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| ★★★★★ |
When outed in 2003 as a British spy at the heart of the IRA' Internal Security Department, tasked ironically with rooting out British spies within the IRA, Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife, proved the catalyst for a bizarre act of collusion between the IRA's former P O'Neill and the North's Lord Chief Justice. Both worked to the same end - preventing details of Scappaticci's homicidal role emerging into the public domain.
Twenty one years after initially being exposed, and within months of Stakeknife's death, Mark Horgan took a deep dive into the murky waters with their dangerous undercurrents. There are a lot of dark secrets that many powerful people wish to remain concealed.
Having had phenomenal success with his first deep dive podcast, an investigation into the life and crimes of swimming coach George Gibney, Mark Horgan set out with equal determination on his next quest. I was happy to be interviewed by him, having being to the fore in 2003 in questioning both Scappaticci and the cover up.
In Stakeknife, Horgan interviews many people. Often the listener can hear his footsteps as he crunches through the streets of West Belfast.
A riveting production, where the listener is spoiled for choice, for the shiver effect it is hard to go past episode 2, detailing the 1979 killing of Michael Kearney, wrongly accused by the IRA leadership of being an informer, something it has since put right by exonerating Kearney.
Horgan accompanies Michael's brother Seamus to the spot where Michael, on his knees and bound, said his prayers before an executioner's bullet entered his brain.
A powerful and poignant exploration of Britain's dirty war.
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The murky affair of Stakeknife often raises more questions than answers the obvious one being how was he allowed to escape the grisly fate he was all too willing to hand out to others
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect there is surely only one explanation - protect the IRA image, particularly the image of Adams and McGuinness being noble “peacemakers”
They wanted to keep with the illusion that they fought the British to an honourable draw, not to face the reality that the Brits had them firmly by the balls and were forced into democratic politics to save their own skin
Makes you wonder why McGuiness was allowed to roam free despite being on film in the 70's overseeing a car bomb being put into a car and firing a pistol up in the Maiden city.
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