How does an armed liberation movement like the Provisional IRA mutate from the greatest threat to British rule in Ireland into the gift that keeps on giving?
How does it transition from attacking British military personnel into laying wreaths at British war memorials while British troops remain garrisoned on Irish soil?
How can it have waged war on the symbols and forces of the Crown and then respectfully attend the coronation of the King who wears it while his government continues to claim jurisdiction in part of Ireland?
How do they evolve from denying the legitimacy of a Unionist veto they claimed must be challenged into re-christening it as a consent principle they now claim must be respected?
How do they segue from asserting the historic right to keep and bear arms in our national defence to decommissioning those arms and recognising the lawful authority of the British gun in the hands of the His Majesty’s constabulary?
How did the Provisional movement morph from supporting the principles of the United Irishmen of 1798, who sought national unity across the sectarian divide, to supporting the Counter-Republic of 1998, in which those differences are permanently embedded in our national fabric?
Well, for one thing, they had a lot of help from the Brits who are experts at guiding these transitions. Of approximately 200 countries in the world, the British have invaded or established a military presence at some point in all but 22 of them. They are masters of counter-insurgency and pioneers in developing a multi-agency approach to coordinate the State’s civil and military apparatus to defeat guerrillas and insurgents. In the words of Brigadier General Frank Kitson,:
Well, for one thing, they had a lot of help from the Brits who are experts at guiding these transitions. Of approximately 200 countries in the world, the British have invaded or established a military presence at some point in all but 22 of them. They are masters of counter-insurgency and pioneers in developing a multi-agency approach to coordinate the State’s civil and military apparatus to defeat guerrillas and insurgents. In the words of Brigadier General Frank Kitson,:
The law should be used as just another weapon in the Government’s arsenal, and in this case, it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.
The Brits know from long and bitter experiences throughout their Empire that the key to defeating any enemy in war is the availability of accurate, timely, and actionable intelligence.
England has a long history of using spies, informers, agents of influence, and an assortment of useful idiots to disrupt and destroy freedom struggles throughout history. Irishmen have often played a prominent role in many of these enterprises, helping the British to shape the strategic environment in their favour.
The first step in this long, complicated, and delicate process was undermining and sabotaging the IRA’s armed campaign so that those amenable to Pax Britannica could float to the top while those determined to pursue republican objectives could be killed, imprisoned, or otherwise marginalised.
In Stakeknife’s Dirty War, Richard O’Rawe has written a superb book that describes, in part, how this was achieved. It casts light in many dark corners and has uncovered darker ones that remain hidden.
Stakeknife was described as ‘the jewel in the crown’ of British intelligence. The ‘Golden Nugget.’ He may well have been as far as the British army was concerned, for he was an army agent reporting to the Force Research Unit. But he certainly wasn’t Britain’s top agent within the IRA. That accolade belongs to one or more traitors’ echelons beyond Scap’s pay grade. Scap had no say in the Provisional movement’s strategic direction although he could be used to kill people to help service that agenda without realising he was servicing it. Not that he would have cared one way or the other. Whatever motivated Scappaticci to betray our fight for freedom it certainly wasn’t some grand strategic vision. More senior agents recruited initially by MI6 and later by MI5 have yet to be revealed; described by the British intelligence and security services as ‘UK National Assets,’ these traitors remain anonymous. Undoubtedly, some have enjoyed lucrative careers on the back of their treachery.
George Orwell wrote,’ In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ Richard O’Rawe, a genuine patriot, knows it is never the wrong time to say the right thing. Richard has told the truth over many years and suffered an intense backlash from those for whom the truth is an appalling vista. There are activists for whom the attainment of the Republic is the primary motivation and the political ambitions of the Provisional movement a secondary consideration. For others, the political ambitions of the Provisional movement are the primary consideration, and the attainment of the Republic a secondary and increasingly irrelevant consideration. Richard O’Rawe falls firmly into the first category.
Stakeknife’s Dirty War is an outstanding book that will be read by most Republicans and many of their enemies. It is full of interesting and new information. New, at least to this reader.
When we are informed that Stakeknife and some of his deputies occasionally used torture, a shameful stain on our republican ideals, we must remember that Scap was acting as a paid employee of the British government and not with the official endorsement of the IRA. I was reassured to read in Richard’s book that court martial proceedings were taken against members of the Internal Security Unit who physically abused, humiliated, and tortured a prisoner under their control. These military court proceedings were organised by IRA volunteers, such as Dan McCann (later killed by the SAS in Gibraltar) and Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes. IRA Volunteers whom the tortured prisoner himself described as ‘men who had given their lives to the republican cause, who had principles.’ These torturers were found guilty and dismissed with ignominy. However, it is evidence of a rot and corruption that remained in high places within the Provisional movement that these thugs found themselves back in the IRA within months.
A key British objective has long been to engineer a situation in which all parties to the conflict agree, or are perceived to agree, with Britain’s analysis about the nature of the conflict and Britain’s strategy to resolve it. Far more important to the British than defeating republicans is to defeat the concept of republicanism as a political philosophy. The most effective way to do this is to encourage the demolishing of republican doctrine from within the movement itself. In a nutshell, how do you co-opt an insurgent movement that once proclaimed its republican principles to the world to internalise a blueprint for Irish constitutional arrangements in which the British government is the principal architect? If anyone fought the long war to achieve this outcome it was the Brits. Reading Richard O’Rawe’s excellent and well-researched book, one comes to the inescapable conclusion that it was traitors like Freddie Scappaticci who helped them get there.
England has a long history of using spies, informers, agents of influence, and an assortment of useful idiots to disrupt and destroy freedom struggles throughout history. Irishmen have often played a prominent role in many of these enterprises, helping the British to shape the strategic environment in their favour.
The first step in this long, complicated, and delicate process was undermining and sabotaging the IRA’s armed campaign so that those amenable to Pax Britannica could float to the top while those determined to pursue republican objectives could be killed, imprisoned, or otherwise marginalised.
In Stakeknife’s Dirty War, Richard O’Rawe has written a superb book that describes, in part, how this was achieved. It casts light in many dark corners and has uncovered darker ones that remain hidden.
Stakeknife was described as ‘the jewel in the crown’ of British intelligence. The ‘Golden Nugget.’ He may well have been as far as the British army was concerned, for he was an army agent reporting to the Force Research Unit. But he certainly wasn’t Britain’s top agent within the IRA. That accolade belongs to one or more traitors’ echelons beyond Scap’s pay grade. Scap had no say in the Provisional movement’s strategic direction although he could be used to kill people to help service that agenda without realising he was servicing it. Not that he would have cared one way or the other. Whatever motivated Scappaticci to betray our fight for freedom it certainly wasn’t some grand strategic vision. More senior agents recruited initially by MI6 and later by MI5 have yet to be revealed; described by the British intelligence and security services as ‘UK National Assets,’ these traitors remain anonymous. Undoubtedly, some have enjoyed lucrative careers on the back of their treachery.
George Orwell wrote,’ In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ Richard O’Rawe, a genuine patriot, knows it is never the wrong time to say the right thing. Richard has told the truth over many years and suffered an intense backlash from those for whom the truth is an appalling vista. There are activists for whom the attainment of the Republic is the primary motivation and the political ambitions of the Provisional movement a secondary consideration. For others, the political ambitions of the Provisional movement are the primary consideration, and the attainment of the Republic a secondary and increasingly irrelevant consideration. Richard O’Rawe falls firmly into the first category.
Stakeknife’s Dirty War is an outstanding book that will be read by most Republicans and many of their enemies. It is full of interesting and new information. New, at least to this reader.
When we are informed that Stakeknife and some of his deputies occasionally used torture, a shameful stain on our republican ideals, we must remember that Scap was acting as a paid employee of the British government and not with the official endorsement of the IRA. I was reassured to read in Richard’s book that court martial proceedings were taken against members of the Internal Security Unit who physically abused, humiliated, and tortured a prisoner under their control. These military court proceedings were organised by IRA volunteers, such as Dan McCann (later killed by the SAS in Gibraltar) and Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes. IRA Volunteers whom the tortured prisoner himself described as ‘men who had given their lives to the republican cause, who had principles.’ These torturers were found guilty and dismissed with ignominy. However, it is evidence of a rot and corruption that remained in high places within the Provisional movement that these thugs found themselves back in the IRA within months.
A key British objective has long been to engineer a situation in which all parties to the conflict agree, or are perceived to agree, with Britain’s analysis about the nature of the conflict and Britain’s strategy to resolve it. Far more important to the British than defeating republicans is to defeat the concept of republicanism as a political philosophy. The most effective way to do this is to encourage the demolishing of republican doctrine from within the movement itself. In a nutshell, how do you co-opt an insurgent movement that once proclaimed its republican principles to the world to internalise a blueprint for Irish constitutional arrangements in which the British government is the principal architect? If anyone fought the long war to achieve this outcome it was the Brits. Reading Richard O’Rawe’s excellent and well-researched book, one comes to the inescapable conclusion that it was traitors like Freddie Scappaticci who helped them get there.
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| John Crawley is a former IRA volunteer and author of The Yank. |
The book sounds like a must read --though JC's preamble questions would require something more substantive than a book about 1 Brit agent... one on Adams and McGuinness would be closer.
ReplyDeleteSomething smacks of a 'clean Wehrmacht' in John's synopsis here.
ReplyDeleteGodwin's Law, Steve
DeleteThe Wehrmacht were the regular armed forces, not Nazi's, and my point isn't changed by Godwin's Law. Reading the above synopsis (and admittedly I haven't read the book so I'm basing it solely on it) , comes across as proffering that all actions that damaged the Provos were at least in part the doing of the Brits. No acknowledgment of accountability.
DeleteI could be wrong but that's just the way it comes across.
The Wehrmacht had an atrocious record which for long enough was subject to revisionism. It's leadership was Nazi to the Core. The IRA committed war crimes and I very much doubt that John would either deny that or approve of the war crimes it carried out.
DeleteFair enough. Happy to be wrong.
DeleteA man named Philip Cross gave a fascinating, lengthy interview about the war crimes of the luftwaffe. Really interesting.
ReplyDeleteJohn Crawley wrote in his book that he didn't see Protestants as his enemy. I don't doubt him.