British spy operated at heart of Sinn Fein for more than 20 years

[emad]

By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent



THE closed and secretive world of Irish republicanism was thrown into turmoil last night after one of Gerry Adams’s most trusted lieutenants admitted that he had been a British agent for 20 years.

Denis Donaldson, who was acquitted last week of charges of leading an IRA spy ring in the “Stormontgate” affair that ended Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive three years ago, was a member of Belfast’s republican elite, whose credentials in the fight to end British rule in Ireland would, until now, have been regarded as unimpeachable.

But after he was “outed” yesterday and thrown out of Sinn Fein by Mr Adams, who shared a cell block with him during the 1970s when Mr Donaldson, 55, was welcomed into the inner sanctum of “Young Turks” who took control of the republican movement, the question raised in West Belfast was: “If Denis, then who else?” Mr Donaldson’s extraordinary confession came a week after he and two other men, including his son-in-law, were sensationally acquitted of charges of possession of sensitive security documents, which resulted in the forced rehousing of 2,000 people at a cost of £300 million.

In one remarkable — and, for Mr Donaldson, extremely lucky — respect, his expulsion from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional IRA, also marks a significant departure from the traditional fate of a republican charged by his or her own comrades of “working for the Brits”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1936970,00.html

[pretzel4gore]

1. having yer cake and eating it too...

that was queen headless mary's advice- looks like the british bullyboys took it. what a shitty world this is. fukk god, fukk you to hell.