Saturday, February 09, 2008
“He was sidelined to the point of being removed from any work.”
Following on from yesterday’s MI5 protective custody for Adams’ driver story there are a couple of reports worth noting. In the Irish Times, Gerry Moriarty notes, “Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey said he and other senior republicans were disappointed but not terribly surprised by the news.” While in the Guardian Henry McDonald reports that -
“It is understood MI5 advised him to leave his west Belfast home after it emerged that an internal IRA investigation found he had been working for the British for more than a decade.”
Which would raise the question - who exactly was conducting that investigation? And, with McShane reportedly already ‘sidelined’, to what end? This Irish News report may point to a possible answer.. [subs req] Updated below
Adds Also in the Irish News [subs req]
In February 2006 Sinn Fein unexpectedly replaced all its Belfast-based drivers and bodyguards for Mr Adams and other senior republican politicians. It is unclear if this decision was linked to suspicions that McShane was working as a spy.
Originally from Lurgan in Co Armagh, he had lived in west Belfast from his early teens, sharing a house in the lower Falls with IRA leader Billy McMillan in the mid-1960s.
He is understood to have been a member of the Territorial Army for a time during this period.
Throughout the Troubles McShane worked as a cabinet maker in west Belfast.
It is understood he served little or no time in prison.
However, he was implicated in one of the worst murders of the Troubles when West German industrialist Thomas Niedermayer was abducted and killed in December 1973.
In the 1980s McShane is known to have been a member of the IRA ‘nutting squad’.
As a member of that unit he was close to Freddie Scappaticci and, ironically, would have had the task of exposing agents within the IRA.
In 1989 that internal security unit was stood down over concerns that it had been infiltrated by the British intelligence agencies.
In what would prove to be a crucial mistake the IRA moved many of those involved in the ‘nutting squad’ into protection and driving roles for the Sinn Fein leadership.
For more than 20 years McShane was regularly seen driving the Sinn Fein leadership to and from meetings.
Following the decision to bring an end to McShane’s role as a Sinn Fein driver he is understood to have been working as a taxi driver in the lower Falls where he had been living in recent years.
Republican sources last night recalled that McShane had shown strong contempt for Sinn Fein administrator Denis Donaldson after he was exposed as a British agent in December 2005.
And from another Irish Times report by Gerry Moriarty [subs req]
A senior Sinn Féin spokesman yesterday suggested that in recent years, at least, the party suspected McShane was an informer. “He was sidelined to the point of being removed from any work.” Nonetheless, while he did not have a strategic role in the party, he was physically close to those who did - and at important times in the long negotiating process that finally led to the May 8th, 2007, powersharing deal. He’s been around a long time.
This will hardly be the last such revelation, which has caused quite an amount of shock in west Belfast and other republican areas. When Lord Eames and Denis Bradley and other members of the commission on the past travelled to London to examine the Stevens papers on collusion, they were said to be shocked by how deeply the IRA and Sinn Féin were infiltrated.
If MI5 could land catches such as Denis Donaldson and McShane, it follows that it is likely it netted other senior figures. It is likely that if McShane was outed, others too will be exposed, perhaps on a drip-drip basis to cause continuing embarrassment to Sinn Féin. This latest revelation should not destabilise the current regime at Stormont, but it will upset ordinary republicans, causing them to wonder what the “war” was about, was the IRA leadership really in control, who was genuine, who was a “tout”. That must be uncomfortable and annoying for Adams and other leaders, but it is just something they must live with it and manage.
Republicans said McShane could return to west Belfast if he makes peace with his family and his community and that he was under no threat from the IRA. But McShane will be mindful that Denis Donaldson, in whose company he was often seen at Stormont, had similar assurances, and yet ended up gunned to death in a cottage in Donegal.
Pete Baker @ 01:06 PM
“Which would raise the question - who exactly was conducting that investigation?”
Perhaps they asked Freddie Scapatticci to pop back from Italy for the purpose? Obviously, they haven’t done away etc…
I’d like to know how MI5 knew about the outcome of an internal PIRA investigation before anyone else knew.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 01:48 PMAs a republican, I state that this man has giving up his right to be called Irish and would not recommend that he associates with Irish people anywhere around the world.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 01:50 PMThe Watcher, perhaps you should read the GFA? You’ve all given up your ‘right’ to be Irish.
A question you should ask yourself if you are a PSF supporter is why was Freddie Scapatticci, the deputy head of PIRA’s Internal Security Unit, allowed to remain in a crucial role for nearly two decades when standard practice would be to rotate such roles in order to avoid long-term infiltration. If the gamekeeper is working for the poachers, then his Lordship shouldn’t be too surprised to discover that the pochers had a free run of his grounds and that all of his game have vanished. So, why did the higher-ups in PIRA allow a British agent to stay in place, ensuring that no other British agents within PIRA would be detected by him? There is only one valid conclusion, isn’t there?
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:05 PMErr, the above post (no 3) is by me.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:07 PMI’d like to know how MI5 knew about the outcome of an internal PIRA investigation before anyone else knew.
Don’t tell me the IRA’s internal affairs unit has an informer in it?! Say it ain’t so!
Another explanation might be that the RM allows the informer to get out before anything serious happens to him. The embarrassment of another tout is bad enough, but another Donaldson-style murder would be worse. Best to let him ‘do a Scap’ and disappear.
Still, this is at least the second informer revealed since MI5’s Palace Barracks crew took over recently. Not a particularly great start…
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:07 PMThe Watcher, perhaps you should read the GFA? You’ve all given up your ‘right’ to be Irish.
I think you’ll find that right is determined in the Constitution, Dubliner.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:21 PMPresumably there has been a side deal during negotiations of STA between SF/IRA and Englezes/MI5 of you show me yours and I’ll show you mine to ‘manage’ the release of this information in a post conflict situation. Given the strange lack of clarity on the Donaldson
issue that may well have been a jointly understood outcome.Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:27 PMThe impression I got from the Irish Times stories was that the connections with MI5 were being heavily underlined, possibly to reassure unionists that the Holywood branch office would remember who was the real enemy.
This will be spun to show British Intelligence as allpowerful which we know it wasn’t and isn’t, not in England and even less so in Ireland. It would be good to know why Sinn Fein suddenly decided to move all their drivers but we’ll have to wait for the history books for that bit. Republicans seem to have a quaint belief that the secret service should stay secret whereas the Brits like to build large public temples to underline who really runs their country.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:40 PMas a caption competition
McShane spots a twenty on the floor, but thinks feck it, this coffin is too heavy to reach down and pocket it.. bugger me and my spying eyes. lolPosted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:42 PMKensei, Article 2 is mere tokenism, and the Irish constitution isn’t applicable in Northern Ireland. The GFA is where the action lies, and not only have you conceded your right in that but you lot conceded it on behalf of the Republic of Ireland by inserting a legally binding clause which, if ratified in a referendum in the Republic of Ireland, renders self-determination for all Irish people null and void (the binding clause requires any government of a unified entity to be ‘rigorously impartial’ between Irish nationalism and British nationalism) - which is why the GFA can’t be a basis for unity. Anyway, I sugges you bump the thread in question if you want to ‘go there’ because I don’t want to sidetrack Mr Baker’s thread.
Belfast Gonzo, that’s possible but hardly plausible. Why take such a convoluted route involving MI5 and acres of media coverage when, as Maskey assures us, PIRA knew all along? Far better to take him to one side, give him a few grand, and tell him to be on his merry way.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:43 PMhey dubliner I thought you were buggering off? rebuilding the 3rd temple no doubt.
The big thing about this story is Adams having members of the nutting squad so close to him, ugly stuff...no wonder he doesn’t give a fuck about paul quinn’s murder. Sickening!
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:50 PMNow how did the provos have an internal enquiry into this when they are disbanded? I would bet that there are more than a few senior sf/ira members quite worried if they will be the next to be outed.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:55 PMGoing on Tuesday, Perci. Can’t you wait? And to your second favourite country, Israel. ;)
Lib, I feel sorry for all the prats who volunteered their services to chauffer the Mafioso around - or perhaps they were paid since PSF certainly has enough businesses to finance such indulgences. At any rate, it was touts chauffeuring touts around. That’s ‘republicanism’ NI-style.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 02:55 PMhey it is my second fav country dub, am intending to emigrate there and become King David, but ireland’s reunification comes first. which part you going to?
Agree with SDLP who want a total investigation into how much and how long and how many lives its cost irish people, having the Brits conduct their dirty war. Will we get the truth, not a chance? Bastards!
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:01 PMCheck your Google Ads on this thread - I’m getting a job ad for MI6 as the bottom one.
“Care About Global Issues?
Considered a career at MI6? Admin to Linguistic roles available
http://www.siscareers.gov.uk”No vacancies for drivers?! LOL!
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:08 PMdubliner are you still going to post your chutzpah from the holy land, and stick yer big schnoz in now and again like a good ol schmuck? ;)
can I have your email address , you could be my man on the ground so to speak.Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:19 PMYou’ve all given up your ‘right’ to be Irish. - dubliner
aren’t your folks hungarian???? well being born in the north of IRELAND, and having Family ties back as far as is possible to examine, i think its safe to say im Irish. it must be the ‘Kevin Myresesque’ outsider in you Dub which provokes you to try and take away a peoples birthright !
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:28 PMMakes a mockery of the so called war. Time and time we have seen poor judgement by Adams and co.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:30 PMJesus, there’s not many things worse than Dublin smug arrogance. Well done Republicanstones, you’ve crushed that canard in one fell swoop.
[play the ball - edited moderator]
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:43 PMDubliner
No idea where said thread is, but since you post the Single Transferable Post on every fucking thread, this is as goos as any. Article 2 has legal consequences - I hold an Irish passport and am therefore an Irish citizen. You could argue 3.1 is window dressing but I’m still happy it’s there.
The point you seem staggeringly unable to get, is that a claim of sovereignty that is not and cannot be enforced is worthless, regardless of what the UN says. When was the Republic planning to enforce its claim?
Apologies to Pete but this is staggeringly unsurprising news. I would expect a few more, and it would take it to be a really major figure to cause much shock. Though this is probably unfortunate timing given dissidents attempting to mount a campaign; I doubt it’ll have much affect but it might be a little propaganda victory that pushes a few more people to do something stupid.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:48 PMIs this the fighting first batallion of the belfast brigade republicans all sung about?
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 03:56 PMAnyone that’s surprised, ken, hasn’t been paying attention.
The interest, as ever, is in the detail.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 04:27 PMAny journalist who covered the peace process over the last decade can confirm that for for several years of that period this individual was omnipresent when Mr Adams was out and about.
Always had an earpiece which resembled a hearing aid and drove the leader’s elderly Merc.Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 04:54 PM“No idea where said thread is, but since you post the Single Transferable Post on every fucking thread, this is as goos as any. Article 2 has legal consequences - I hold an Irish passport and am therefore an Irish citizen. You could argue 3.1 is window dressing but I’m still happy it’s there.” - Kensei
And where are you living and paying your taxes? In the United Kingdom. I don’t think anyone has said you are not Irish. What you have conceded in the GFA is that you have no right to self-determination, i.e. that you have no right to live in an Irish nation state. You accepted the legitimacy of Northern Ireland and amended Articles 2 & 3 to remove Ireland’s territorial claim to Northern Ireland. What do you think this means? Fuck all? No, innocent, it means you forfeited your right to self-determination, accepting that the legitimate claim to self-determination in the territory of Northern Ireland lies with those who are British. That’s the new status and the rest of Ireland fully accepts it, and it doesn’t change just because you don’t want to accept that you gave up your birthright in return for political privileges for a militant facsist movement and a return to Stormont in an internal settlement under British rule. Letting your politicians hoodwink you into grandiosely re-naming the Unionist Veto as the Principle of Consent means you now have an aspiration, not a right. In addition, removing the decision on unity from both governments, as both governments were democratically entitled to do, and granting it to the political class within NI will have the effect of ensuring that that political class will have zero intention of forsaking their power and de facto voting for their own disbandment and power structures by seeking unity. You also won’t have a hope of persuading the citizens of the Republic of Ireland to vote for unity on the basis of the GFA when you have inserted a clause into it which requires the nation state to be disbanded and self-determination forfeited for no gain whatsoever to the citizens of Republic of Ireland. You are now locked into a situation whereby the only way you can persuade unionists to vote for a UI is by extending British rule to the Republic of Ireland - this is why the new language has been given to you to use by your masters such as ‘Ireland of equals’ and ‘parity of esteem’ and ‘shared future’ etc. It means what it says on the GFA tin, i.e. that any government of any unified entity must be ‘rigorously impartial’ between Irish nationalism and British nationalism, and a government that is partial to Irish nationalism, the default value of the Irish nation state and the expedient by which self-determination is realised is not a government that is rigorously impartial. Ergo, there can be no Irish nation state and no realisation of Irish self-determination. So, good luck selling unity to the unionists on that basis (since they will still rightly conclude that they will have more power as 45% of an un-united population than they will have as 14% of a united population) and the citizens of the Republic of Ireland will rightly conclude that they should not forfeit their right to self-determination just because a bunch of Nannystate addicts who contributed not a penny in taxation to the Republic of Ireland (but merely brought disgrace upon Ireland for 3 decades) see any opportunity to get something for nothing. See, Kensei, old sport, all that happens when you bury your head deep in the sand is that you drown in the next tide.
“The point you seem staggeringly unable to get, is that a claim of sovereignty that is not and cannot be enforced is worthless, regardless of what the UN says. When was the Republic planning to enforce its claim?” - Kensei
Never. That’s the part you lot couldn’t grasp: the Republic of Ireland was committed to exclusively peaceful means, not squalid sectarian violence that could only end in civil war and not unity. Perhaps you see the wisdom now of why the Republic of Ireland refused to “enforce its claim”? The gangsters you voted for have seen that wisdom but far too late for 3,600 people and far too late for unity in any of our lifetimes, if ever. The tragic irony is that if you didn’t support violence as a means of furthering your own selfish interests, you’d all be in a united Ireland by now.
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 06:25 PMahh dub and we thought you were the jewish-irish messiah come to set the captives free, and bring about our Zion. Bollocks t’ya ;)
Posted by on Feb 09, 2008 @ 06:57 PM
