Did Garda informer dig Jean McConville’s grave and see her shot?
By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, February 21st, 2025
Did Gardai know the location of Mrs McConville’s remains for 30 years?
A gardai informer was present when mother of 10 Jean McConville was shot dead and secretly buried by the IRA more than 50 years ago.
The explosive claim is made in a news book by veteran journalist and author Martin Dillon about the experience of women during the Troubles.
‘The Sorrow and the Loss - The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women’ is published this week.
In the book Mr Dillon claims one of the men who dug Mrs McConville’s grave and was present when she was murdered was a Garda informer and son of a local IRA commander.
The claim poses serious questions for Gardai over what they knew about the disappearance and murder of Mrs McConville in the three decades her family searched for her remains.
Ms McConville was abducted from her west Belfast home, shot in the head and secretly buried on a Co Louth beach by the IRA in 1972.
She was later accused of being an informer, a claim rejected by her family.
PIRA initially denied involvement
While the IRA initially denied involvement in her disappearance, it eventually admitted its role in 1999 when the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) was established.
Ms McConville was one of 17 people killed and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles who are known as the “disappeared”.
Since its establishment, the ICLVR has carried out painstaking investigations in a bid to locate the bodies of all those killed and buried.
It is understood during that time republicans and others have provided information to the recovery body, which operates on both sides of the border.
Just last year searches were carried out in Co Louth for missing British soldier Robert Nairac, abducted and killed by the IRA in 1977, while remains recovered in Co Monaghan are currently being tested to establish if they belong to ‘disappeared’ IRA member Joe Lynskey, who was killed 1972.
In his new book, Mr Dillon provides an account of Mrs McConville’s last moments – an account that conflicts with a recent Disney series that focused on members of the IRA unit responsible for her death.
He claims that after being taken across the border to Co Louth, local members of the IRA were unable to kill the mother of ten.
Despite their reluctance to pull the trigger, Mr Dillon says “two or possibly three members of the local IRA who dug the grave and filled it in after her murder were also at the graveside”.
Garda Informant
“One was an informant for the local police force, An Garda Síochána, and he was also the son of the IRA’s commander in Dundalk,” he writes.
Mr Dillon raises questions about what gardai knew about the disappearance.
“It is not unreasonable to assume that this informant confided his role in the Jean McConville murder to his handlers, but we cannot know this for certain,” he said.
The author claims that when eventually outed the alleged informer was allowed to quietly leave Ireland.
“After her murder, the informant was eventually unmasked as a traitor by the IRA, but, unlike others who betrayed the organisation, he was permitted to leave Ireland and settle in America,” he said.
“Was he pardoned because of his father’s seniority in the IRA, or were other factors at play?”
‘IRA trio fired shots’ that left widowed mother dead
Connla Young, Irish News, February 21st, 2025
A NEW book about the experience of women in the Troubles has contradicted previous claims about how mother-of-10 Jean McConville was shot dead by the IRA.
‘The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women’ by author and journalist Martin Dillon is published this week.
Part of the book deals with the abduction, death and secret burial of Mrs McConville more than 50 years ago.
Her case was recently featured in the acclaimed Disney+ series, Say Nothing, which focused on members of the secret IRA unit called “The Unknowns”, including Dolours Price, who died in 2013.
Part of her work with the unit was to transport IRA prisoners across the border for interrogation.
This included Mrs McConville who was abducted, killed and buried by the IRA in 1972.
Her remains were eventually discovered on a Co Louth beach in 2003.
In the series Dolours Price’s sister Marian, now known as Marian McGlinchey, was depicted shooting Mrs McConville.
Ms McGlinchey has strongly denied killing the widowed mother and has launched defamation action against Disney+.
In one dramatic scene the Price sisters are shown standing behind Mrs McConville who is kneeling over a freshly dug grave.
The film depicts Marian taking a handgun from her sister who is seemingly unable to fire the fatal shot.
Marian is then seen to let a round off before the widow falls into the open grave.
The Say Nothing series is based on a book of the same name written by Patrick Radden Keefe and draws on interviews given to the Boston College project by several people, including Dolours Price.
Posed as Legion of Mary members
In his book Mr Dillon recounts that Dolours, an unnamed “female IRA operative” and Pat McClure, another member of ‘The Unknowns’ posed as members of the Legion of Mary before bringing Mrs McConville across the border.
Marian Price, above. Left, Marian, with her late sister Dolours, right, pictured in prison after their 1973 conviction for bombing the Old Bailey in London
Once there they handed Mrs McConville over to a local IRA unit whose members could not bring themselves to kill the unsuspecting mother.
According to Dillon, who references an account given by Dolours to a Boston College researcher, the IRA trio were then sent back from Belfast to Co Louth to carry out the grim task of killing Mrs McConville.
“There had been a grave dug by the Dundalk unit, and she was taken by the three volunteers to the grave, and shot in the back of the head by one of the volunteers, and then the other two volunteers each fired a shot so that no one would say that they for certain had been the person to kill her,” Dolours Price told the researcher.
“There was an equal chance that it was any one of the three.
“And she was left in the grave and the local unit buried her.”
Was Stakenife one person or a network?
Speculation fuelled by new book and report on whether a murdered informer ‘was having affair with agent’
Irish News, February 21st, 2025
Murdered IRA informer was having an affair with a fellow British agent, claims new book
AN IRA informer killed more than 30 years ago was having an affair with a senior republican who was also working for British intelligence, it is claimed in Mr Dillon’s book.
The author has also suggested Stakeknife was a “British intelligence project” rather than a single individual.
Caroline Moreland (34) was found near Roslea, Co Fermanagh, in July 1994 – just weeks before the IRA’s historic ceasefire in August that year. The mother-of-three was shot three times in the head and her body dumped on a roadside close to the border.
In 2003 west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, a former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), was identified as the agent ‘Stakeknife’ – a term first used by deceased journalist Liam Clarke.
While it was previously known Scappaticci worked for the British army’s Force Research Unit (FRU), documents suppressed by MI5 until recently confirm he was instructed by the agency via his military handlers.
The ISU, also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, was responsible for hunting down and killing informers.
Scappaticci was stood down in 1990 but deaths continued
It is believed Scappaticci’s involvement with the ISU ended around 1990.
Caroline Mooreland was abducted and killed by the IRA unit four years later.
While Operation Kenova, set up to investigate the activities of Stakeknife, has considered the case of Ms Mooreland, it has never been explained why the killing was included in its caseload.
Mr Dillon believes that the moniker Stakeknife “was part of a clever ploy”.
“By making Scappaticci the one and only Stakeknife, the FRU leadership was able to deflect attention from its other Stakeknife agents embedded in the IRA’s ISU for more than a decade,” he says.
“This issue impacts the truth about the murder of Caroline in ways I could never have imagined until I began writing this book.”
He said that after being taken by the IRA, Ms Mooreland was held in the Andersonstown area of west Belfast before being moved to the border within 48 hours.
Under IRA interrogation she admitted to being an informer.
The author said she was arrested by police in 1992 and later released after another informer “had marked her for his (RUC) Branch handlers as someone who could be recruited to operate at a high level within the IRA’s Belfast Brigade”.
Broke under pressure
Arrested again in 1994, the west Belfast woman broke under pressure and agreed to work for Special Branch after being threatened that she would go to jail and lose her children.
The author says it is unclear how within months the IRA became aware she was working for the British.
Mr Dillon said that on release from RUC custody, Ms Mooreland was questioned by members of the ISU but had been briefed by Special Branch on how to respond.
Caroline Mooreland was shot dead in 1994
The fact that Caroline had a secret lover, one never mentioned in all the stories about her, alters the trajectory of her demise
Freddie Scappaticci
Four months later she was abducted and handed over to the ISU. Ms Mooreland’s body was found 15 days later.
Mr Dillon says he has been told the order to kill Ms Mooreland – just weeks before the ceasefire – would have been “handled” by former Sinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuinness due to “the politics of the time”.
Mr Dillon also believes Ms Mooreland had a “secret lover” who was a “very senior IRA figure”.
The seasoned journalist poses the question: “Could this man have been responsible for her death?”
“The fact that Caroline had a secret lover, one never mentioned in all the stories about her, alters the trajectory of her demise,” Mr Dillon suggests.
“This lover’s identity is known to British intelligence.
Another ‘Stakeknife’ agent
“He was another Stakeknife agent.
“By encouraging the media to make Scappaticci the scapegoat in all the Stakeknife murders, British intelligence has been able to hide and protect all its other killers within the IRA’s internal security apparatus, including Caroline’s lover.”
Mr Dillon said that while the man cannot be named for legal reasons “he had the motivation to kill Caroline if she had learned during their secret love affair that he was a double agent”.
Mr Dillon adds there “was always something highly suspicious about the IRA’s decision to murder Caroline”.
“She was a perfect example of a victim of the dirty war,” he says.
“In this case, the IRA needed to protect one of its own who was at the apex of decision-making at a critical time in the final stages of the peace process.”
Mr Dillon also questions why no attempt was made by the British to rescue Ms Mooreland.
“The answer, according to a retired British intelligence source, was that ‘orders came down from the top not to rock the boat’.
“Talks with IRA leaders were at a delicate stage and it was ‘imperative’ that no one jeopardised them.
“A rescue operation might have led to a gun battle and the deaths of IRA personnel.
“Such a scenario had the potential to encourage the IRA rank and file to reject any forthcoming deal with Britain.”
The author writes that a source believes the order not to intervene didn’t come from MI5.
“It came from above, as far up the intelligence chain as it gets, and it applied to everyone, including MI5, Special Branch and Military Intelligence,” the source said.
“I suspect the matter of this poor lady was considered the IRA’s business and not ours.”
Mr Dillon ponders how far up the ladder Ms Mooreland’s case went.
“When one thinks of the top of the British intelligence chain, one must consider the Prime Minister’s Office, their Director of Intelligence and a joint intelligence committee representing the various branches, including MI5 and MI6 as well as Military Intelligence,” he said.
Operation Kenova was contacted.
‘The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women’ by Martin Dillon and published by Merrion Press is available now.
Thatcher ‘oversaw SAS ambush in Gibraltar ’
Irish News, February 21st, 2025
FORMER British prime minister Margaret Thatcher oversaw an SAS ambush that resulted in the deaths of three IRA members in Gibraltar almost 40 years ago, the book says.
Mr Dillon also claims British army agent Freddie Scappaticci was later drafted in by the IRA to investigate the affair.
In the book, the journalist looks at the 1988 ambush that resulted in the deaths of three IRA members Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Daniel McCann.
The controversial killings sparked claims of a shoot-to-kill policy after eyewitnesses later said some of the victims were killed at close range as they tried to surrender.
In the book Mr Dillon reveals how Farrell was captured in 1976 when an attempt to bomb a hotel on the outskirts of west Belfast went wrong.
During the operation an IRA member Sean McDermott, who the author says Farrell was in a relationship with, was shot dead after he attempted to hijack a car belonging to an RUC reservist while trying to make an escape.
Kieran Doherty, who died in the 1981 hunger strike, was also arrested.
Released from prison in 1986, Farrell continued her involvement with the republican movement.
Two years later she was part of an IRA team sent to Gibraltar to target a British band.
Mr Dillon says the operation was approved by the IRA’s ‘Belfast Brigade’ after the organisation’s ‘Army Council’ was consulted.
MI5 had prior knowledge
Mr Dillon suggests there was “scope for British assets within the senior ranks of the IRA in Belfast to learn about” the operation.
He describes the mission as “puzzling because of its obvious flaws”, including the use of prominent IRA members.
He claims both McCann, who the author says was a former ‘Officer Commanding’ of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade, and Savage were “experienced gunmen” while the latter was a trusted bomb maker who had killed UDA brigadier John McMichael.
Mr Dillon says MI5 found out about the planned operation in autumn 1987, several months before it was due to take place.
Sean Savage, Mairead Farrell and Danny McCann were shot dead in March 1988.
He adds that on the day of the SAS ambush that claimed the lives of the three IRA members, Mrs Thatcher was following events closely.
The former Tory prime minister has previously been accused of ordering other murders, including those of INLA and IRSP members shot dead after the breakaway faction killed her close friend Airey Neave in 1979. He reveals that on the day of the SAS ambush “military and intelligence figures” arrived at Downing Street to brief Mrs Thatcher in a room known as GEN 42, where matters relating to the north were discussed.
Direct line to No 10
“A direct line to Whitehall and a satellite link to Special Air Service (SAS) HQ in Hereford kept everyone aware in real time about events in Gibraltar, with minute-by-minute reports on the surveillance of the IRA trio,” Mr Dillon reveals.
“The British military operation had been given the name ‘Operation Flavius’.
“Thatcher’s ‘boys’, as she liked to refer to soldiers of the SAS, were in Gibraltar to eliminate targets, not to arrest them. This was to be a repeat of the killings she ordered after Airey Neave’s murder.”
Mr Dillon says the IRA members were in Gibraltar to take part in a dummy run and that British authorities later fed false information to the media about the presence of an explosive device, “which led to the SAS being forced to take them out”.
“However, it seems clear to me that Farrell and her companions were allowed to enter Gibraltar without a bomb that morning so they could be liquidated,” Mr Dillon said.
“This was Thatcher’s revenge. She was sending a personal message to the IRA leadership.”
Mr Dillon said that after the ambush former Sinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuiness brought Freddie Scappaticci in to sit on an internal inquiry.
“After their deaths, Martin McGuinness, as officer commanding the Northern Command, was told by the IRA’s Army Council to hold a court of inquiry to establish the cause of the Gibraltar failure,” he said.
“In a move which raises questions about McGuinness’ judgement, he asked Frederick Scappaticci to sit on the inquiry board.
“This was akin to asking the fox to run the hen house.”
Former MI5 member said it tampered with Enniskillen bomb, source claims
Connla Young, Irish News, February 21st, 2025
A MEMBER of MI5 claimed the spy agency tampered with the IRA’s Enniskillen bomb before it exploded.
Eleven people lost their lives when the 40lb bomb exploded at a cenotaph in the Co Fermanagh town in November 1987.
Another man remained in a coma for 13 years before his death in 2000.
It claimed that one of the IRA’s units had planted the remote controlled device with the intention of targeting British soldiers and suggested the bomb had been detonated by a security force scanner.
In a new book ‘The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women’ best-selling author Martin Dillon reveals that an MI5 whistle blower claimed the device had been interfered with before it went off.
The 1987 Enniskillen bomb atrocity
He also suggested the Irish and British governments have suppressed documents linked to the case.
“I have always felt that there was something missing in the coverage of the Enniskillen tragedy and I believe there is a matter worth considering,” the author said.
“The British and Irish governments have been sitting on highly classified papers related to the bombing.”
Treat with ‘utmost caution’
Mr Dillon said the MI5 member revealed that the agency knew about the bomb plan in advance.
“One concerns the fact that after the atrocity, a member of Britain’s MI5 who was closely connected to secret operations against the IRA, particularly the running of agents within the Provisionals, broke ranks.”
“He complained that his agency knew, as it did about many IRA operations, that the attack on the Cenotaph was planned.
“He went further, making a claim which, if aired publicly in the aftermath of the bombing, would have been political dynamite. He claimed that MI5 tampered with the bomb’s timing mechanism, determined that the explosion would devastate the IRA’s public image.”
Mr Dillon adds that “one must treat a matter like this with considerable caution” and speculates about the motive behind the claims.
He says several sources say “the British and Irish governments have concealed this document”.
“One retired intelligence figure told me that he had heard there were files ‘scrubbed’ in the wake of the bombing and that a ‘matter arose which muddied the waters in the intelligence corridors in Northern Ireland, specifically about the running of agents,” Mr Dillon said.
Clonoe ambush findings sent to prosecutors
Connla Young, Irish News, February 21st, 2025
A CORONER who found the use of force in the SAS killing of four IRA men was “unjustified” is to send his findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Kevin Barry O’Donnell (21), Sean O’Farrell (22), Peter Clancy (21) and Patrick Vincent (20) were shot dead in the grounds of St Patrick’s church at Clonoe, near Coalisland, Co Tyrone, in February 1992.
Several people were also injured during the incident.
The four IRA men had earlier taken part in a gun attack on Coalisland RUC station.
When the IRA unit returned to a carpark at St Patrick’s Church to dismantle the weapon they were ambushed by the SAS.
At a hearing earlier this month coroner Michael Humphreys, who is also a High Court judge, revealed that two of those who died, Kevin Barry O’Donnell and Sean O’Farrell, were shot in the back as they attempted to flee ambush site.
Both men were then shot in the face, with Mr O’Farrell being struck three times, as they lay incapacitated on the ground.
Mr Clancy was also shot while trying to escape and the coroner said that a bullet wound is “suggestive” of the dead the man “having his hands in the air at the time he was shot”.
The final victim was, Patrick Vincent, was found to be sitting in the cab of the hijacked lorry when he was shot and then when lying incapacitated across the vehicle’s seat.
‘It’s a rule of law issue’
Mr Humphreys said that “in each case the use of force was not justified”.
“The soldiers did not have an honest belief that it was necessary that in order to prevent loss of life and the use of force by the soldiers was in the circumstances they believe them to be not reasonable,” he said.
“The operation was not planned and controlled in such a way to as to minimise as to the greatest extent possible the need for recourse to lethal force.”
At a brief hearing in Belfast on Thursday the coroner said his findings will now be forwarded to prosecutors.
Mr Humphreys said that under legislation where a coroner investigating a death “identifies circumstances which may give rise to criminal liability, bearing in mind that’s no part of the coroner’s role to make that ultimate decision”.
“Accordingly, as I read the statutory obligation that’s imposed upon me I am obliged to send a written report of my findings in this inquest to the Director of Public Prosecutions and I will do so as soon as that is practicable.”
Solicitor Niall Murphy, of KRW Law, said: “Well, it’s a rule of law issue, and the families would hope and trust that the rule of law will be observed.
“The evidence that we all heard over the months of hearings was overwhelmingly conclusive.
“The state of evidence, therefore, for the consideration of the Public Prosecution Service is complete, and we would hope and trust that the PPS will come to its decisions as soon as possible.”
Clonoe - IRA men who escaped should be prosecution's focus
Liam Tunney, Belfast Telegraph, February 21st, 2025
Prosecutors should focus on the IRA members involved in a machine gun attack on a Co Tyrone RUC station shortly before an “unjustified” Army operation killed four of the gang, the DUP leader has said.
Gavin Robinson was speaking after it emerged a coroner who ruled SAS soldiers were not justified in killing the men at Clonoe will refer his findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Kevin Barry O'Donnell (21), Sean O'Farrell (23), Peter Clancy (19), and Patrick Vincent (20) were shot dead in a chapel car park February 1992.
The men — all members of the PIRA's East Tyrone brigade — were killed in the grounds of St Patrick's Church as they dumped a hijacked lorry used in the earlier attack on Coalisland police station.
Earlier this month coroner Mr Justice Michael Humphreys ruled the soldiers did not have an honest belief in the necessity of using lethal force and that such force was unjustified and not reasonable.
At a further hearing on Thursday in Belfast, the coroner confirmed he would now refer the case to DPP Stephen Herron to review it.
He said he had no discretion in the matter and was required to send the referral under the Justice Northern Ireland Act, 2002.
“Accordingly, as I read the statutory obligation that's imposed upon me, I am obliged to send a written report of my findings in this inquest to the Director of Public Prosecutions and I will do so as soon as that is practicable,” Mr Humphreys said.
PIRA witnesses
Gavin Robinson hit out at the move and called for focus to also be turned to three IRA men who co-operated with the coroner during the case.
“The coroner's report references interviews with PIRA men identified as CC1, CC2 and CC4,” he said.
“These three men escaped across the border following their attack on Coalisland RUC station but I am not aware of them being prosecuted for their part in a terrorist attack.
“Whilst many will focus on the SAS soldiers, these three terrorists must be held accountable for their part in the attempted murder of RUC officers in Coalisland.
“The men shot in this SAS operation were not innocent bystanders, they were armed members of the Provisional IRA who had just launched an attack on Coalisland RUC station.
“It is outrageous that the focus continues to be placed on those who upheld law and order rather than on those who waged a campaign of terror.”
Outside court on Thursday, solicitor Niall Murphy, who represents some of the bereaved relatives in the case, said the inquest findings were based on evidence that was “overwhelmingly conclusive”.
Commenting on the referral to the DPP, he said: “Well, it's a rule of law issue, and the families would hope and trust that the rule of law will be observed.
“The evidence that we all heard over the months of hearings was overwhelmingly conclusive.
“The state of evidence, therefore, for the consideration of the Public Prosecution Service is complete, and we would hope and trust that the PPS will come to its decisions as soon as possible.”
But TUV leader Jim Allister said the referral was the inevitable consequence of the “rash finding”.
“We now face the gruesome prospect of the soldiers standing trial for relieving the community of a band of bloodthirsty terrorists who went out that night intent on murder,” the North Antrim MP said.
Letter by former senior British commanders
In a letter sent to the Daily Telegraph and signed by Gen Lord Houghton, Gen Lord Dannatt and Adm Lord West said the findings contradicted “natural justice” and risked the prosecution of “elderly retired soldiers”.
“This will ruin the lives of patriotic soldiers and allow the IRA to rewrite the history of the Troubles to its own advantage,” they wrote.
Gen Tim Collins and Tory MP Sir David Davis signed the letter along with former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace.
“The military is there to defend our nation and uphold our laws,” they said.
“Surely the nation should in turn protect the soldiers, the rule of law, and the truth. That is real justice.”
In the ruling, Mr Justice Humphreys rejected claims made by two soldiers — who are now aged in their 50s — that they held the “honest belief” that lethal force was necessary.
However the former military figures insisted the objective of the IRA men killed in the ambush “was murder”.
Belfast Newsletter calls on Reform UK to campaign against SAS prosecutions
News Letter editorial, February 21st, 2025
It is utterly scandalous that prosecutors are being asked to look at the important and even heroic SAS killings of the Clonoe murder gang.
In a widely criticised inquest finding, Mr Justice Humphreys found that the special forces unit was unjustified in using lethal force to stop the terrorists in 1992.
It might be that forwarding a file to prosecutors is a formality. But that is not the point. This disgraceful case has become a belated lightning rod for feeling as to what is happening on legacy to turn the tables on the security forces.
The key thing is that the anger is sustained after the abject failures of some unionist politicians and successive London governments to confront this turn.
Why have there been no prosecutions of IRA leaders for orchestrating three decades of murder and mayhem? Why do we accept lowly soldiers advancing to trial, as is happening in other cases even if it does not in fact happen in the entirely justified killings at Clonoe, when so few IRA do? And do those who point to the odd case of a retrospective prosecution of an IRA murderer think that it even begins to balance this scandal?
No comparison between soldiers and RUC with IRA
There is no parallel between soldiers and RUC who bravely were present when the East Tyrone IRA embarked on yet another heavily-armed murder mission and pre-meditated terrorists.
Meanwhile, retired generals and admirals are complaining about what is going on in Northern Ireland. Good. But this sort of reaction has been seen before and ultimately seems to change little.
It is important that Reform UK make this an electoral campaigning issue. There are still enough people in Britain who know what an outrage it is. And who could be brought to see how this weak, weak, weak Labour government is offering concessions to an Irish government that has given the IRA an amnesty, and then is suing the UK over its own (shelved) amnesty.
