I recall bumping into him in a crowded Emerald Bar, Dundalk, in 1993, and then a few years later in a pub in Belfast. These encounters were social and accidental and on both occasions my company, who would have been widely respected Republicans in their own right, left me in no doubt as to his standing within the movement.
The first happenstance was the more remarkable of the two, because Scap was with another “fallen angel” John Joe Magee. John Joe who was plastered was keen to impress the crowd with a display of his physique which was not that dissimilar to the wrestler Big Daddy. Having dispensed of his shirt and his vest in a packed bar with the arrogance of the untouchable, someone decided that flicking a lit cigarette butt at his obese torso was their idea of fun.
Things started to get out of hand, and it was only the intervention of Alex Maskey that prevented an awkward escalation into fisticuffs or worse for a young republican from Belfast. Order was eventually restored but it was the first occasion that I heard the watchword “ScapMageed”.
Timelines are important when dealing with the past and the truth, and I clearly remember both encounters. The first was on the Sunday night that the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis ended in Dundalk in 1993. The second was 96/97 when a team of people who had been on “interface” standby over July were having some much-needed pints at the end of an arduous few weeks. Scap was already in the bar, and he joined the small group that I was with. Just like our first encounter, I was in the company of people of authority within the movement, people who would have known if Scap had been stood down or been dismissed as alleged in January 1991. Quaffing pints and engaging in “bar talk” with persona non grata or suspected informers would just not have been the done thing for these boys.
The next time Scap entered my radar was the beginning of May 2003, when the cover up into his criminality, war, crimes and collusion was entering overdrive. Contrary to the brazenly absurd commentary by John Finucane MP on Kenova, the cover up at this stage was being instigated and managed by the hierarchy of the IRA. That IRA cover up continues to this day and remains the greatest barrier to the truth being established.
O’Mulleoir and Livingstone, somehow manged to get an exclusive interview with Scap which headlined in what its critics described as the Provo weekly. Their scoop detailed how Scap, the mild-mannered bricklayer and good neighbour had been maligned by the spooks and was aghast at the allegations that he was an informer or a murderer. The detail that Andytown’s Woodward and Bernstein failed to disclose to their readership was that during the stage-managed interview and photoshoot, Scap was in close proximity at all times to senior members of the Republican movement. Likewise, when Scap went public with his solicitor, he was once again shadowed by his IRA handlers.
Perhaps young John, MP, is blissfully unaware that the most widely used photograph of Scap, is the one taken outside the offices of the Andytout News. A photo taken on the day when the Republican Movement approved a Scap interview in the local Pravda, in an attempt to cover up his bestial crimes.
Mary Lou, not to be outdone by the stupidity of her northern comrade, has once again raucously called out the Brits. Kenova, she says, 'confirms that the British state played a central role in the murder of Irish Citizens north and south.'
Displaying a neck like a jockey’s bollocks, the President of Sinn Fein failed to mention that Kenova primarily confirms without a shadow of a doubt that the IRA also murdered and tortured Irish Citizens north and south. Kenova further verifies that the IRA shattered international humanitarian laws and the laws of war (Article 8 of the Rome Statute) by kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians and its own members.
In committing what can legitimately be described as war crimes, the leadership of the IRA - those who unleashed the luciferous Internal Security Unit, those who dispatched young men and women to be “scapmageed” - are more culpable than the foot soldiers who carried out their orders. Scap, as inhuman as he was, could not have committed a single murder or a single act of torture without the imprimatur of the IRA Army Council.
Therin lies the rub; Kenova’s outcome was predetermined by the main protagonists from the start. I have no misgivings about Jon Boutchers sincerity or the lengths that his team went to in furtherance of the investigation. He gives the impression of someone who was genuinely moved by the stories of the families and shocked by the horrors that he heard.
The British establishment was always going to protect itself and likewise the IRA establishment was never going to cooperate with Kenova. The British and the IRA hold enough information to bring much-needed closure to all of the families concerned. That both establishments chose not to share their information with Kenova, says much for the future of legacy investigations in the north and demonstrates a sordid commodification of truth by both in their ongoing legacy wars.
The British authorities and Sinn Fein authorities yet again displayed little concern for the needs of the families, for victims and survivors. Their set piece responses to the publication of Kenova reflect the absence of either contrition for wrongdoing or any sense of guilt for what was essentially a joint enterprise.
The response by Relatives For Justice in particular was partisan and macabre to say the least, and their call to reattribute the murders of the IRA to the British was repulsive as it deliberately overlooked the role of IRA in the killings.
Freddie Scappaticci was Stakeknife. Stakeknife was the IRA establishment and Stakeknife was the British establishment, in equal parts. He served both masters loyally.
⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.
The first happenstance was the more remarkable of the two, because Scap was with another “fallen angel” John Joe Magee. John Joe who was plastered was keen to impress the crowd with a display of his physique which was not that dissimilar to the wrestler Big Daddy. Having dispensed of his shirt and his vest in a packed bar with the arrogance of the untouchable, someone decided that flicking a lit cigarette butt at his obese torso was their idea of fun.
Things started to get out of hand, and it was only the intervention of Alex Maskey that prevented an awkward escalation into fisticuffs or worse for a young republican from Belfast. Order was eventually restored but it was the first occasion that I heard the watchword “ScapMageed”.
Timelines are important when dealing with the past and the truth, and I clearly remember both encounters. The first was on the Sunday night that the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis ended in Dundalk in 1993. The second was 96/97 when a team of people who had been on “interface” standby over July were having some much-needed pints at the end of an arduous few weeks. Scap was already in the bar, and he joined the small group that I was with. Just like our first encounter, I was in the company of people of authority within the movement, people who would have known if Scap had been stood down or been dismissed as alleged in January 1991. Quaffing pints and engaging in “bar talk” with persona non grata or suspected informers would just not have been the done thing for these boys.
The next time Scap entered my radar was the beginning of May 2003, when the cover up into his criminality, war, crimes and collusion was entering overdrive. Contrary to the brazenly absurd commentary by John Finucane MP on Kenova, the cover up at this stage was being instigated and managed by the hierarchy of the IRA. That IRA cover up continues to this day and remains the greatest barrier to the truth being established.
O’Mulleoir and Livingstone, somehow manged to get an exclusive interview with Scap which headlined in what its critics described as the Provo weekly. Their scoop detailed how Scap, the mild-mannered bricklayer and good neighbour had been maligned by the spooks and was aghast at the allegations that he was an informer or a murderer. The detail that Andytown’s Woodward and Bernstein failed to disclose to their readership was that during the stage-managed interview and photoshoot, Scap was in close proximity at all times to senior members of the Republican movement. Likewise, when Scap went public with his solicitor, he was once again shadowed by his IRA handlers.
Perhaps young John, MP, is blissfully unaware that the most widely used photograph of Scap, is the one taken outside the offices of the Andytout News. A photo taken on the day when the Republican Movement approved a Scap interview in the local Pravda, in an attempt to cover up his bestial crimes.
Mary Lou, not to be outdone by the stupidity of her northern comrade, has once again raucously called out the Brits. Kenova, she says, 'confirms that the British state played a central role in the murder of Irish Citizens north and south.'
Displaying a neck like a jockey’s bollocks, the President of Sinn Fein failed to mention that Kenova primarily confirms without a shadow of a doubt that the IRA also murdered and tortured Irish Citizens north and south. Kenova further verifies that the IRA shattered international humanitarian laws and the laws of war (Article 8 of the Rome Statute) by kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians and its own members.
In committing what can legitimately be described as war crimes, the leadership of the IRA - those who unleashed the luciferous Internal Security Unit, those who dispatched young men and women to be “scapmageed” - are more culpable than the foot soldiers who carried out their orders. Scap, as inhuman as he was, could not have committed a single murder or a single act of torture without the imprimatur of the IRA Army Council.
Therin lies the rub; Kenova’s outcome was predetermined by the main protagonists from the start. I have no misgivings about Jon Boutchers sincerity or the lengths that his team went to in furtherance of the investigation. He gives the impression of someone who was genuinely moved by the stories of the families and shocked by the horrors that he heard.
The British establishment was always going to protect itself and likewise the IRA establishment was never going to cooperate with Kenova. The British and the IRA hold enough information to bring much-needed closure to all of the families concerned. That both establishments chose not to share their information with Kenova, says much for the future of legacy investigations in the north and demonstrates a sordid commodification of truth by both in their ongoing legacy wars.
The British authorities and Sinn Fein authorities yet again displayed little concern for the needs of the families, for victims and survivors. Their set piece responses to the publication of Kenova reflect the absence of either contrition for wrongdoing or any sense of guilt for what was essentially a joint enterprise.
The response by Relatives For Justice in particular was partisan and macabre to say the least, and their call to reattribute the murders of the IRA to the British was repulsive as it deliberately overlooked the role of IRA in the killings.
Thus, we see a strategy to protect PIRA’s leadership while simultaneously frustrating its fighters, not necessarily killing them. In the end the Northern Ireland conflict was ended not by the insurgents who were killed, but by those who lived - Colonel Richard Irons
Freddie Scappaticci was Stakeknife. Stakeknife was the IRA establishment and Stakeknife was the British establishment, in equal parts. He served both masters loyally.
⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.
Good writing as always Muiris.
ReplyDeleteTrying to exclusively blame the Brits for Scap is a threadbare approach. The IRA claimed responsibility for all of the killings, which were all approved by the Army Council. P'O'Neill justified every one in public statements. They were physically carried out by members of the IRA.
It is easy to establish that the IRA ordered the killings but not as easy with the Brits. What can be said about the Brits is that they let killings ordered by the IRA go ahead so that they could protect their agent.
Disappointing that RFJ would take such a one eyed approach. For it to have credibility outside the SF core constituency it would need to demonstrate an impartiality which is not evident from its response to Kenova.
Posthumous exoneration for everyone killed on the watch of Scap would be the fairest way for the IRA to respond, rather than hide behind the mantra of the IRA doesn't exist. A way could easily be found to clear these people.