Alex McCrory
➤ reflects on the ongoing use of the informer by the British state security apparatus.  

He crept in like a thief in the night.
Stealthily, he stalked his prey.
The characteristic smile.
Extended hand of friendship.
He moved quietly amongst the duped.
The gullible who welcomed him with open arms.
But something didn't quite gel. 
Was it his flaky personality?
A square peg in a round hole.
Where did he come from?
To where has he gone? 
Vanished into thin air.
His legacy.
Broken hearts and broken homes.

Gypo Nolan, a dim-witted Dubliner played by Victor McLaglen, is thrown out of the IRA for failing to execute a British solider. He harbours a dream to escape to America with his prostitute girlfriend Katie, but he has no money to buy the boat tickets. A solution presents itself in the form of personal betrayal of his close friend and comrade, Frankie, who is on the run from the Tans. Desperate to see his family after weeks of dodging the enemy, the fugitive plans to return home to see his mother and sister Mary. He is taking a massive risk.

Gypo gets wind of this and decides to squeal on his mate for a reward of £20, a princely sum for the time. As the result, Frankie is killed in a shootout at his mother's house while trying to escape. Gypo starts drinking heavily and spending money freely about town. This is noticed by the local volunteers who begin to suspect him of being a tout. Mary tells the IRA that Gypo was the last person her brother spoke with that day. All the evidence points in one direction. 

The IRA finds Gypo drunk in a local pub and arrests him. Although he denies setting up his friend, the court marshal finds him guilty and sentences him to death. But the condemned man manages to escape through a hole in the ceiling and runs straight to Katie's house to profess his love. She pleads for his life but the IRA commander refuses to intercede on her behalf. IRA men hurriedly go to Katie's house and shoot Gypo dead. 

The Informer is a story of betrayal, greed, love and retribution. These are some of the ingredients that turn a comrade into a Judas Iscariot. Whether it be for money, revenge or self-preservation, the tout relinquishes all bonds of friendship and brotherhood. This he must do in order to effectively serve his master.

In the first instance, informing is usually a panicked response to some type of leverage or threat exerted by interrogators or spooks. Few set out to be stoolies, on the contrary, most are pressurised and cajoled by authority into cooperating. The price is far too high for it to be a voluntary decision. However, a brutal death on a lonely country road has failed to deter some from accepting their thirty pieces of sliver. The certainty of a long prison sentence can override the possibility of discovery. For some it is a chance worth taking in certain circumstances. 

What prompted this post is the recent exposure of Denis McFadden as a British agent. What is his story? We will probably never know the answer.


 
 Informers become adept at telling lies and covering their tracks. It is part of the tradecraft. There are no obvious tell-tale signs to alert us to their presence. In some cases there may be grounds for suspicion, but it usually comes later in the day. An awful lot of damage already be done by the time someone comes under suspicion. The many unanswered questions around McFadden has excited speculation and theories which is understandable, but there is little hard evidence to support them at this time. We may come to learn more as the story unravels. But, from the standpoint of his handlers, it is a job well done.

McFadden was personable, affable, generous, helpful, resourceful, likeable and friendly. These traits did not point him out as an informer rather than being just a nice guy. 20/20 vision makes the fool a wise man after the fact. How much of the above was simply a part of his legend; a clever construction designed to ingratiate and mislead. Again, we may never know the answer.

Today, ten republicans are in jail on the most serious of charges. Families and relationships have been turned upside down in the space of a week. The immediate future looks bleak for all concerned. A man who was embraced as a friend, welcomed with open arms, has left a trail of devastation in his wake. This is the hallmark of The Informer.


Alec McCrory 
is a former blanketman.

The Informer

Alex McCrory
➤ reflects on the ongoing use of the informer by the British state security apparatus.  

He crept in like a thief in the night.
Stealthily, he stalked his prey.
The characteristic smile.
Extended hand of friendship.
He moved quietly amongst the duped.
The gullible who welcomed him with open arms.
But something didn't quite gel. 
Was it his flaky personality?
A square peg in a round hole.
Where did he come from?
To where has he gone? 
Vanished into thin air.
His legacy.
Broken hearts and broken homes.

Gypo Nolan, a dim-witted Dubliner played by Victor McLaglen, is thrown out of the IRA for failing to execute a British solider. He harbours a dream to escape to America with his prostitute girlfriend Katie, but he has no money to buy the boat tickets. A solution presents itself in the form of personal betrayal of his close friend and comrade, Frankie, who is on the run from the Tans. Desperate to see his family after weeks of dodging the enemy, the fugitive plans to return home to see his mother and sister Mary. He is taking a massive risk.

Gypo gets wind of this and decides to squeal on his mate for a reward of £20, a princely sum for the time. As the result, Frankie is killed in a shootout at his mother's house while trying to escape. Gypo starts drinking heavily and spending money freely about town. This is noticed by the local volunteers who begin to suspect him of being a tout. Mary tells the IRA that Gypo was the last person her brother spoke with that day. All the evidence points in one direction. 

The IRA finds Gypo drunk in a local pub and arrests him. Although he denies setting up his friend, the court marshal finds him guilty and sentences him to death. But the condemned man manages to escape through a hole in the ceiling and runs straight to Katie's house to profess his love. She pleads for his life but the IRA commander refuses to intercede on her behalf. IRA men hurriedly go to Katie's house and shoot Gypo dead. 

The Informer is a story of betrayal, greed, love and retribution. These are some of the ingredients that turn a comrade into a Judas Iscariot. Whether it be for money, revenge or self-preservation, the tout relinquishes all bonds of friendship and brotherhood. This he must do in order to effectively serve his master.

In the first instance, informing is usually a panicked response to some type of leverage or threat exerted by interrogators or spooks. Few set out to be stoolies, on the contrary, most are pressurised and cajoled by authority into cooperating. The price is far too high for it to be a voluntary decision. However, a brutal death on a lonely country road has failed to deter some from accepting their thirty pieces of sliver. The certainty of a long prison sentence can override the possibility of discovery. For some it is a chance worth taking in certain circumstances. 

What prompted this post is the recent exposure of Denis McFadden as a British agent. What is his story? We will probably never know the answer.


 
 Informers become adept at telling lies and covering their tracks. It is part of the tradecraft. There are no obvious tell-tale signs to alert us to their presence. In some cases there may be grounds for suspicion, but it usually comes later in the day. An awful lot of damage already be done by the time someone comes under suspicion. The many unanswered questions around McFadden has excited speculation and theories which is understandable, but there is little hard evidence to support them at this time. We may come to learn more as the story unravels. But, from the standpoint of his handlers, it is a job well done.

McFadden was personable, affable, generous, helpful, resourceful, likeable and friendly. These traits did not point him out as an informer rather than being just a nice guy. 20/20 vision makes the fool a wise man after the fact. How much of the above was simply a part of his legend; a clever construction designed to ingratiate and mislead. Again, we may never know the answer.

Today, ten republicans are in jail on the most serious of charges. Families and relationships have been turned upside down in the space of a week. The immediate future looks bleak for all concerned. A man who was embraced as a friend, welcomed with open arms, has left a trail of devastation in his wake. This is the hallmark of The Informer.


Alec McCrory 
is a former blanketman.

13 comments:

  1. 'This is the hallmark of The Informer.'

    And yet this precludes the fact that because of the actions of people like Dennis McFadden wholesome human beings like Lyra McKee might get to live out long meaningiful and fruitfull lives. Fuck you Alex McCory and 'every other evil cause that ends in murder and children crying.'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert, yes, Iain Banks coined a remarkable phrase that I have cited in the past.

      But does it preclude any such thing?

      My question in the Belfast Telegraph immediately after Lyra's death has thus far gone unanswered.

      "If the PSNI want information from the public, then they should give information to the public on the agents they are running in Derry. Then we would have a much better understanding of Lyra McKee's killing."

      If the agents being run by the cops in the Mount Vernon UVF had not been killing people would anybody have been killed?

      The BBC described Stakneknife's killing spree as murder on an industrial scale.

      If the agents are "directing the terrorism" you believe they are meant to preclude, how much violence would there be if they were not directing it? Mountvernon and Stakeknife point to conclusions away from your own. Which leads to a different direction for your "fuck you" assertion - it might be more suited for the people running the agents rather than Alex.

      Good to see you still read us!

      Delete
  2. Alec

    His story is perhaps less important than the story behind those he has identified. I'd speculate that he was probably always available to give someone a lift or had a few pounds to loan them etc -and thus capitalised on thier laziness and lowering of security because he made himself indispensable and convenient to their lives -and others would have seen him as someone they could trust because of his associations and involvment alone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. “... What prompted this post is the recent exposure of Denis McFadden as a British agent. What is his story? We will probably never know the answer...”

    It’s not 20/20 vision. Who cares what motivated him. The Belfast estate agent supplied safe houses/meeting rooms to the provos that were bugged too. I don’t get undertaking a dissenting lifestyle and then skimping on the opesec details. Everyone is an informer, what will you do about it ?

    Maybe try house boats from now on. This is low grade infiltration.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DaithiD,

      Wouldn't even matter where it is, the spooks have highly sophisticated electronic means to listen in to conversations anywhere. All that happens now is they wait to get more chance of arrest and lift as many as possible. Wouldn't be fair to label them all as informers especially if they are unwittingly so.

      Delete
    2. I'd rather 10 people in gaol and upset families than 1 dead and a family in perpetual mourning for what? To assuage bitterness under the guise of patriotism but furthering not one iota their political objective?

      Who's feeding the kids a load of shit too?

      Delete
  4. Steve

    Sounds a bit excessive to prefer innocent people to be put in prison if it avoids someone being killed? Pre-emptive justice would mean anyone could be imprisoned if it is suspected that they might commit a crime. Alternatively, if the crime has already been committed then how does breaking up and destroying innocent families a remedy?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christy,

      I meant if they are convicted in a court of Law of conspiring to commit an act that would likely result in the death of another.

      If the crime is already committed then it's the punishment which breaks up their families, and that too is upon their heads alone. No-one forced them to commit their act.

      Delete
  5. Anthony,

    Thank you for responding to my comment and indeed for hosting it.

    There is no suggestion as yet that Dennis McFadden was himself directing terrorism, his role, seemingly from what little is currently in the public domain, appears to have been ancillary to the primary activities of the organization.
    Which would contrast greatly with the cases you have cited where all legal, ethical and human rights considerations were violated.

    'If the agents are "directing the terrorism" you believe they are meant to preclude, how much violence would there be if they were not directing it?'

    Considerably more given the raison d'être of Real IRA is perpetrating violence in the first place.Therefore, how many more deaths would occur if the organisation is not infiltrated? In the grand strategic scheme of things the capacity if not it's desire for violence will not be enhanced but rather, ultimately.incapacitated by the methods these agencies employ.

    As morally opaque as that covert world often appears I still feel that the best prescription was offered by you elsewhere,

    'But none of them are very good. But even in terms of bad there is bad, worse and even worse. My attitude is go for those who best enhance the possibility of making life more tolerable, even if only slightly, for the widest body of people. That is progress of a sort, limited as it is.'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert - we always publish what you have to say.

      This notion of ancillary is invariably used by the security services to down play the involvement of their agents. Experience is a good teacher in this regard.

      We can never be sure that if left to their own devices homicidal groups such as those currently calling themselves the IRA would inflict more violence that that inflicted as a result of agent encouragement. We have the experience of Mark Haddock and Brian Nelson to at least give us serious cause for concern.

      The application of my prescription is compromised by the very moral opacity you refer to. These people are so thoroughly untrustworthy that to place any trust in them is seriously ill advised.

      Penetration of course works - it is not the second oldest profession because it doesn't work. The problem is one of what it works for. If the preservation of life was demonstrably the only reason penetration was used, most people would put up with it. But as the security services have used it so frequently for the opposite purpose then the deep misgivings are going to exist.

      Delete
  6. Steve

    The conflicting views on criminal justice are that, on one hand: it is thought better that 9 guilty people go free than 1 innocent person wrongfully convicted. That is contrasted with the view that it is better that 9 innocent people be imprisoned that let one guilty person go free. You seem to be advocating the latter.

    If the evidence is there to secure a conviction for conspiracy or actual murder then that the outcome should be a given. But to prefer 10 be locked up is excessive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I'm saying it's better that 9 people who have conspired to engage in an enterprise which will likely result in the death of another go to prison after proper judicial proceedings than ignore the conspiracy and let one person die.

      Delete