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Showing posts with label Freddie Scappaticci/Stakeknife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freddie Scappaticci/Stakeknife. Show all posts

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ 'When it comes to Ireland we will always get on better with the cowards, the spies, the traitors rather than the brave. Those who stand against us, the brave, we must discredit, dishonour and then destroy' -  A British soldier with the Intelligence Corp.

Freddie Scapatticci was only back in the North a few weeks when he was spotted by the Second-In- Command (Adjutant) of the IRA's Northern Command. He had been walking through the Kennedy Centre in Andersonstown with a former Blanketman when he recognised Scappaticci and was alarmed to see him back in Belfast.

The Adjutant of Northern Command convened an urgent meeting with his OC, who was Director of military operations in the North, and informed him that Scappaticci had returned from the Free State and in his estimate was a British agent. The OC Northern Command didn't seem perturbed, after all he had dined a number of times with Scappaticci in the family home over the years and had placed his full trust in him, dismissing the earlier signals which had come from elements of the South Armagh Brigade, signals which pointed at Scappaticci being untrustworthy.

However, his Adjutant persisted and had deduced through his own gut instinct and careful analysis that Scappaticci was an agent and had no allegiance to the IRA. His OC thought it a hunch and without sound foundation, but agreed to go along with his Adjutant's suspicion on this occasion as he was viewed in high standing within the upper echelons of the IRA. His Adjutant had looked upon Scappaticci and the ISU with a 'fresh pair of eyes', similar to Brendan Hughes, as both had been imprisoned in the H Blocks and when released were able to look at situations and certain people from a different angle from the 'Old Guard'. Both men had come to the same conclusion - Scappaticci and the Internal Security Unit was rotten.

It was therefore left to the Adjutant of Northern Command to find a way to terminate Scappaticci and 'put him out to graze', thereby limiting the damage which had already been done.

In November 1992 a meeting took place in Belfast between the Adjutant and Freddie Scappaticci. On the basis of a technicality, in which Freddie Scappaticci admitted he spoke to detectives in Castlereagh the previous month, he was formerly dismissed from the IRA. He was informed that he had broken General Army Orders (which covers a multitude of sins), by speaking in Castlereagh and was no longer in the IRA. For his part Scappaticci was aggrieved and felt it unfair as he had only spoken to detectives in relation to his fingerprint on a battery of a scanner, but the Adjutant remained rigid on the issue and concluded the meeting.

To say that Stakeknife was furious would be an understatement. After contacting his military handler and telling him the 'bad news', they both were seething and wanted to kill the IRA' s Adjutant.

The reality was that Scappaticci was no longer at the heart of the IRA and was now crestfallen. Where he went next was another story . . . 

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act XII

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ 'The IRA is my home, the Battalion my family. I don't crave love from a woman's hug, a soldier's life is all I need'.

After the raid on 124 Carrigart Avenue, West Belfast, on Sunday 7th January 1990, Scappaticci and the other two fled across the border and into the town of Dundalk. 

For the former Marine it wasn't a major problem travelling South as he had moved to Dundalk in 1980 so adopted quite quickly to his new surroundings. For Scappaticci and Agent 'Shirley Temple' it was much more traumatic, as both had family roots in Belfast.

For the first year Scappaticci kept in close contact with his former Marine colleague and would meet up in a local bar in Dundalk, both blaming their situation on the 'Lord Chief Justice' and feeling quite bitter that they were now in a vulnerable position with the IRA, as a 'witch hunt' was gaining momentum surrounding the raid at Carrigart Avenue. Scappaticci believed the RUC was over- zealous in storming the house in Carrigart Avenue and as a result endangered the agents inside. Eventually, Scapatticci moved to Clondalkin, an area 10 kilometres west of Dublin city centre, where he settled for quite awhile.

His connection with his former partner in the Marines faded as Scappaticci wasn't a hardened drinker whereas his partner was. Haunted by his past and succumbing to the grip of alcohol, the former Marine was killed in a drunken brawl after he was hit over the head with a whiskey bottle and fell down a flight of stairs in November 1994. His treachery had finally caught up with him.

In November 1991 Scappaticci turned up at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Dublin and told a female friend that he was homesick and wanted to return to Belfast to be with his family, but understood he couldn't because of his fingerprint on the battery of the scanner at 124 Carrigart Avenue.

In July 1992 Freddie Scappaticci was ordered to attend a high level meeting at Dublin Airport with his handlers. When he arrived he was greeted by a senior RUC officer, George - and his long term FRU military handler, Colonel Colin - both men enquired about Scappaticci's welfare. They told him that he was heading due North again as he was still a valuable asset in their armoury. But when Stakeknife questioned them about the fingerprint on the battery they dismissed it and told him they had a plan to overcome that problem. An alibi would be provided from the woman who lived at Carrigart Avenue which would state that he had carried out electrical work in the property and had his fingerprints all over the house, including on the battery of the scanner. Scappaticci was sceptical but agreed to go along with the plan.

In early October 1992 the owner of 124 Carrigart Avenue came home from work on a sunny afternoon and found Freddie Scappaticci sitting on a sofa in her living room. She had to look twice as he was wearing sunglasses and seemed agitated. He immediately explained that the woman's daughter had let him in and went on to enquire about the fingerprint on the scanner back in January 1990 and to double check about the alibi she would provide. She assured him that the alibi was intact. He then told her that he would more than likely get arrested by the RUC and didn't wish to end up in Long Kesh, so needed the alibi to stay out of prison. When he stood up and was about to leave the house he placed a 20 pound note behind a clock on the mantlepiece, with the parting words, " You'll need that money as the Republican Movement won't be looking after you". He closed the front door behind him on the way out.

As predicted, on 6th October 1992 Scappaticci was arrested on a building site in Belfast but knew this was all theatre and for the optics. He spent 3 days in Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in East Belfast, and when quizzed by DI Mc Gregor about his fingerprint on a battery supplying a scanner, he kept to the script and replied that he had carried out electrical work in that particular house and it seemed he had inadvertently lifted the device in question. Scappaticci thought it plausible even if DI Mc Gregor thought it implausible.

Once the alibi from the woman in the house was received Scappaticci was released on 9th October 1992 without charge. He was now free to live in the North and be reunited with his family.

Two weeks later Agent 'Shirley Temple' was ordered to attend a meeting with his handlers and told that he would also be heading due North immediately. He was assured that no forensics were found at Carrigart Avenue which could connect him to the house, so he would not be arrested like Scapatticci. As a military agent with the Force Research Unit ( FRU) he was to be reactivated once back in the North and was ordered to carry on the fight against the Provisional IRA.

In late October 1992 Freddie Scappaticci was told to go to Bessbrook Barracks in South Armagh to attend a surprise gathering of his troop. When he walked into the army mess /canteen Scappaticci was greeted by his old comrades from the FRU and the 'RatHole'. They gave him a round of applause as he entered, slapping him on the back in recognition of his return to the unit after nearly 3 years. On the canteen wall hung the plaque of the Force Research Unit and its motto: 'Fishers of Men'.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act XI

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ 'Rougher than death the road I choose, yet shall my feet not walk astray. Though dark my way, I shall not lose, for this way is the darkest way'.

With Brendan Hughes off the scene, Stakeknife and the other British agents inside the IRA's Internal Security Unit carried on regardless and with almost complete impunity. However, one thing had changed, and Freddie Scapatticci informed his handler of that change. Since the execution of Joe Fenton a year earlier on 26th February 1989, the IRA leadership had installed 'checks and balances' which meant the ISU had no authority to execute suspected agents until a senior figure within the IRA had personally interviewed the suspect. That role would entail whether the suspect had given information under duress, or had torture been applied to extract a confession. Scappaticci referred to this senior figure as the ' Lord Chief Justice'.

When Freddie Scappaticci told his military handler that the IRA had invited him in to interrogate Sandy Lynch, an IRA operative from the Ardoyne area of North Belfast, the handler passed this information on to the TCG at Castlereagh. The TCG decided to set a trap for the IRA and kill a number of birds with one stone using Sandy Lynch as bait. Firstly, they could capture the 'Lord Chief Justice' along with a number of senior IRA personnel, Secondly, disrupt the Stevens Inquiry as intelligence was telling the TCG that Scappaticci was about to be arrested by John Stevens. And thirdly, they could demonstrate in a show of strength that they had the Belfast IRA by the throat.

Subsequently, on Wednesday, 3rd January 1990 Sandy Lynch was summoned to a meeting with his Special Branch handlers, who informed him that the Internal Security Unit was about to arrest him. The handlers assured him that he would be rescued and to go along with the plan, as the people who would interrogate him were actually agents like himself. Once Lynch heard this he calmed down and agreed to go along with the ruse.

Shortly after this encounter Sandy Lynch arranged to meet two IRA officers in North Belfast on 5th January 1990, one of whom was a British agent code named 'Agent Shirley Temple'. This particular agent was attached to the military Force Research Unit ( FRU) and had already devastated the IRA's Ardoyne Active Service Unit since 1985.

Lynch was driven to 124 Carrigart Avenue in the Lenadoon area of West Belfast and was arrested there by Freddie Scappaticci and his former Marine colleague. Agent 'Shirley Temple' accompanied Lynch into the house and was present when Scappaticci produced a metal detector and began to run the scanner over Lynch's body. When the scanner began to bleep furiously Scapatticci realised someone in the room was wired and it wasn't Sandy Lynch. He then complained that the detector was faulty and removed the battery, pretending to check the device for faults.

Presently, Lynch broke under interrogation and admitted he was a British agent on Saturday morning, 6th January 1990. As was standard procedure, Scapatticci and his former head of the ISU both left the house together and reported back to their respective handlers. Agent 'Shirley Temple' vacated the address also and up dated his FRU handler accordingly.

On the evening of Sunday, 7th January 1990, an unmarked van entered the square and parked a short distance from the target house. A neighbour eagerly watched as masked and armed men disembarked from the van, seemingly military personnel. Seconds later a second unmarked van appeared with an RUC team disembarking from the van. The neighbour watched intently as both parties argued over who was storming the target house, with the military squad standing down and climbing back into their van before speeding off.

The house was stormed and everyone at the address arrested, with the relieved Sandy Lynch being ferried away from the scene.

Significantly, the former Marine went ballistic when he realised that a tube of psoriasis cream with his name on it was still lying on the bed at Carrigart Avenue. That evening he left for Dundalk in the Free State, never to return. Scappaticci soon followed him along with Agent 'Shirley Temple'. In a follow up search of 124 Carrigart Avenue CID discovered the tube of psoriasis cream with a name on it, but no charges were pursued in this case, possibly because Special Branch overruled the CID in favour of their agent. However, the metal detector was recovered by CID and a finger print discovered on the battery - the fingerprint was that of Freddie Scappaticci and that fingerprint would come back to haunt him until his dying day.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act X

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ On his return to Belfast Joe Fenton was arrested by the Internal Security Unit on the 24th February 1989 and taken to a house in the Lenadoon area of West Belfast.

Freddie Scappaticci, prior to lifting Fenton, told his handler that Fenton would probably not survive this interrogation. This second meeting with Scappaticci and Fenton was not a mild affair, and violence ensued throughout his interrogation.

There might have been an attempt to transport Fenton to Dundalk on the orders of Brendan Hughes, who was in Dublin at the time, but all that came to an abrupt end when Fenton told Scappaticci and the former Marine, both men standing together in the bedroom, that the only reason he returned from England was because his handler assured him that his interrogators would protect him as they were on the same team. Little did Fenton realise that he had just signed his own death warrant for sure.

As was standard practice with Stakeknife, if a person being interrogated by him didn't present a threat to his personal position, then he would interrogate and vacate the scene, his particular job completed. On the other hand, if he felt his position was threatened then he would have to eliminate that threat, which in this case meant Joe Fenton couldn't possibly reach Brendan Hughes and tell him about the treachery of the men in charge of the ISU.

Therefore, instead of leaving the scene Freddie Scappaticci allowed his colleague to vacate the house but stayed behind to make sure Joe Fenton kept his secret to himself. He moved into the kitchen and waited for the firearm to arrive.

Having gone back upstairs and grabbing Fenton by the scruff of the neck, both men struggled on the staircase as Scappaticci dragged him into the street. As far as an IRA operation went, this was bizarre and completely unconventional, indicating that Scappaticci had to dispatch Fenton into the afterlife himself for fear he might reveal his secret.

While being force marched toward the Glen Road bus terminus, Fenton suddenly broke free and attempted to escape, but Scappaticci immediately shouted to his armed IRA accomplice to open fire, which he did, hitting him in the back and felling him. With Scapatticci standing over a badly wounded British agent, he ordered the gunman to finish him off with 3 shots to the head. Joe Fenton lay dead, along with his secret about Stakeknife.

After leaving the execution site Scappaticci immediately phoned his handler and briefed him on what had just happened. Speaking on the phone, he explained that he had no choice but to kill Joe Fenton himself, as Fenton had found out that he, Scappaticci, was a British agent, like himself. He felt his cover had been blown. Ten minutes later the RUC received a call about a body lying on the Glen Road.

When the news reached Dublin, Brendan Hughes went apoplectic and immediately enquired as to the reason why Fenton had been shot dead out of hand. The reply from Scappaticci was that there was ' too much Brit activity in the area', which meant Fenton couldn't be transported to Hughes.

Brendan Hughes did not believe this feeble excuse, realised Belfast was rotten, became frightened for his life and resigned from the Army he loved.

The controversy surrounding the execution of Joe Fenton resulted in an IRA Court of Inquiry which took place in Letterkenny, County Donegal, chaired by the Northern Command operations officer. One of the most pressing questions which was raised at the Inquiry was why Fenton was not delivered to Hughes and his staff, which drew attention to Scappaticci and the ISU. The outcome was that new 'checks and balances' would be introduced thereby limiting the authority of the Internal Security Unit to execute so freely. 

Perhaps for the first time, and at Brendan Hughes's persistence, Scappaticci and the ISU were at last coming under some sort of scrutiny.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act IX

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant taste death only once' - William Shakespeare @ Julius Caesar.


In the aftermath of the Loughgall ambush, code named ' Operation Judy', on 8th May 1987 in which 8 heavily armed IRA Volunteers were killed by a 24 strong squad from the SAS, an IRA enquiry was launched into the circumstances surrounding the operation.

Alongside the IRA 's Northern Command operations officer, the OC of the Internal Security Unit, Freddie Scappaticci, got to work on attempting to ascertain what exactly happened. Fundamentally, British Intelligence, through their agent Scappaticci, were made aware of every aspect of the IRA enquiry, including the names of IRA personnel who escaped the ambush, safe houses, billets on the night before the operation, where the weapons were stored, etc. As it turned out the enquiry was inconclusive and a shadow of doubt would continue to hang over the Loughgall ambush for years to come.

After moving a quantity of explosives from an IRA dump to a safe house in 1981, Joe Fenton was arrested and taken to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre. A Special Branch officer told him that they were aware of his work for the IRA and in particular the transporting of a quantity of explosives. With nowhere to turn Joe Fenton, through threats and blandishments, agreed to work for Special Branch and thus entered a world of espionage and the dark art of spying on the Provisional IRA.

His main handler, who controlled a total of 18 agents from the IRA, INLA and Loyalist paramilitaries, provided him with survival techniques in the field and protected him to the utmost.

In 1982, Special Branch provided Fenton with 15,000 pounds sterling to set up his own estate agency, Ideal Homes on the Falls Road, West Belfast. He also received supplementary payments of over 2,000 pounds sterling. As an estate agent he was able to offer the Provisional IRA empty houses, meeting houses and temporary arms dumps. After taking up the offer, Special Branch proceeded to bug the IRA houses and thereby penetrate the IRA's Belfast Brigade, virtually wiping out their weapons dumps and Active Service Units from 1982 onwards.

In 1985 Fenton panicked and told his handler that his nerve had gone and cited that the IRA were investigating a number of botched operations, which he felt could lead to him.

His handler passed his concerns up the chain of command to the TCG, which made a corporate decision to sacrifice two of their own agents in order to deflect from Fenton. Subsequently, the handler passed the two names over to Fenton, who in turn passed the names to his senior Belfast Brigade contact. Within days the Brigade had invited in the Internal Security Unit to investigate the pair and Freddie Scappaticci kept his handler informed from that point onwards.
 
As a result of the TCG's actions a husband and wife, Gerard and Catherine Mahon, were arrested and interrogated by Scappaticci and his British agents within the ISU, and subsequently executed on 9th September 1985. Catherine, after seeing her husband being shot in front of her, broke loose and attempted to run away but was shot in the back. Both died at the scene and Joe Fenton gained a new leash of life.

Two years later in 1987 Fenton was again under pressure after a series of seizures and compromised IRA operations left him vulnerable again. He complained to his handler that he needed the pressure off him and the handler sent his concerns up to the TCG. Within a short space of time another person's name was handed over to Fenton via his handler and on 12th April 1987 Charles Mcllmurray was abducted by Scappaticci and the ISU, interrogated and executed. His body was found in a van left at the rear of a service station at Killeen, on the border.

Despite his long service with the British, Joe Fenton's fortune was about to end with the release of his nemesis, Brendan Hughes (The Dark) in November 1986. When Brendan was offered one of Fenton's bugged houses in Rockville Street, Falls Road, he declined the offer and became suspicious of Fenton and his relationship with the Belfast Brigade IRA. When he voiced his concerns over Fenton he was ignored, but Fenton panicked when his Belfast Brigade contact told him that Brendan Hughes was suspicious of him.

After a mortar team was captured in the Andersonstown area during the Summer of 1988 the suspicion on Fenton grew, especially after a link between the British successes and properties provided by Ideal Homes was established.
 
Inevitably, the Belfast Brigade invited in Freddie Scappaticci to investigate Joe Fenton in August 1988, the meeting between Scappaticci and Fenton taking place in the Lower Falls area. The actual meeting was a mild affair, but Fenton left it dishevelled and disorientated, and informed his handler that his nerves were at breaking point. The fact that Brendan Hughes was gunning for him sent a shiver up his spine. In the latter half of 1988 his business, Ideal Homes, began to crumble and he lost interest in business as the IRA lost interest in him. He was no longer an asset to the British nor the IRA, and this had a detrimental impact on his overall health.

He went to England on the pretext of going to a boxing match and disappeared for around eleven days in February 1989. Brendan Hughes left instructions with Scappaticci and the ISU that Joe Fenton was to be lifted by them on his return and taken across the border to be interrogated by him personally.
Meanwhile, Fenton met his long term handler, the Special Branch officer who had controlled him from the start, at an address in England. He was in an extremely distressed and agitated state, babbling on about Brendan Hughes finally exposing him and expressing a determination not to return to Belfast.
Despite his best efforts to impress upon his superiors in the TCG that Fenton had lost his nerve and needed to be extracted forthwith, the handler failed and Fenton was told to return to Belfast.

The only way they could get Fenton to calm down and agree to return to his native city was by telling him that the 'cavalry' would come and rescue him if he was abducted by the IRA. Furthermore, it was stressed to him that the people who would interrogate him would be on the same team, a reference to Freddie Scappaticci and co. As a result Joe Fenton agreed to return to Belfast.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act ⅤⅠⅠⅠ

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ The Internal Security Unit ( ISU) had become a refined killing machine by 1986, with the original team of British agents still firmly in place. 

Their main role was to observe, collect and funnel information back to the Task Coordinating Group (TCG), via their respective handlers, whether with Special Branch, Ml5 or the military Force Research Unit ( FRU). Every morsel of information was squeezed out of each agent to provide a profile on IRA members, along with political direction of the overall Republican Movement, including the identification of 'hawks and doves' inside the IRA. The 'hawks' would be singled out for assassination if the opportunity arose. For example, in the case of IRA Volunteer Larry Marley, who was targeted and assassinated in April 1987. Others would follow. The ' doves' would be allowed to flourish and hollow out the IRA from within as the TCG viewed it, and labelled 'assets', but not necessarily agents of the State.

Freddie Scappaticci was now in control of the ISU and would gain a certain amount of information from his handler, including who in the unit was an agent like himself. The handler would usually speak in cryptic form by advising Scappaticci to avoid certain IRA personnel who ventured into his sphere of interest, or by indicating that another was 'harmless' etc. Everything came through the handler and that applied to the others in the ISU.

One of the greatest threats to Scappaticci came in October 1987 when the UDA /UFF received accurate intelligence on him as a senior IRA member and set about his assassination. Brian Nelson, an Intelligence Officer with the UDA but also a FRU agent, attended the meeting and later informed his handler on the proposed operation to eliminate Scappaticci. When the FRU handler received the information he sent it up the chain of command to the TCG and all hell broke loose in Castlereagh.

An elaborate plan was conceived to steer the UDA / UFF away from Scappaticci and unto another target with the same Italian sounding name. Brian Nelson received the relevant information on the bogus target from his handler, and Nelson in turn convinced the UDA leadership that the real target was not Freddie Scappaticci but Francisco Notarantonio, a Republican from West Belfast. The UDA leadership swallowed the bait and on 9th October 1987 a Loyalist gun team broke into his home in Ballymurphy and shot him dead. Freddie Scappaticci was saved.

The Force Research Unit had proven their worth and loyalty to Stakeknife and he embraced the comradeship that was now formed. A set of rooms were built below ground in one of the headquarter buildings in Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, known as the 'Rat Hole'. Only a restricted number of senior NCOs, warrant officers and senior officers were permitted entry, and the rooms were not only guarded on a permanent 24 hour basis but were also continually manned. The 'Rat Hole' was air-conditioned and similar to a subterranean bunker.

For much of the time Scappaticci's meetings with his handlers followed the same pattern as most agents: a phone call, a pick up in a car watched by two other vehicles manned by armed officers and then a drive to a secret location. Most of the time Scappaticci carried a pager on his person to ensure 24 hour contact with his handler. If asked about the pager he would reply that he needed it for his clients in the building trade. On several occasions Scappaticci visited the 'Rat Hole' and was warmly received by his FRU team.

In an unprecedented move Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, was informed about the agent Stakeknife and the quality of his intelligence on the IRA. Eventually, at the weekly meetings of the Government's Joint Intelligence Committee, at No. 10 Downing Street, Thatcher would ask the head of Ml5 to read out extracts from Scappaticci 's Military Intelligence Source Reports ( MISRs), as she rated him so highly. She emphasised to her committee members that they must do everything in their power to protect Scappaticci, as he was the most important person working for the British against the IRA. It was Thatcher who suggested that the British Government should pay him a high sum ( starting at 75,000 and eventually reaching 80,000 pounds per year - tax free). The account was opened by Ml5 in a British bank based in Gibraltar.

For his part, Scappaticci explained on a number of occasions to his handlers that he despised the IRA leadership because they had steadily accrued wealth for themselves while they continued to urge the new recruits to give up their lives for the cause. He justified his treachery to the Irish cause by blaming everyone else, a typical trait of a traitor.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act ⅤⅠⅠ

Seamus Kearney šŸŽ¤ In April 1986 the IRA Army Council gave permission to the Director of Northern Command to tighten the grip on all IRA operations, as a result of a number of civilian deaths.

Consequently, all future IRA military operations had to be vetted by him and become more centralised, a sound idea at the time provided there were no leaks in the initiative.

Unfortunately, the Director of Northern Command still had unquestioning faith in the integrity of the Internal Security Unit and ordered Scappaticci as OC of the unit to vet all proposed operations in the Belfast Brigade area. When the Task Coordinating Group ( TCG) were told about this latest development, to say they were salivating would be an understatement. They were ecstatic. However, the elite and security conscious South Armagh Brigade declined in general to comply with the order, because they simply didn't trust Belfast and were security conscious at all times. The fact that their calls for Freddie Scappaticci 's removal had fallen on deaf ears may have fed into their overall attitude toward the new order.

In a highly spectacular military operation, the South Armagh Brigade blasted the Forensic Science Laboratory at Belvoir, South Belfast, on September 23rd, 1992 with a massive 3,000 lb van bomb, destroying vital evidence and undermining the justice system in the North. When the Director of Northern Command was told after the explosion that it was a South Armagh operation he was livid.
The centralisation of IRA operations may have aided the electoral process, but it was a chink in the armour when it came to IRA operations being compromised, as they were no longer water tight within a cell structure.

In 1986 the TCG decided to shed one of their assets, Agent Mints, possibly due to the agent passing his 'sell by date'. The agent had been working since 1978 and had primarily worked in the IRA's Engineering Department, compromising a number of explosive dumps in his eight year tenure. Freddie Scappaticci was invited in by Belfast Brigade to investigate the suspect and the ISU were convened in a safe house in West Belfast to await his arrival. Another agent masquerading as IRA personnel was instructed to fetch Agent Mints, with both men arriving at the safe house without incident.

To the astonishment of the ISU, which included Scappaticci, the former Marine, 'Burke' and 'Hare', Agent Mints broke immediately and gushed out that he had been working for Special Branch since 1978 and had compromised the 'Short Strand Bombs' in which Volunteer Michael Kearney had been executed for in July 1979. He had been the 'East wing' of the operation, while another agent had been the 'West wing', both agents providing the British with a holistic view of the operation in March 1979.

The victim had informed his handlers where he had been summoned to and they had instructed him to go meet the ISU and that they would rescue him. However, no rescue mission was launched and the death penalty was handed down to him after 2 days of interrogation.

His eyes were taped shut and his hands were tied behind his back. A number of shots rang out and Agent Mints fell to the ground. The TCG had shed no tears for him, as he was yet another cog in a bigger wheel, mere cannon fodder to be discarded in their dirty war against the IRA.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife šŸ•µ The Rise And Fall šŸ•µ Act ⅤⅠ

Dixie Elliot ✊When you are free to think for yourself you will always find the truth, no matter how hard others try to conceal it.

It was an honour to be in the Rathmor Centre last night as our comrade SĆ©amus Kearney told of his life's journey.
 
A journey during which death as an IRA volunteer was a risk he willingly took in pursuit of Irish freedom.
 
The years of captivity within the concrete walls of the hell known as the H-Blocks.
 
Of finding out that his young brother, Michael was executed as an informer.
 
How he refused to let it break him and so he struggled on with his comrades, the Blanketmen and Women of the H-Blocks and Armagh Gaol until the very end when the selfless sacrifice of ten brave men brought about victory.
 
Even after he walked through the gates of Long Kesh, Seamus was still not free. Not while the innocence or guilt of his brother Michael needed to be proven. Not while the burden of his mother's plea to find the truth hung heavy on his shoulders.
 
His journey was a difficult one with many hurdles placed in his way.
 
But he overcame them and finally dragged the truth of his brother's innocence from those who had tried hard to conceal it.

Seamus gave Michael back his honour as an IRA volunteer and in doing so he also freed his gentle mother's soul so that she could die in peace.
 
But as he was to discover, those who finally told Seamus the truth about his brother's innocence still lied about the traitor Scappaticci who had taken his young life at the behest of his British handlers.
 
'He was innocent until proven guilty' they had told him, even though Volunteer Michael Kearney was denied the chance to prove his own innocence before three bullets took his young life.
 
This so called innocent man, Scappaticci, whom they had so rigorously defended finally proved his own guilt when he let his handlers spirit him away.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

Dragging Truth From Concealment

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