When it came to the war against the Provisional IRA in Derry, the British
government and its agencies were prepared to go to lengths that even many
republicans now accept was beyond what even they had imagined.
There was the 'public' face of that war - the assassinations of IRA members
like in the Doherty/Fleming incident in the grounds of Gransha Hospital was
one example.
The now infamous supergrass trials with informers like Raymond Gilmour
centre stage was another way the British believed they could defeat the
IRA.
We now of course also know that rogue members of the British Army's Force
Research Unit were also prepared to arm loyalist paramilitary groups and
provide intelligence to people like the UDA bigot Brian Nelson.
But when it came to the real dirty war the British State agencies were
prepared to go to lengths that included sacrificing its own soldiers and
even its agents.
In our book we detail many of these incidents but other information has now
come to light that didn't make it into the book.
This concerns the deaths of two British soldiers and a civilian.
Officers from the Force Research Unit who recruited Derry republican Franko
Hegarty in the 1980s helped him to become quarter-master of the Provisional
IRA in the city. But when Hegarty finally got his hands on a cache of
weapons, it left the FRU with a dilemma.
His handlers could tip off the RUC to seize the weapons or track them -
blowing Hegarty's cover - or leave them and place the lives of soldiers,
RUC officers and civilians at risk.
The Force Research Unit bosses chose the latter, believing that to expose
Hegarty would risk losing more vital information later. The weapons were
taken from the hide in the city cemetery by Hegarty and given to the FRU
whose officers test-fired them, checked their ballistics and returned them
to the hide.
They decided against bugging the hide and they decided against 'jarking'
the guns - that is, fitting them with tracking devices or making them
inoperable.
One reason the FRU didn't jark them was because they would have had to
involve the RUC to do that. There was a problem at that time, given the
critical stage of Agent 3018's (Hegarty) development.
If the weapons had been jarked, 3018's security would have been affected.
Therefore his potential as an agent, not just in Derry but possibly even in
the IRA's northern command, would have been compromised.
During holy week, 1984, Hegarty gave one of the weapons to a senior IRA
member. The FRU had allowed Hegarty's weapons to remain untouched before,
and it is certain that one British soldier died as a result. Another one,
and a civilian, may also have been sacrificed.
On Easter Monday, April 23, 1984 Private Neil Clarke of the 2nd Battalion,
the Queen's Regiment, was with an armoured patrol in Bishop Street in Derry
when rioters struck with sweet jar petrol bombs. Clarke jumped out of the
back of his Land Rover as his uniform caught fire and IRA sniper Paddy
Deery opened fire. Clarke was hit in the head and died instantly. He was
just 20.
The FRU could have had access to that rifle - to leave it for use was risky
and Clarke was the result of it.
The FRU officer John Tobias, who was among those killed in the 1994 Chinook
helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, had a choice to make. His team
could now seize the weapons or track them, blowing Hegarty's cover, or
leave them and place the lives of soldiers, RUC officers and civilians at
risk.
At the time it was seen by Tobias and another senior FRU officer as the
correct decision - but that weapon was used in subsequent murders. Two
other people died and others were injured in a series of attacks involving
Paddy Deery and Hegarty's weapons.
Private Martin Patten was shot dead as he walked with a colleague and two
girls back to their barracks at Ebrington on September 22, 1985. And on
November 21, German-born businessman Kurt Konig died after being hit 15
times with weapons from the 'Hegarty hide'.
The lives of all three may have been saved if the FRU commanders had acted
differently. The weapons were eventually seized in January 1986 after
Hegarty informed his handlers that they were being held by an IRA member in
Shantallow. Forensic officers confirmed three rifles found with pistols,
magazines and ammunition had been used in the Clarke, Patten and Konig
murders.
Within three weeks Hegarty told the FRU he knew where £1m worth of weapons
from Libya were located. Gardai later seized those weapons and Franko
Hegarty was forced to flee Derry.
He returned in April 1986 and was found shot dead near the border the
following month - executed by the IRA's nutting squad.
In Stakeknife we detail the Hegarty case specifically because Ingram was
one of Franko's co-handlers.
And we reveal for the first time that the man who pulled the trigger on
Hegarty was none other than Freddie Scappaticci, another agent of the Force
Research Unit - the man codenamed Stakeknife.
Again the British State was involved in murder; in fact one agent killed
another.
A Belfast republican recently told me that back in the 1980s they had
mistakenly believed that the British were in some way 'honourable' and that
the IRA had also believed that any volunteers involved in actions which led
to deaths could not possibly be an agent or informer as the British would
not allow such things to take place.
This was a mistake - Freddie Scappaticci was a prolific killer whilst a
paid British agent.
It reminds of the belief in some republican circles that IRA volunteers who
had served prison sentences could not possibly become informers.
In the murky world of the dirty war, nothing was further from the truth.
Brendan 'Ruby' Davison, shot dead by the UVF in Belfast in the 1980s, was
an RUC Special Branch agent having served most of his formative years in
prison.
Other IRA members branded informers and later shot dead were, in fact, not
agents of the state at all.
Two Derry men fall into this category - Paddy Flood and Ruairi Finnis.
Neither men had worked for any state agency in Derry. Both men were taken
from this earth by the IRA's internal security unit; staffed by Freddie
Scappaticci.
It is our contention that the British state had a much greater role in the
injustices of the Troubles than they'd ever been prepared to let on.
Martin Ingram is a whistleblowing former FRU officer who believes the truth
must come out.
The fact that you are even able to read this article is in a small way a
triumph for free speech.
If you lived in England or Wales you would not be able to do so because
last week the Ministry of Defence warned all newspapers there that to
report anything from our book would lead to contempt of court proceedings
as there is currently an injunction against Ingram.
That injunction does not apply to Northern Ireland.
It seems that the MoD doesn't care what you think - as long as we don't
offend anyone in the Home Counties.
