How an IRA man turned British spy met his brutal end

independent: The long arm of republican vengeance reached inside a remote Irish mountain cottage yesterday and took the life of Denis Donaldson, the former IRA and Sinn Fein member who was recently unmasked as a police agent.

One or more assassins cornered the 56-year-old republican, gunning him down in the primitive ramshackle cottage where he had hidden himself away from the world. There were unconfirmed reports last night that his body had been mutilated.

The cottage is in the Blue Stack Mountains near the Donegal village of Glenties, a rugged and sparsely populated area. It seemed he felt safe there, even though last month his presence was publicised. But the republican tradition of carrying out what are called "executions" of known informers has evidently not faded with the general rundown of the IRA campaign.

There is no mystery about why he was killed, since the IRA makes no secret of its hatred and contempt for informers and agents in its ranks. Republican organisations have killed many over the centuries, including scores in recent decades. But the question is exactly who killed him and whether his assassination was sanctioned by the IRA leadership. The answer will determine the immediate political future of Northern Ireland. Read more

db: To say there is no mystery why he was killed since he was an informer and the IRA hates informers may be over simplifying it. Who knows, it may have been our own security services that murdered him. Their track record in the north indicates that if circumstances rendered this course of action in their view prudent, they would not think twice.