives, that shows who the real aggressors were.
You know a lot about it Brian.
the boys home in Kincora, is a massive story – almost completely ignored by the Irish media.
With elections coming up in the UK, the British Labour party have pledged to have a full investigation into this.
Boys may even have been trafficked from Kincora, to the UK, (and even parts of Ireland) for abuse by elite figures and very powerful politicians.
M15 knew about it, did nothing – but instead used it as a tool for blackmail purposes. This is one of the most troubling stories in all of Northern Irelands history, but the Irish media don’t seem to want to know.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/kincora-labour-would-include-abuse-at-belfast-home-in-ukwide-inquiry-31133033.html
Antrim are you forgetting to add in the Loyalists proxy gangs that the British used to do their dirty work to that figure? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles#Casualties
The security forces killed 51.5% civilians Repub ~35%, Loyl ~85.4.
What is interesting is that Loyalists “bringing the fight to the IRA” only killed 41 out of 877 (4%). So were the rest just sectarian murders because they were catholics or suspected PIRA members that their British handlers wanted them to kill “off the books” so to speak.
Are you suggesting every loyalist murder was ordered by the British security forces?
“The British State have cleaner hands” That’s a laughable comment to make. It was the British State that allowed the troubles to start.. They stood by and allowed Loyalists with the help of the police burn Catholics out of their homes. They committed mass murder of civil rights marchers. They had secret branches of the Army like the FRU who went around murdering innocent catholics just to rile up the Nationalist community.. They had agents like Robin “The Jackal” Jackson who is claimed to have murdered between 100 and 200 innocent Catholics North and South of the border.. He was responsible along with other British agents and serving members of the British Army of carrying out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which killed over 30 people… There’s so many questions of British involvement in so many killings it’s a wonder why the Irish Government aren’t asking some serious questions and demanding answers.. Or maybe our own Government have blood on their hands also as surly to god they know who carried out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and just don’t want to upset the applecart
No Antrim to be fair most were just bigoted sectarian murders based on a persons religious beliefs pure and simple.
Just like IRA murders of innocent protestants then Brian.
Indeed you are correct however how many of those innocents were deliberately targeted just for their religion alone? Kingsmill stands out as one atrocity as does Greysteel however I would dare saw that if you sat down and analysed ever killing in NI you will find that the IRA were tasked primarily with hitting military and economic targets. Loyalists just shot people because they were Catholic.
So did Republicans
An economic target was Balmoral furnishings on the Shankill Road in 1971 that killed 4 innocent people including 2 babies. How was blowing that shop gonna damage the British economy? An independent family furniture shop ffs.
The Bayardo bar and Mountainview tavern attacks also on the Shankill.
Darkley gospel Hall.
Kingsmills and Tullyvallen.
Enniskillen, La Mon hotel, Teebane, Coleraine.
Murdering vermin.
We could be here all day citing incidents like the 3 catholic lads burned to a cinder in Drumcree so a bunch of OO lads could march down a road. The massacre of the Miami Showband, the Sean Graham bookmakers massacre and so on. Fact is that Loyalists primary targets were civilians which is an uncomfortable truth that Loyalists and Southern political parties try to gloss over.
I’m not disputing that, you are trying to water down the republican involvement in sectarian murder. Add up the numbers and you’ll find there’s not much difference, remember that Republicans murdered twice as many people as loyalists, that makes the % of civilian murders less relevant. 2055 people in total murdered by Republicans, roughly 1000 security forces, that leaves around 1000 civilians killed and as the republican bombing campaign was far more extensive than loyalists they are responsible for way more injuries to civilians.
And the 3 Quinn children were murdered in Ballymena, not Drumcree.
So where are those “clean hands” now, did they win, are they in Parliament or retired has-beens eking out a survival level life on a pension in the UK ?
The Provos bombed innocent civilians… in pubs, on shopping streets…
Nothing noble or patriotic about killing innocent men, women and children.
Yes they won, they wore the Republicans down and forced them to the negotiation table (without a possibility of a UI). Some are in politics now, many are still in the military, many went onto private security work in Iraq etc. Bottom line is, they were soldiers when they were on the streets of NI, their job was to end the troubles and they did that. PS I wouldn’t mind a military pension if I’d done 22 years service.
Tell that to the people of Dresden Diarmuid
I will Boganity, I will…
@Brian Ward
There has been a lot of coverage of rapists in the Provisional IRA in the Republic’s media. Whether or not any of them was blackmailed into becoming an informer is beside the point.
Ciaran, if the Provos (an illegal group) cover up sex abuse they are evil ba.stards. Reading from your comment it seems to me that you think that knowing that someone has committed a sex crime, not prosecuting them and in fact using them as an informer even though they might continue to commit further sex crimes bears no further thought. So it’s perfectly OK for the forces of law and order to allow child rapists for instance, roam the streets and perhaps commit further crimes so long as they give intel on paramilitaries. Is that your position or have I got it wrong?
@Brian
There’s no indication that gardaí blackmailed rapists into becoming informers – that happened in Northern Ireland. Therefore, it’s nothing to do with the Republic.
Of course, I regard what MI5 and RUC Special Branch did with regard to terrorists who were sexual abusers of children as despicable.
It was the job of the security forces to find any possible weakness in a possible recruit. Some methods had to be unorthodox, personally I’d have jailed them but if they could be used to save lives by preventing terror attacks that was probably seen then as a better alternative. It’s OK sitting judging now when there’s no bombs going off and people being killed nearly every day.
@Antrim/Kurdistan
I remember watching a UTV Insight special about this subject. One of the people who was interviewed was Ann Travers, whose sister was shot dead by a Provo who is believed to have been an informer who was run by RUC Special Branch. In the interview, Ann said that nobody has the right to play God with people’s lives.
The welfare of a child who has been raped is just as important as the lives of innocent people who went about their business while at risk of being caught in an explosion.
@Zoe
MI5 operates in the Great Britain and Northern Ireland only. Therefore, what MI5 did with regard to Kincora is nothing to do with the Republic. By the way, RTÉ reported on the Richard Kerr interview the day after it was broadcast on Channel 4 News.
Ciaran, I Said nothing about the Gardai covering up sex crimes in the Republic however they do seem to have no problem in allegedly dealing with drug dealers selling their deadly drugs in exchange for information. As for MI5 and it’s relevance to informers and the Republic, do you really think that a child rapist who is being handled by MI5 is going to respect Borders?
Again you seem to have a very strange attitude to sex abuse cover up. If the Provos cover up in the North you will want tho know how many of them went South but if the British security services cover up in the North then it’s nothing to do with us because those abused would never travel over the Broder on their own now would they?
Get the pens out for SF Bingo*
- Damaging to Peace Process
- come forward with information
- known about it since 1980
- was an act of war
- South Armagh
- FG Trolls
- A smear campaign
- NI elections
Hmmm…they’re wouldn’t be an election looming by any chance?
BINGO!
Quick look over there, a SF TD will suddenly become highly offended and indignant….
time for another sit in
You forgot – ‘everyone was doing it’
The hits also include,
They started it……….700 years of omission……. I don’t know who owns that aramlite….. I was never a member …….. leaving on a jet plane (to get my eyes fixed) ……….. lets move on ……… the past is the past …..
The Brits didn’t care that informers were getting bumped off.Once the republican movement found out that a person was informing there worth to the British dimished.PSNI are still half RUC anyways and you can be sure they won’t be investigating there own fellow British citizens as that’s “unpatriotic”..
Nonsense. The PSNI are a cross-community police force supported by all the major political parties and the vast majority of the NI population. They are not “half RUC”.
Your funny…you should try stand up
Lol that’s funny
Diarmuid, the article refers to the 1980′s and 1990′s when the RUC was still around. Are you telling me that no RUC member joined the PSNI in 2001? That it is made up totally of new recruits that would never had any connections with collusion and cover ups. That Special Branch was totally dissolved and no longer impedes investigations, present or historical.
They must be some powerful meds that you are on!
You are off message Brian.
Brian, I was responding to the idiotic claim that the PSNI are “half RUC”.
Even Shinners, who have a presence on the PSNI Policing Board, outwardly respect the PSNI. The PSNI has broad cross-community support.
The morons who have issues with the PSNI are either loyalist fleggers or dissident “republicans”.
I have two questions. Why the influx in stories all things IRA all of a sudden ? Why absolute no reporting whatsoever of mi5 British political paedophilia in Kincora boys home. The fact that I have to go to foreign news outlets to find out about this story is an indictment of the biasness and all out disregarded for poor catholic Irish children . Ye call yereselves journalists I call ye merely Cheaply bought spin merchants.
Covered regularly in the papers. Maybe stop reading the fish wrappers.
you are spot on B,
the Kincora story is massive. But is being completely downplayed by the Irish media.
For some reason the media don’t consider it important, and don’t want it in the public domain.
Questions need to be asked of the Irish media, as to why they are ignoring and ‘downplaying’ the Kincora story.
It is very relevant to the legacy of blackmail and intrigue, carried out by British intelligence, in N Ireland.
There are allegations that Irish children, may even have been trafficked to Elm house in London, for abuse by major political figures – some of whom were very senior in Margaret Thatcher’s government.
This is truly a major story, that deserves Irish & international media headlines.
One victim has come forward in the past few days.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/kincora-child-sex-abuse-victim-richard-kerr-i-was-molested-by-powerful-people-at-dolphin-square-and-elm-guest-house-in-london-31121971.html
I agree one hundred per cent as we all knew decades ago but has only been admitted lately the british army which is a terrorist organisation colluded and took active part in the slaughter of catholics.can We have more journalism on that im gettin a bit bored reading same ole thing about the ira.
@B-Egan
I saw Kincora victim Richard Kerr on Channel 4 News last week. There was a report on that interview on RTÉ News the day after.
Needless to say the Shinners won’t comment on this.
Actually I think that it will be the opposite. State security forces under the control of political parties allowing British citizens to be murdered and then covering it up and protecting informers higher up. I thought only terrorist organizations did that.
the ombudsman has a definite possibility of delivering a maybe for an outcome…which will be promptly forgotten faster than an election promise post election
It takes a particular sort of mental gymnastics to blame the Brits for the IRA killing its own people.
Exactly, whilst happy to use the info informers provided them they would have had no respect for anyone who ratted on their own side.
Emily – oh you just wait and see.. they’ll do it.
Of course they didn’t intervene after the got from them what they wanted. Dead men don’t talk.
Unless your a medium
A medium what ? steak !
I prefer my mediums well done.
Informers knew the risk they were taking and many may have been coerced into being informers because of information which would have compromised them. The other problem would have been the repercussions for their relatives and families. If the informer was saved then the informer would have been exposed as such which by implication would have exposed the family to all forms of retribution.
What was one person’s informer was another person’s saviour depending on whose side you were on. Also each participant be it IRA, UVF, British Army or RUC had their informers. Whether they could be saved or not can never be really proved.
The British army was great at Black Propaganda, or do people not know this?
http://mcgurksbar.com/massacre/
Britain’s propaganda war during the Troubles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/8577087.stm
Tap solny….the so called might of the british forces couldnt do it lol objective=failed..fact
Baz,patjoe are social media touts!!!!the peddle their shoite tripe fg views on this site constantly pmsl muppets of the highest order!!!!!ps.if you are a tout,informer,spy in any war situation you should be rubbed out(fact)
So it’s now “officially” the fault of the British that Martin, Gerry and the Boys butchered their own people. Gotta love the revisionism of some of this.
A lot were saved, it’s not easy saving everybody. The biggest injustice is giving no support to the ones that were relocated after their job was finished.
Pretty hard to do when you couldn’t see the BA for dust when they departed
Nobody departed
A bit like Brian Nelson who was allowed to impost guns for the UDA with the full knowledge of MI5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nelson_(Northern_Irish_loyalist) . funnily enough he “died” of a heart attack although the body has never been releases to his relatives.
It was FRU that ran Nelson. Obviously the main security forces wernt involved as they seized the weapons in Portadown.
I’m was being polite using “departed” they’re exit could more be described as faster than a scalded cat
Apologies Antrim, you are right he was run by the FRU. The same force that recently featured on a TV programme about their murdering of innocent civilians. The same FRU that allowed and aided Loyalist paramilitaries to kill more people than Republicans between 12992 and 1994. the same FRU whose CO Brigadier John Gordon Kerr testified as a character witness for Nelson.
No the TV show was about the MRF. They existed long before the FRU.
Was it a privilege for the loyalists to kill more people than Republicans?
in their sick twisted minds it probably was a privilege
Brian said it as if it was a privilege
MRF was just renamed FRU similar to the b specials being absorbed into the UDR then again into the RIR..the jury is still out on whether the PSNI can shake off the RUC elements still in positions of authority within it.. hopefully so..
Aim: wipe out the IRA.
Result: object achieved.
This from the man who keeps using phrases like “SF/IRA” and “They haven’t gone away you know”.
Confused much Pat? LOL
Another investigation needs to be held into the murders of hundreds of thousands of irish citizens by english occuppying forces over the past 800 years ,
Freedom from britans greedy hands cost our people their lives
Investigation has to be launched into the killing of informers during the irish war of independence ,suspected leader michael collins believed to have ordered the killings
When the english raid and rob our land and kill our people why are those who fight back terrorist ,is it not the foreign invaders that are the terrorist
Quote from the great jane ryan
i doubt anyone cares
Bet their families do.
Should be happening on both sides of the border and all files of Dublin Monaghan bombings Released to the victims families
The IRA having become gangsters and drugpushers.
have your say