The Dirty War: Informers are not necessarily ‘agents’…

Liam Clarke has a useful corrective for those who think agents are the same thing as informers… Martin McGartland, who infiltrated the IRA in west Belfast, was an agent in the purest sense. He joined the IRA at the request of his handlers and did exactly what he was told; it involved no switch of loyalties. Several members of the IRA’s internal security team, like Stakeknife, were double-agents. They were trusted by the IRA to frustrate Crown forces, but were ‘doubled’ …

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