Friday, February 08, 2008
Adams’ driver taken into MI5 custody….
Not much detail, but it seems one of Gerry Adams’ drivers was a British spy. The party is claiming he’s been under suspicion for several years, but it is only now that MI5 has acted to take him into protective custody… UTV name him as Roy McShane.
Mick Fealty @ 04:35 PM
lib2016
You state: “The British security forces have agents embedded in every political party in Britain, NI and the South.” Have any agents in the other political parties been unmasked as this fellow was? What type of evidence is there for agents in other parties?
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 09:04 PMIs this the same guy whose car was found to have a rather large listening device in it a number of years back?
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 09:17 PM“Is it not common understanding that the “senior” republicans were working for the British goverment for years.”
It is and it is called Stormont.
“Our Rory might be a bit of a psychic. He suggested shortly before this news broke that we should give up cars and go back to horseriding.”
How very apt - twenty-five years ago to the day that Shergar was kidnapped from Ballymany Stud in Ireland, by the dysfunctional sons of Ireland.
“The British security forces have agents embedded in every political party in Britain, NI and the South.”
They also (allegedly) have people who trawl every message that is posted to every political website on the net......
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 10:12 PMlib2016: (incidentally what a ludicrous handle, since nothing is going to happen in 2016!) - you keep on saying ‘none of us know’ and that just sounds so lame, as if this one of the great unsolved mysteries of life like who made the universe - we do know a lot, we know for instance that the provos were so riddled with british agents the british might as well have been leading the provos and because the outcome of the peace process suits both the adams leadership and the brits (forget about the nonsensical securocrat red herring raised by sf) one has to ask whether this infiltration of the provos actually suited the sf leadership since it helped to undermine the ira armed struggle and make politics a more attractive alternative - that’s what we know;
you also say, poor deluded lib2016, that this revelation is another attempt to deny sf its place in government - where on earth do you get that from? no-one has said a word about this affecting sf’s place at stormont! perhaps you ought to take another tablet, draw the curtains and lie down for a bit - maybe you’ll dream about irish unity in 2016 and if you do, that will the nearest to it actually happening!Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 10:16 PMjake me poor aul pet, having 2016 in your handle thus illustrating ones hopes and wishes is not nearly as deluded as actually believing you can see into the future
‘since nothing is going to happen in 2016’
your real name wouldn’t be Sam Beckett would it?
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 10:28 PMagain this highlights the unaccountability of the British secret service....
they`ve been caught with their trousers down bugging the conservations of a Muslim MP and all hell breaks lose in the good old u s of a sorry the UK…it happens here....
who cares, they`re all paddies!
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 10:51 PMThe Provos have not gone away did you know that?
Did you also know that they have a policy of killing informers?
They have killed loads of informers - did you know that is what they do?
Accusing the Provos of killing informers is like accusing Kerry people of playing gaelic football or accusing the Orange Order of marching up and down.Simply blaming the Englezes everytime the evidence point in the Provos direction aint gonna wash even with me, and I am Republican lite - never mind with the majority of people in Ireland - it just sounds silly and/or like someone repeating the ideological line.
Get a grip on your tricolour knickers.
Jake,
MI5 worked with the British government and the Provos to ‘persuade’ the Unionists to hand over power to the Provos - post ceasfire MI5 swithced sides as the British governement’s ideological position ( Ireland for the Irish )was closer to the Provos than it was to the Unionists
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 11:00 PMMore lame claims that the British security services were behind the London and Manchester bombings and the mortar attacks on London Airport? Can’t you do better than that? There was penetration by British agents, no-one denies it but the cell structure was designed to beat it and seemingly did so.
As for denials that MI5 has agents within the political parties in Britain - that’s what Google is for, children. Go forth and learn.
Jake, asking the DUP to bring down the executive over unproven allegations about Sinn Fein involvement in murder sounds like an attempt to exclude SF from government to me. That strategy destroyed the UUP. Why would the DUP follow them into oblivion?
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 11:01 PMSINN FEIN/MI5
now come on better ring than sinn fein/ira
Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 11:14 PM******* The Roy McShane Interview *********
I phoned Roy at his home and went through several operators with English accents before I was eventually put in contact with a refined Oxford educated telecom engineer called Rebecca who refused to connect me to Roys home due to ongoing operations.
I informed him that I was a reporter and that I had to speak to Roy as a matter of urgency and that I wouldn’t be taking no for an answer, Rebecca inquired as to who I worked for and it was a measure of the esteem that the Any Trash News is held in that upon hearing the very name Rebecca was most obliging which demonstrates how wide spread the A.T.N readership is that even BT engineers fixing phone lines in the street are aware of us.
I was able to speak to Roy although the line was decidedly crackly but Rebecca who stayed on the line explained that this was normal under the circumstances but wouldn’t elaborate, well he obviously wasn’t aware of the inbuilt intuition of an A.T.N reporter on a story as it dawned on me as to what was going on so I decided to impress him with some local knowledge and electronic savvy, Rebecca I said we at the A.T.N aren’t stupid with all the clicks and English voices it’s pretty damned clear it can only be one thing and that is your preparing the local exchange for broadband, I knew I was on the money because his stunned silence spoke volumes.
Rebecca spoke to Roy first, “Roy there’s some bell-end from the A.T.N wants to talk to you, give the tosser five minutes to grab a few lines OK” I could pick this technical stuff up very handy indeed a “Bell-end” was obviously someone hanging on the end of a phone-line and the “Tosser getting five minutes to grab a few lines” was obviously a telecom engineer who hauls the cables through Roys house. There is no question with my intuition if I didn’t work for the A.T.N as a tough investigating journalist then a career in intelligence beckoned.I arrived at Roys house to find him busy loading the back of a removals lorry with the contents of his home, I asked him was he moving and he replied he “needed a change of scenery” and that he had taken medical advice to move for the sake of his health. I asked would it be okay to ask questions as he worked, Roy assured me he wasn’t stopping for “love nor even more money” and continued pushing the sofa into the lorry while looking over his shoulder to keep an eye on passing cars. I asked what he was worried about and he replied that if he didn’t get the lorry filled quickly enough that someone may send up a squad of guys to pick him up, it appeared Roy was so concentrated on his loading of the lorry that he was unaware that he had mistakenly said the squad of guys would pick him up instead of saying they would pick up his furniture, the removals game is competitive but a squad of guys so enthusiastic in their work that they would bundle Roy into a back of a wagon was unlikely I assured him.
Roy stared hard at me and said “you have no idea how rough these bastards can be” I laughed and said “Roy they may truss you up like a parcel but they’d have to take care of you,I must have reassured him a little because Roy nodding agreed saying “oh yes they’d take care of me alright”
So there you are Roy I said if the squad do turn up for the job they’ll not be wrapping you in brown paper and putting you on the washing machine, I know said Roy “it’ll be more like wrapped in black bags and on the television”
Roy loaded the lorry with all the belongings that meant so much to him such things as a Framed Proclamation, the writings of Bobby Sands, Ten Men Dead, and an original Tri-colour from the rising were left on the road in order to make room for the valuable stuff like the books of Gerry Adams, the poems of Martin McGuinness, Who Dares Wins, and the Hume/Adams document.
Roy I said there’s no getting away from it I’ll have to ask you the “Hard Question” have you been working for Special Branch as an agent? “No absolutely not” he replied you have your wires crossed he continued as four very noisy PSNI Landover pulled up nearby drowning out his voice, “I have been working for MFI”.
“You’ve been working for MFI while driving the Sinn Fein leadership about 24 hours a day,” I yelled back trying to make myself heard over the Landover engines. Yes he replied for years and years “we’ve all been doing it for fucks sake” I was stunned to think that there was this tireless long standing republican driving the leadership from meeting to meeting and at the same time stacking kitchens in Sprucefield for MFI, this man was a credit to our community and I felt embarrassed that I had to ask him the “Hard Question” for the sake of the readership of The A.T.N, Roy closed the doors on the lorry I asked him where he was going and he replied “Oh somewhere between South America and Sorrento but definitely not Donegal” and he drove off as true and committed a republican as any shinner around.Posted by on Feb 08, 2008 @ 11:56 PMThe D.U.P are as thick as champ for years they called them Sinn Fein/I.R.A when we all know now it should have been Sinn Fein/MI5
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:04 AMlib2016
Regarding agents in political parties, your reply seems to be: “As for denials that MI5 has agents within the political parties in Britain - that’s what Google is for, children. Go forth and learn.” That’s not crystal clear. Are you saying that there are actual human government agents in political parties? Or are you saying that they may do some web research?
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:20 AMAn organisation riddled with Touts and informers for years!
Now most of them are sitting in stormount unrolling the plan!
Forget 2016 - (Fantasy)!
The Provo’s sold out in 1986 and continue now as public paid informers under the guise of MLA’s!
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:26 AMThe most disturbing part in all this is that M15 & the British Intelligence Services have effectively been driving the conflict for 4 decades. There are dark corners that not even senior British ministers and Prime Ministers know of. These people are the real government and power because Labour & Tory administrations come and go but Smileys people are a constant giving the thumbs up or down. They have a multi million £ budget to justify and by playing one group off the other they fooled people that they were the honest broker. How stupid are the public? There are 100’s of innocents on both sides in their graves because of them. We were all conned during the Troubles because it’s obvious all was NOT as we perceived it. I would go so far as to say that most senior Loyalists & Republicans were controlled by them as were others in the political world. It comes as no surprise any more and I also wonder who exactly is behind these new shock & fear stories about dissident republicans, the UDA feud and attacks on Orange halls/GAA Clubs. Stalker & Stevens were 0.00001% in a spiders web of deception and Lord Eames & Denis Bradley have just uncovered a tiny tiny little morsal. It really is time sensible and educated people opened their eyes and looked, especially unionists.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:27 AMWhen he wasn’t driving Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to secret meetings, Roy “The Rat” McShane liked to relax over a round of golf or a pint of stout at The Felons Club in West Belfast. But the veteran IRA man had another activity that yesterday cost him his relaxed, family lifestyle and forced him to flee into “protective custody”.
The Rat, as his comrades jokingly called him, was an informer in the pay of MI5.
Sinn Fein was reeling last night from another spy scandal after the driver who worked closely with the Republican leadership fled Northern Ireland, apparently under the protection of his security service handlers.
Roy McShane, 58, was once part of the so-called security team of the leadership of the Republican movement, which looked after transport arrangements to numerous secret meetings where Provisional IRA top brass were hammering out its peace process strategy.
The news was broken yesterday afternoon by Sinn Fein, which admitted that he had been working for the intelligence services. The party said that Mr McShane had left his home in West Belfast early yesterday.
Police refused to comment on the disclosure, which will be deeply embarrassing for Mr Adams, the Sinn Fein president, after the sensational disclosure two years ago that one of his closest aides also worked for MI5.
Denis Donaldson, 56, who headed Sinn Fein’s support team at Stormont, was later shot dead near Glenties in Co Donegal. Donaldson served a sentence for an IRA bombing and later was instrumental in the Republican movement’s contacts with Middle Eastern groups.
Mr McShane, a former IRA man from the Clonard area of Belfast was a long-term driver for senior republicans, including around the time of the developing peace process that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement ten years ago.
Even though he would have been considered no more than a rank-and-file republican — he was described yesterday by former associates as a “working-class foot-soldier” — he would have been privy to highly sensitive information.
The small, grey-haired Mr McShane was a popular figure and would sometimes chat to reporters in the margins of the negotiations, revealing his fondness for golf. Not surprisingly, now that his secret life has been revealed, opinion in republican circles has switched. “I always knew he was a slimy bastard,” said one former friend in the Felons, a republican drinking den where membership requires you to have served time in prison as an IRA member.
Others said that he was a drinker with a roving eye for women. The divorced father of four was understood to be living in Divis Tower, a landmark building at the foot of the Falls Road that for decades had an Army lookout post on its roof.
“I always knew there was something not right about him,” a former friend said. “He’ll never be able to show his face round here again.”
Donaldson was shot dead five months after he admitted working as a double-agent, but republicans said that Mr McShane had nothing to fear if he returned home. They claimed that he had been under suspicion for a number of years.
Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said he had been advised by Mr McShane’s family on Thursday.
“Rumours were on the go and he confirmed to them it was the case. We did have our suspicions about him. As far as I’m concerned he’s safe. Let’s face it, the war’s over. His family’s quite distressed and it’s up to this man to make his peace with them.”
Mr McShane would have been one of MI5’s top informers, reporting regularly to his handlers and getting paid for information
Sinn Fein insisted that the unmasking of another agent did not come as any great surprise but there was shock and disbelief, especially in West Belfast, where he drank and socialised, that someone in his position could live a secret double life.
Mr Adams is due to meet party members in Dublin today to discuss the Lisbon Treaty, but he is also certain to face questions about Mr McShane.
Supergrasses
Denis Donaldson, one of the most senior figures in Sinn Fein, was named as a spy and expelled by the party in 2005. He was shot dead at his rural home in Glenties, Co Donegal, in April 2006
Raymond Gilmour infiltrated the IRA and INLA in the 1970s and 1980s. He went into hiding in 1982 and is now thought to be living in the South of England
Bobby Quigley acted as a supergrass in the 1970s and 1980s and claimed that Martin McGuinness was implicated in IRA activity. Mr McGuinness was never charged
Sean O’Callaghan was a member of Sinn Fein’s ruling council who was also working for the Irish police. His activities led to the interception of a trawler that was carrying seven tonnes of weapons. He now lives in London
Eamon Collins informed on the IRA in the 1980s and published a book about his exploits, Killing Rage, in 1998. He was stabbed to death a year later
From the telegraph
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:30 AMOfficial Secrets Act........we’ll only ever know as much as the Brits want us to know (not very much)
im off to watch ‘Hiddan Agenda’ again !
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:35 AMlib
‘why was this man outed now...?’
At a pinch I would guess it was to send out a warning to a much higher and far more important placed tout or touts that if he or they do not deliver on their promises they will also be outed. Does that make sense lib?Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 12:58 AMI suppose there must be a bidding war among publishers going on just about now for the rights to the anticipated new blockbuster Memoirs of an IRA Chaffeur.
I can just imagine the questions the author will have to field at the press launch:
“And tell me, Mr McShane, just how many engines did you blow up?”
“And was your limousine designated a safe non-smoking environment?”
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 01:13 AMsceoling,
My theory is that we’re getting this guff about republicans to distract from the fact that MI5 is still worried about the threat from unionism. It’s their last feeble chance to disturb the GFA and that’s where the real danger to the future comes from. It’ll be another few years before republican dissatisfaction becomes dangerous and by then the success of Sinn Fein will be more obvious. When the Brits focus attention on one hand I’m always tempted to check what they’re holding in the other.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 01:43 AMNor Iron is comparable to eastern Germany after the fall of the wall. like east Germany we a slowly find out that the ever-present state was spying on everyone and has a huge network of informers and spies.
Any rights legislation should have provisions that control state intrusion.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 01:51 AMSo the Brits have had informers in Sinn Fein and the IRA for years at every level, hardly surprising! One has to ask how did the war continue for so long if the security forces agents were so embeded in the Republican movement?
That being said another agent has walked to join the likes of scapatecci et al, some ‘alledegedly’ become joint ministers and some have yet to be exposed and some are expendible like Donaldson.
In the meantime I cant help thinking of Jean McConville and others who never got that chance to walk away.People should remember that rather than the goings on, or not, of another rat.Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 07:23 AM“In the meantime I cant help thinking of Jean McConville and others who never got that chance to walk away.” - Jimmy
And so you should remember her. I wish more did. In her life and in her death, and the stories of her ten children, you’ll find the real truth about PIRA, Adams, et al, and the others who turned ‘republicanism’ into a vile word when they stole it to mislabel what those self-serving sociopaths were really all about. Alas, a united Ireland lies in the same grave as The Disappeared.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 07:47 AMLIB2016
Donaldson was thrown to the wolves by the British because he had become expendable and no-one knows who killed him. Was it the British themselves to encourage others who were trying to get out?
So Lib2016 suggests that “the British” murdered Denis Donaldson in order to “encourage” other informers.
Why would the murder of one informer encourage another?
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 11:12 AMAdams knew!!!!!
...
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 11:51 AMhalf the posters apart from actually not living here and the one who does, never leaves his sleepy suburbia....to see real people in the real world....
Lest we forget....
the British secret service murdered innocent catholics on a daily basis....
but then the stoops and all the other pro-british here would like to forget it…
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 01:25 PM
