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Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein expelled a senior member after he admitted he had been spying for Britain for two decades.
Denis Donaldson was cleared last week of spying for Sinn Fein, which seeks to end British rule in Northern Ireland. In fact, he said, he had been a British agent for 20 years.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern called it a “bizarre twist”.
«« click pic for Scotsman article
Denis Donaldson, centre, with Martin McGuinness
and Gerry Adams last week. Picture: Paul Faith/ PA
“I was a British agent at the time,” Donaldson, formerly Sinn Fein’s head of administration at the mothballed Stormont Assembly in British-ruled Northern Ireland, told Irish state broadcaster RTE.
“I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life. Since that time, Donaldson said, he had worked for British intelligence and Northern Irish police. Over that period, I was paid money,” he said.
Donaldson said he deeply regretted his activities and apologised to his family and the Republican movement. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams told reporters at a news conference in Dublin that Donaldson had approached the party after police informed him his cover was about to be blown and his life was in danger.
The British government declined to comment on the revelations.
More on British covert operations below the fold »»
«« click pic for BBC article IRA A man walks past a mural in Ballymurphy, northern Ireland. Sinn Fein has expelled a senior party member, alleging that he was a spy for Britain, the IRA political ally said. REUTERS/Jeff J Mitchell
The Stormont assembly, in which Catholic Nationalist and Protestant Loyalist parties on either side of the Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide shared power, collapsed three years ago after a police raid on Sinn Fein offices.
Donaldson, along with two others, was later arrested and charged with having documents likely to be of use to terrorists. But the Director of Public Prosecutions decided last week it was no longer in the public interest to pursue the case.
“If what we’re hearing now, that one of Sinn Fein’s top administrators in Stormont turns out to be a British spy, this is as bizarre as it gets,” Ahern said.
Adams said it was too soon to say what the consequences would be in terms of kick-starting stalled talks on restoring a power-sharing government set up under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but repeated his commitment to the process.
He accused elements within the British intelligence services of trying to undermine the Good Friday Agreement as they were unhappy at changes that have largely ended 30 years of violence between Irish republican and pro-British paramilitaries.
“Those who ran those agencies … they hate republicans with a passion,” said Adams who has repeatedly denied the existence of a Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont.
“For them the war isn’t over, for them Good Friday (Agreement) was a huge mistake.”
In his statement to RTE, Donaldson said the spy ring was “a scam and a fiction” created by security forces.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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DUBLIN (Irish Examiner) Dec. 17 — In October 2002, Mr Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy were arrested on suspicion of operating a spy ring at Stormont. Police Land Rovers raided Sinn Féin’s offices at Stormont in scenes which resulted in the then Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid suspending devolution in Northern Ireland in an attempt to stave off a unionist walkout from the power sharing executive.
Eight days ago, the Public Prosecution Service announced it was no longer pursuing a case against the three men because it was not in the public interest.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain have faced demands from unionists and moderate nationalists in recent days for a Parliamentary statement explaining why the Public Prosecution Service withdrew the case.
Following separate meetings with Lord Goldsmith on Wesdnesday, the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists, the nationalist SDLP and Ulster Unionists complained that he stonewalled them when they asked what the public interest was.
Sinn Féin said the decision to drop the charges against the men was proof that the Stormontgate raids were part of a political policing operation. Republicans were left reeling today by the claims against Mr Donaldson, a popular figure within Sinn Féin.
Gerry Adams – Sinn Féin
In May 2003, the Republican Movement was also stunned when it was claimed, west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci was one of the British Army’s most valued intelligence agents, Stakeknife. Mr Scappaticci strenuously denied the claims at a press conference.
In his statement today, Mr Adams criticised the use of informers and agents by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The West Belfast MP said: “What is clear is that there are those within the PSNI and the intelligence agencies who are a law unto themselves, who use informers, spies and agents and who are operating to their own agenda with no accountability.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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