Did UK use 'spy' Donaldson to 'bring down' Stormont?
sundayherald: Call for probe into Sinn Fein 'spy'
Confusion replaced astonishment last night following the revelation by an expelled Sinn Fein official that he was a British spy.
Unionists in Northern Ireland are putting pressure on the UK government to launch a full public inquiry into the so-called Stormontgate affair.
Denis Donaldson was working as a Sinn Fein assembly group administrator in Stormont when police raided the party's offices investigating a Republican spy ring. Donaldson, 55, was one of three men arrested and accused of gathering intelligence for the IRA. The scandal led to the collapse of power-sharing in Northern Ireland in October 2002.
Last week, the charges against Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy were dropped "in the public's interest".
On Friday Donaldson said: "I deeply regret my activities with British intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch.
"I was not involved in any Republican spy ring in Stormont. The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction."
... A military intelligence source added: "It's the dirty war in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein and the IRA and the government couldn't tell the truth if they had a gun at their head." He said that Donaldson had been used as "a tennis ball".
But a military intelligence source on the mainland said that the main question being asked in the British intelligence community was whether Donaldson was used by the British government to bring down Stormont, and if so, why. Read more
Veteran republican's spy statement
Confusion replaced astonishment last night following the revelation by an expelled Sinn Fein official that he was a British spy.
Unionists in Northern Ireland are putting pressure on the UK government to launch a full public inquiry into the so-called Stormontgate affair.
Denis Donaldson was working as a Sinn Fein assembly group administrator in Stormont when police raided the party's offices investigating a Republican spy ring. Donaldson, 55, was one of three men arrested and accused of gathering intelligence for the IRA. The scandal led to the collapse of power-sharing in Northern Ireland in October 2002.
Last week, the charges against Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy were dropped "in the public's interest".
On Friday Donaldson said: "I deeply regret my activities with British intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch.
"I was not involved in any Republican spy ring in Stormont. The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction."
... A military intelligence source added: "It's the dirty war in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein and the IRA and the government couldn't tell the truth if they had a gun at their head." He said that Donaldson had been used as "a tennis ball".
But a military intelligence source on the mainland said that the main question being asked in the British intelligence community was whether Donaldson was used by the British government to bring down Stormont, and if so, why. Read more
Veteran republican's spy statement
posted by exoplanet at 6:59 AM
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