Gardaí silent on informer at McConville murder claim

Connla Young, Irish News, February 22nd, 2025

GARDAÍ have not responded directly to claims that one of their informers was present when Jean McConville was shot and secretly buried by the IRA.

The mother-of-10 was abducted from her west Belfast home, shot in the head and buried on a Co Louth beach in 1972. She was later accused of being an informer, a claim rejected by her family.

A new book by veteran journalist Martin Dillon contains the revelation that a Garda informer helped dig her grave and was present when she was shot dead.

Mr Dillon also claims that the informer was the son of a senior IRA man who was allowed to leave Ireland when he was eventually unmasked as working for the state.

If true, the explosive claims pose serious questions over what authorities in the south knew about the missing mother during the three decade search carried out by her loving children.

Gardaí were asked if they knew Mrs McConville had been shot and where she was buried but did not respond directly.

They were also asked if the force provided any information regarding the whereabouts of Mrs McConville’s body to her family or the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains.

Again, no direct response was provided.

No Comment

In a statement the force said: “An Garda Síochána does not comment on the detail of ongoing investigations.

“Anyone with information on this matter should bring it to the attention of An Garda Síochána or the PSNI.”

The Department of Justice in Dublin was asked similar questions, including what the Irish government knew, but, like Gardai, did not respond directly.

In a statement a spokesman said the murder of Mrs McConville was “an appalling act with no justification”.

“Clearly it would not be appropriate for the department to offer any comment on the views or allegations made in the context of material published by third parties,” he said.

“Dealing with the legacy of the Troubles on this Island is a complex and sensitive task, and one to which there are no easy solutions.”

He added the establishment of the ICLVR by the Irish and British governments “was a very significant step which recognised the particular cruelty endured by the families of the disappeared, facing not only the tragedy and injustice of losing a loved one to murder, but not knowing for decades where that loved one was buried.

“The commission is independent in the performance of its functions. Confidentiality in respect of the information provided to the commission is fundamental to its work and the commission relies on information in order to pursue its investigations.

“The government remains fully supportive of the work of the commission.”

While the IRA initially denied involvement in Mrs McConville’s disappearance, it eventually admitted its role in 1999 when the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) was established. Her remains were recovered from a beach in Co Louth in 2003.

Mrs McConville was one of 17 people killed and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles who are known as the Disappeared.

IRA man killed in Gibraltar ‘didn’t want to go on mission’

Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, February 22nd, 2025

Jean McConville was abducted and secretly buried in 1972. Mr Dillon’s book claims that a Garda informer was present when she was shot dead

The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women by Martin Dillon (pictured left) and published by Merrion Press is available now.

AN IRA man killed during an SAS ambush in Gibraltar almost 40 years ago was reluctant to go on the ill-fated operation, it has been claimed.

Daniel McCann was one of three IRA members shot dead by the British army in March 1988.

McCann, Sean Savage and Maire-ad Farrell were part of a team sent to the British overseas territory to kill members of a military band.

The mission came to a deadly end when the trio were targeted in an SAS ambush which it is claimed was closely followed by then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Details about the IRA operation and British army ambush are contained in a new book by best-selling author Martin Dillon. The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women explores the impact of the conflict on women, including former republican prisoner Mairead Farrell.

Speaking to The Irish News, Mr Dillon said McCann, who was a wellknown IRA member, was opposed to the political direction of prominent republican leaders at the time.

“He was opposed to the search for an alternative to the armed struggle,” Mr Dillon said.

Internal opposition to leadership

“He was opposed to McGuinness. It’s called the McGuinness-Adams faction in that sense.

“I am not talking about it terms of the IRA. I’m talking about it as a political faction.

“That’s really what the debate was about between him and the others. It was a political debate and he was opposed to that way forward.”

Mr Dillon said McCann was later removed from the IRA’s Belfast ‘brigade’ staff – “probably by Martin McGuinness, I would suspect”.

The author, who has written several acclaimed Troubles books, has been told McCann did not want to take part in the Gibraltar mission.

“I was told he was reluctant. He didn’t really want to go,” Mr Dillon said.

“He was nobody’s fool. I mean, they are going to send you to a place… the amount of scrutiny with that and you’re with two other people that are well known.

“They weren’t the only ones… who went into Spain and they were sitting around in Torremolinos.”

Mr Dillon suggests all three IRA members were “high on intelligence lists”.

“Very often, these people in terms of the intelligence community were tagged – in other words if he’s not seen, or she’s not seen, for a certain amount of time in a neighbourhood an alert goes out: where are they?”

Mr Dillon believes some members of the IRA team, including McCann, would have been alive to the dangers.

“He would have known that Farrell would have known it too,” he said.

“You are sending the three of them to a place like Gibraltar, which is bristling with surveillance. You are sending them on international flights.”

Mr Dillon highlighted that some people in key IRA roles at the time were working for the British, including Freddie Scappaticci who led the group’s ‘internal security unit’, also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’.

Mr Dillon believes the decision to send the trio to Gibraltar was taken above Scappaticci, who he claims in the book was later asked by Mr McGuinness to take part in an inquiry into the deaths of the three IRA members.

“Whoever made that decision was beyond the level of Scappaticci, remember. That decision was made at a much higher level,” he said.

“To send a former member of the brigade staff on an op, active service unit, you must be joking. Unless you want to get rid of him, unless he’s too big a problem.”

‘Nothing came’ of inquiry

Mr Dillon said “nothing came” of the inquiry.

Mr Dillon was the first journalist to reveal that the IRA had secretly buried some victims, in his acclaimed 1988 book The Dirty War. In his latest book, which he says will be his last Troubles-related work, the author also deals with the abduction, death and secret burial of Jean McConville. The mother-of-10 was taken to a beach in Co Louth where she was shot dead and buried in

1972. She was one of 17 people killed and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. Her remains were eventually found in 2003.

Mr Dillon claims that a Garda informer was present when Mrs McConville was shot dead.

He said one of up to three men who helped dig her grave was working for the state. The man, a son of a senior IRA figure in the area, was later unmasked and allowed to leave Ireland by the republican movement. It is understood he later made his way to America.

Mr Dillon said he is 100% satisfied that a Garda informer was present when Mrs McConville was killed.

“The source is too good,” he said.

The revelation poses serious questions for gardaí around whether they knew where Mrs McConville’s remains where during the three decades her family were searching for her.

Mr Dillon said the role of the informer may not be straightforward, adding that “agents didn’t always tell their handlers everything they were engaged in” and that they “were always very unreliable people”.

The former journalist said it is impossible to say whether gardaí “knew one of their agents was actually at that site and therefore they knew that the grave was there”.

“But you have to factor it in as a possibility,” he said.

“You are entitled to ask the question: did they know? Because, if they did know then, that’s an awful scandal, really.

“Another thing they should be asking, too is, what kind of forensics came out of this?”

Jean McConville was abducted and secretly buried in 1972. Mr Dillon’s book claims that a Garda informer was present when she was shot dead

The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women by Martin Dillon (pictured left) and published by Merrion Press is available now.

Enniskillen relatives call for a public inquiry after MI5 bomb tampering allegation

Connla Young, Irish News, February 22nd, 2025

RELATIVES of people murdered in the Enniskillen bombing have called for a public inquiry after a new book revealed claims that MI5 had tampered with the device.

Eleven people were killed when the 40lb IRA device exploded at a cenotaph in the Co Fermanagh town in November 1987. Another man remained in a coma for 13 years until his death in 2000.

Best-selling author Martin Dillon has now revealed that an MI5 whistleblower claimed the device had been interfered with before it went off. He also suggests the Irish and British governments have buried documents linked to the case.

In The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women, Mr Dillon said the MI5 member revealed that the agency knew about the bomb plan in advance.

Solicitor Kevin Winters of KRW Law, who represents four families, said they are “deeply concerned” about the revelations contained in the book.

Post Legacy Act a public inquiry is ‘only way’

“The families we represent know that it was the PIRA who planted the bomb in Enniskillen on November 8 1987,” he said.

“However, the claims made by Martin Dillion, despite his caveat that such claims must be treated with considerable caution, raise the following issues of grave concern.”

These include suggestions the “British and Irish government scrubbed files relating to the Enniskillen bombing”.

They have also expressed concern over claims MI5 knew in advance about the attack and that the agency “tampered with the bomb’s timing mechanism determining that the explosion would devastate the IRA’s public image”.

“These allegations are against the British and Irish governments and their respective Intelligence agencies,” Mr Winters said.

“Post the legacy act the only available mechanism to investigate these highly sensitive allegations is by way of a Public Inquiry under Section 1 of the Public Inquiry Act (NI) 2005.”

While relatives of those killed in Enniskillen have previously raised the prospect of an inquiry, the recent revelations have led them to renew the call.

“We are now writing to the secretary of state, the Home Office and the Irish government urging a S1 Public Inquiry analogous to the Omagh Bomb Inquiry,” Mr Winters said.

Op Kenova confirms: Stakeknife not involved in Moreland murder

Connla Young, Irish News, February 22nd, 2025

AN INVES-TIGATION team established to probe the activities of British agent Stakeknife has confirmed he was not involved in the murder of IRA informer Caroline Moreland more than 30 years ago.

The body of Ms Moreland (34) was found near Roslea, Co Fermanagh, in July 1994 – weeks before the IRA’s ceasefire in August that year.

She had been shot three times in the head and her body dumped on a roadside close to the border.

Martin Dillon’s book claims the mother-of-three was having an affair with a senior republican who was also working for British intelligence at the time of her death.

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 has also suggested Stakeknife was a “British intelligence project” rather than a single individual. In 2003 west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, a former commander of the IRA’s ‘internal security unit’ (ISU), was identified as as Stakeknife. The ISU, also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, was responsible for hunting down and killing informers.

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.

It is believed Scappaticci’s involvement with the ISU ended around 1990.

Ms Moreland was abducted and killed by the IRA unit four years later.

Her case was considered by Operation Kenova, which set up in 2016 to investigate the activities of Stakeknife, and produced an interim report last year.

However, it has never been fully explained why the Moreland’s murder was included in Kenova’s caseload.

The investigation, which was formerly headed by current PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher, has now said Stakeknife was not involved in Ms Moreland’s murder.

A spokesman for the probe, which is now led by former Police Scotland chief Sir Iain Livingstone, said “several murders were taken on by Kenova during the course of its investigation.

“Some of these were initially reviewed due to reports or allegations that Stakeknife was involved,” he said.

Absence of Stakeknife connection

“In the case of Caroline Moreland there was no evidence that this was the case, but CC [Chief Constable] Jon Boutcher agreed to take on the investigation after meeting with the family and a file was subsequently passed to PPS.

“This was not considered as an Operation Kenova file due to the absence of a link to StakeKnife.”

Other murder investigations passed to Kenova include Joe Mulhern in 1993, John Bingham in 1986 and Tom Oliver in Co Louth in 1991.

The Kenova spokesman also said Stakeknife is a single person rather than a ‘project’.

“The interim report makes clear that we established the identity of Stakeknife and he was an individual, however we cannot currently name due to the government’s neither confirm nor deny policy (NCND),” the spokesman said.

“There is a recommendation in the interim report for the blanket use of NCND to be reviewed – particularly in regard to this case when there is evidence that the individual committed serious criminality including murder.”

Disappeared Columba ‘exploited’ by British intelligence say family

Connla Young, Irish News, February 22nd, 2025 c.young@irishnews.com

THE family of ‘vulnerable’ Co Tyrone teenager Columba McVeigh who was recruited to work for British military intelligence before the IRA killed and secretly buried him believe he was “exploited” by his handlers.

The 19-year-old from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone was last seen in November 1975 and was later shot and secretly buried by republicans.

He is one of the group of victims known as the ‘Disappeared’, whose remains have yet to be found despite going missing almost half a century ago.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains has carried out several searches of bogland in Co Monaghan for the teenager’s remains without success.

In a new book, veteran journalist Martin Dillon reveals rarely details about the circumstances leading up to Mr McVeigh’s death.

In The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women, Mr Dillon tells how the tragic teenager was recruited as a British army agent.

Details of Mr McVeigh’s back story were first revealed by journalist Duncan Campbell based on an account given to him by Fred Holroyd, a former British army intelligence officer based in the north in the 1970s.

Part of undercover operation

Mr Holroyd believed that Mr McVeigh was compromised in 1974, a year before his disappearance, after he was brought into an undercover military operation in part to infiltrate the IRA.

The plot was devised by another military intelligence officer Tony Poole, who later described Mr McVeigh, as “woolly headed”.

Holroyd claimed to Mr Dillon that the teenager was encouraged to keep ammunition in his own home, which would then be raided. Mr McVeigh was then to seek sanctuary with the IRA.

The ultimate objective of the operation, according to the book, was to “use him to compromise a local priest he believed was running an escape route for IRA men fleeing Northern Ireland to the Republic”.

Mr McVeigh’s home was later raided, the ammunition was found and a warrant was issued for his arrest. After being dismissed by the target priest he turned himself into the RUC who told him to go home.

He was later arrested and charged with possessing ammunition. After being remanded to Crumlin Road prison he was placed in an IRA wing. While in prison it was quickly established he wasn’t a member of the IRA and after being accused of being an informer and subjected to “harsh treatment”, he admitted working with Tony Poole.

‘Mistaken identity’

It is now claimed the intelligence officer had previously told him that if under pressure while in jail he was to admit to being an agent and provide a bogus list of other ‘informers’, which included a politician, solicitor and milkman.

The IRA subsequently shot a Protestant milkman in the Pomeroy area, but it was not the man on the list. The victim was doing relief work because the regular milkman was off sick.

Although not stated in the book, Duncan Campbell reported that “Holroyd noted the milkman’s death in his notebook at the time, commenting that ‘the milkman in Pomeroy was head of Tony’s man’s confession list… mistaken identity’.”

Mr McVeigh received a suspended sentence for the ammunition and was released from prison a month before the milkman was killed.

He later moved to Dublin and disappeared without a trace.

His sister Dympna described him as “not the full shilling” to the author, a point that Mr Dillon pressed her on.

“When I asked her if she meant that he was naive, she agreed that this was a better description of him,” he said.

“It could, I believe, explain why Poole chose to exploit him.

“After all, he had called him ‘woolly-headed’.

“’Our Columba,’ said Dympna, ‘was the kind of kid that if he was about to throw a stone through a window and I said, ‘Don’t do it’, but a stranger said, ‘Do it’, he would do it.

“This suggested that he was a contrarian of sorts who was keen to impress others.”

Comment

My message to the Irish State is:  'You need to step up on legacy.  If you continue to duck your responsibilities, what chance have you of winning unionist hearts and minds?  Seeking to address crimes committed 103 years ago would be an excellent place to start!'

Neale Jagoe, Dunmanway Discussion Group

Hilary Benn said Finucane was to be the last public inquiry but then the judges can't be stopped - although they can be ignored.

As Austen writes, the NI judiciary has seceded from the UK and become a European offshoot.

The Clonoe public inquiry inquest was a bridge too far. Humphries has reignited the veterans.

Jeffrey Dudgeon, Malone House Group