He was arrested on 20th June 1979 while on active service and interrogated for 3 days at Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in East Belfast. Under extreme duress and violent interrogation, he eventually revealed the whereabouts of a small, waterlogged amount of explosives in a flat in Lenadoon.
On Saturday, 23rd June 1979, at a high level meeting in Castlereagh, it was decided not to charge Michael Kearney but instead release him after 'putting a target on his back', primarily in relation to a major IRA operation 3 months earlier in the Short Strand area of Belfast in which 42 cylinder bombs were captured. The fact that Michael drove the van over to the Short Strand implicated him in the plot, whereby giving the RUC enough credence to have him set up and executed.
Upon his release Michael reported back to his Company OC and followed IRA procedure to the letter. He was instructed to write out his debriefing report which he did and was told he had nothing to fear from his OC.
However, Belfast Brigade invited in the 'Security Team' and Michael was handed over to Freddie Scappaticci and the other British agents running the Internal Security Unit on Wednesday, 27th June 1979. He was accompanied by two members of the Brigade Staff, including the 'familiar face' and driven into the Irish Free State.
On the same day as his abduction the first report came in to the British detailing Michael's whereabouts and his dire situation. One report was from Freddie Scapatticci to his military handler and a separate report from the head of the ISU, along with another report from a 3rd member of the ISU, all expressing the same line:
Michael Kearney is in grave danger. IRA at Brigade Level suspect him of compromising the Short Strand operation. He is to be executed for this despite pleading his innocence.
On 10th July 1979 another contact report was sent to the British from the IRA 's Internal Security Unit stating that:
Belfast Brigade, 2 members of, are pushing hard for Michael's execution and that his court-martial on 6th July has been a sham, with discussions taking place on an execution site and the possibility of' bringing him back to Belfast and killing him there.
Despite protesting his innocence in relation to the Short Strand operation on 6th March 1979, IRA Volunteer Michael Kearney was executed at around 2 am on 12th July 1979 with 3 shots to the head. He died instantly. Operation Kenova, in the report handed to the Kearney family in July 2025, stated:
He said that Michael was allowed to say a prayer before he was shot. Report is marked up as' No Downward Dissemination.
Significantly, Freddie Scappaticci and the ISU facilitated the death of Volunteer Michael Kearney but were not the prime movers in his execution. One member of the ISU who had interrogated Michael stated the death penalty was' excessive '. Their remit was to observe and relay information back to their respective handlers, although if Scappaticci or the others suspected a personal threat to their position, then direct action would be taken to ensure that threat was removed.
IRA Volunteer Michael Kearney was killed on an unfamiliar battlefield, but a battlefield nonetheless. He lived and served the IRA and as a soldier of the IRA he forfeited his young life in the service of his country and her people. Some men and women live long lives and achieve nothing worthwhile in changing society, while others live relatively short lives, achieve much, burn bright and then die. Michael Kearney was such a person.
The first victim of the ISU was Michael Kearney and mistakes were made in his abduction, interrogation and death. The technical errors the ISU made were firstly the failure to recover Michael's 12 page debriefing report which a quarter of a century later would be the main plank that finally exonerated him in January 2003 after a 16 month IRA leadership investigation.
The second technical error was the delay in Michael's abduction, almost 5 days, which allowed him to explain his dilemma to the Republican base in Lenadoon, which resulted in a back lash against the IRA in the aftermath of his death. It was the first time that the Republican support base challenged the IRA version of events surrounding an alleged informer.
The Internal Security Unit would become more organised after July 1979 and as Operation Kenova stated, 'The ISU had changed over time and from 1981-1982 became more refined. The killing would begin in earnest on an industrial scale, bodies lying on the border becoming a common occurrence.
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| Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney. |
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