British âknew IRAâs every turnâ
Several of the documents focus on the rise of Gerry Adams within the IRA leadership
Several of the documents focus on the rise of Gerry Adams within the IRA leadership
PACEMAKER PRESS
Henry McDonald, Belfast
Sunday April 11 2021, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
Margaret Thatcherâs government had advance information on the IRA leadershipâs decision-making in the 1980s, according to a book on Britainâs intelligence war in Northern Ireland.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to author Aaron Edwards include Ministry of Defence (MoD) memos that indicate it knew of IRA intentions as soon as its army council met.
Agents of Influence also suggests that the ânuttingâ squad, an IRA unit to find informers, was run by John Joe Magee, a former Royal Marine turned terrorist. It had been thought the unit was controlled by Freddie Scappaticci, a Belfast man who has denied being the British agent Stakeknife.
âThe leader of the squad for over a decade was Magee,â Edwards said. âAlthough from Belfast, he relocated with his wife and family to a modest house in Dundalk. Most interrogations of suspected informers took place within a 15-mile radius of his home.â
It is estimated that at least 30 people accused of being informers were shot dead by the IRA unit.
Agents of Influence reports suspicions that Magee, now dead, was himself a British agent. Anthony McIntyre, an ex-IRA prisoner turned academic, recalls a conversation he had with Brendan Hughes, an IRA commander. âHughes said JJ Magee was an informer and working for them [the British],â McIntyre is quoted as saying. âHughes told me Mageeâs flat . . . was bugged.â
Edwards quotes âBobâ, a senior RUC officer, who says that sources at the top of the IRA were passing on information. Bob said: âIt was so sophisticated that we were reading the minutes of the IRAâs general army convention before they were disseminated to their senior membership.â
The author said MoD files bolster claims by âBobâ that by the mid-1980s the British had crucial insight into IRA decision-making. MoD reports from the UK national archives, all marked âSecretâ, reveal the extent of the information. One report from 1983 says: âIntelligence suggests that the leadership intends to keep up pressure. Further attacks can be expected in Belfast and Derry using prestige weapons.â
Several documents focus on the rise of Gerry Adams within the IRA leadership. Following the Harrods bombing in 1983, in which six people died, security forces believe the leadership decided to avoid mass civilian casualties. âIntelligence points towards carefully targeted attacks rather than indiscriminate ones. Adams is clearly aware of how counter-productive politically such operations can be,â the report notes.
Jarry was never a member of the IRA
Was he a tout ?
I donât know
Nice edit 
Youâre asking all the wrong questions as usual with the focus on the wrong side of the equationâŠ
He was goin loko down in aculpuco
weird last few posts
there will be united ireand within 10 years so the IRA will achieve their/our goal
So the British had advanced knowledge of the likes of the Brighton Bomb and the mortar attack on Downing st and did nothing to stop them. No wonder the Empire is deep in darkness.
'Ello, 'ello, âello, whatâs goinâ on 'ere then?
Why or how does SF have my details?
Is it not just a register of electors exported onto excel?
The shills are really struggling to come up with anything these days.
I wonder if you would say the same if it was the other way around.
They havenât gone way you know?
So you canât argue a basis on what youâre seemingly upset by?
Is a register of electors in the public domain?
Varadkarâs fluffer Philip Ryan has been running with this story for a couple of weeks now. One revelation was that an admin from the SF Facebook page was based in Serbia. Someone ran a check of the Indoâs page and there were admins based abroad too. I think this is around the 4th separate article on it, as if heâs drip feeding something important. At every stage thereâs been complete indifference and people from other parties saying itâs all standard practice.
I never said I was upset by it. I was only pointing it out.