The Intelligence War against the IRA

by Thomas Leahy

  57. NLI, O’Mahony papers, MS 44/166/5, ‘Answers’, undated document, p. 1.

  58. Keogh, Lynch, pp. 325–6.

  59. See Bradley with Feeney, Insider, pp. 84–5.

  60. Mumford, ‘Covert Peacemaking’, pp. 637–8.

  61. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 286–96.

  62. Cahill in Anderson, Cahill, pp. 241–2.

  4 British Political, Military and Intelligence Strategy towards the IRA: July 1972 to December 1975

  1. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 43–5.

  2. See Kerr, The Destructors, pp. 13–14, 173–9, 201–59, 297.

  3. For more information on Brendan Duddy see Peter Taylor, Talking to Terrorists: Face to Face with the Enemy (London: Harper Press, 2011), pp. xxv–47.

  4. Whitelaw, Memoirs, pp. 100–10.

  5. Implicit in McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 138–9.

  6. See Hughes in Moloney, Voices, pp. 104–6.

  7. See reference numbers 487–94 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  8. Operation Banner points 106 and 303; M. L. R. Smith and Peter R. Neumann, ‘Motorman’s Long Journey: Changing the Strategic Setting in Northern Ireland’, Contemporary British History, 19.4 (2015), 413–35.

  9. Whitelaw, Memoirs, pp. 102–3.

  10. TNA, CAB 130/560, Minutes of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street, 9 November 1972, p. 1.

  11. Mulholland, ‘Politics and Violence’, p. 404.

  12. Craig, ‘From Backdoors’, pp. 107–8.

  13. TNA, FCO 87/4, Frank Steele telegram to Dublin FCO from UK Rep Belfast, 28 November 1972, pp. 1–3.

  14. TNA, FCO 87/178, Note from P. J. C. Evans to Mr W. K. K. White, 19 July 1973.

  15. TNA, CJ 4/319, A note for the record by P. J. Woodfield, 12 September 1973, pp. 1–2.

  16. TNA, CJ 4/319, Letter from Sir John Hackett to William Whitelaw, 4 October 1973, pp. 1–6 and annex II.

  17. TNA CJ 4/319, Letter from William Whitelaw to Sir John Hackett, 13 October 1973.

  18. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 286–306.

  19. Omand, Securing the State, pp. 177–9.

  20. Kerr, Destructors, pp. 249–56.

  21. Operation Banner, point 848; Matchett, Secret Victory, pp. 133–4.

  22. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 138–9.

  23. Taylor, Brits, pp. 149–56; Bradley with Feeney, Insider, 117.

  24. Operation Banner, 505.

  25. Cf. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 138–9.

  26. Kerr, Destructors, pp. 13–14, 173–321.

  27. Cf. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 141–8; S. C. Aveyard, No Solution: The Labour Government and the Northern Ireland Conflict 1974–79 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), pp. 78–9, 110, 250–1.

  28. Hughes with Moloney, Voices, pp. 183–96.

  29. National University of Ireland Galway archives (NUIG), Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/63, Brendan Duddy Diary: 1975 to 1976, 4 June 1975.

  30. TNA, CAB 134/3921, Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 18 February 1975, pp. 1–4.

  31. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 48–62.

  32. Neumann, Britain’s Long War, pp. 74–92, 95–8; see also Taylor, Brits, pp. 166–86.

  33. Kerr, The Destructors, pp. 13–14, 173–9, 201–59, 297.

  34. London School of Economics Library Archives, Merlyn Rees Papers, Merlyn-Rees/1/7, Transcripts of diary tapes: ceasefire discussions, March 1975.

  35. Kerr, The Destructors, 284.

  36. TNA, CAB 134/3921, Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 18 February 1975, pp. 1–2.

  37. Merlyn Rees speech in House of Commons in Northern Ireland debate, Hansard Online, vol. 871, 4 April 1974: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1974/apr/04/northern-ireland-1#S5CV0871P0_19740404_HOC_379.

  38. National University of Ireland Galway Archives (NUIG), The Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Papers, Pol 28/67, Formal meeting between British and Irish republican representatives, 5 March 1975 (underlined in original).

  39. TNA, CAB 134/3921, Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 14 March 1975, p. 3.

  40. NUIG, Ó Brádaigh Papers, Pol 28/67, Formal meeting between British and Irish republican representatives, 19 March 1975.

  41. Kerr, The Destructors, pp. 13–14, 173–9, 201–59, 297.

  42. Bernard Donoughue, Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No.10 (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005) p. 124.

  43. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 128–9.

  44. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 505–6.

  45. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, p. 550.

  46. NUIG, Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/63, Brendan Duddy Diary: 1975 to 1976, Phone conversation between Brendan Duddy and Donald Middleton, 12 September 1975.

  47. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 505, 550.

  48. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, p. 550; see also TNA, PREM 16/960, John Hunt note to Prime Minister, 16 January 1976, pp. 8–9.

  49. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 253–4; NUIG, Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/132, Brendan Duddy Diary: 1976, Meeting between Donald Middleton and Brendan Duddy, 21 February 1976.

  50. TNA, CAB 134/3921, Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 18 February 1975, pp. 1–4.

  51. NRA, FCO 87/342, Possible paramilitary/IRA contacts, 21 June 1974; NRA, FCO 87/342, Note of a meeting between the Minister of State and Mr Glenn Barr held in Londonderry, 25 June 1974.

  52. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, p. 130.

  53. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 13–17.

  54. NUIG, Ó Brádaigh Papers, Pol 28/67, Formal meeting between British and Irish republican representatives, 7 May 1975.

  55. Kerr, The Destructors, p. 257.

  56. NLI, Sean O’Mahony Papers, MS 44/167/2, Sarah Nelson paper to the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, ‘The Ulster Independence Debate’, January 1977, p. 5.

  57. TNA, FCO 87/342, Possible paramilitary/IRA contacts, 21 June 1974; TNA, FCO 87/342, Note of a meeting between the Minister of State and Mr Glenn Barr held in Londonderry, 25 June 1974.

  58. TNA, PREM 16/151, Letter from Merlyn Rees to Harold Wilson, 26 September 1974, pp.1–3.

  59. See ‘Chronology of the Conflict 1975’, CAIN online, 27 March 1975: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch75.htm.

  60. I have anonymised the names of individuals who are alive and quoted in the Garret FitzGerald papers, as requested.

  61. University College Dublin archives (UCD), Dr Garret FitzGerald papers, P215/94, Meeting between the UDA and the Department of Foreign Affairs representative in Belfast, 30–31 July 1974, pp. 1–9.

  62. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/94, meeting between leading Vanguard and UDA representatives and the Department of Foreign Affairs representative in Northern Ireland, 28–29 January 1975, pp. 1–8.

  63. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/94, Internal document, 9 January 1975, p. 3.

  64. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/94, Meeting between Official Unionist Party MP and the Department of Foreign Affairs representative in Armagh, 30–31 October and 1 November 1974, pp. 11–12.

  65. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/68, Northern Ireland: An assessment of the current situation, 8 June 1975, pp. 4–8.

  66. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/94, Meeting between leading Vanguard and UDA representatives and the Department of Foreign Affairs representative in Northern Ireland, 28–29 January 1975, pp. 7–8.

  67. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/94, Meeting between leading UDA members and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs representative in Dunmurry in Northern Ireland, 20–21 May 1975, pp. 7–9.

  68. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/94, Meeting with Reverend William Arlow with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs representative, 20–21 March 1975, p. 9.

  69. UCD, FitzGerald papers P215/68, Northern Ireland: an assessment of the current situation, 8 June 1975, pp. 4–8.

  70. NUIG, Duddy papers, Pol 35/63
, Duddy diary 1975, conversation with Ó Brádaigh, 21 May 1975.

  71. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/68, Northern Ireland: An assessment of the current situation, 8 June 1975, pp. 4–10; UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/68, Memorandum for the Government, 11 June 1975, pp. 1–8; for more comments on SDLP reservations about independence and British state intentions about withdrawal see UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/68, Memorandum for the government: Northern Ireland situation, 18 November 1974, pp. 2–4; UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/68, Meeting between Government and SDLP at Iveagh House, 20 August 1974, pp. 1–28; UCD, FitzGerald papers, 215/94, Meeting between SDLP and Irish Department of Foreign Affairs representatives, 23–25 October 1974, pp. 1–3.

  72. UCD, FitzGerald papers, P215/68, Discussion paper on negotiated independence, pp. 3–4.

  73. NUIG, Ó Brádaigh Papers, Pol 28/67, Formal meeting between British and Irish republican representatives, 25 August 1975.

  74. NUIG, Ó Brádaigh Papers, Pol 28/67, Message from Brits, 22 October 1975.

  75. NUIG, Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/63, Brendan Duddy Diary: 1975 to 1976, 27 October 1975.

  76. TNA, PREM 16/958, Merlyn Rees telegram to Harold Wilson, 29 November 1975, pp. 1–5 (italics mine).

  77. TNA, PREM 16/958, Merlyn Rees telegram to Harold Wilson, 29 November 1975, pp. 1–5.

  78. TNA, PREM 16/960, Meeting with O Brady, McKee and McCallion, 10 February 1976.

  79. TNA, CAB 134/3921, Minutes of a meeting at 10 Downing Street, 11 November 1975, p. 2.

  80. NUIG, Ó Brádaigh Papers, Pol 28/67, Formal meeting between British and Irish republican representatives, 2 April 1975.

  81. Neumann, Britain’s Long War, pp. 27–8.

  82. Oatley in Taylor, Brits, pp. 178–9.

  83. NUIG, Duddy Papers, Pol 35/63, Duddy Diary, 19 July 1975.

  84. Cf. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 48–62.

  85. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 253–4.

  86. BLOU, Harold Wilson papers, MS Wilson C.845/23/2, Letter from voter to Harold Wilson, 25 April 1974.

  87. Gary McGladdery, The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973–1997 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006), p. 105; for further opinion polls showing support on the UK mainland for some form of British withdrawal in the late 1970s, see E. E. Davis and R. Sinnott, Attitudes in the Republic of Ireland Relevant to the Northern Ireland Problem: Vol. 1. Descriptive Analysis and Some Comparisons with Attitudes in Northern Ireland and Great Britain (Dublin: The Economic and Social Research Institute Dublin, 1979), pp. 60–2.

  88. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 128–9.

  89. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, p. 124.

  90. McGladdery, IRA in England, pp. 92–4.

  91. TNA, CAB 134/3778, Minutes of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street, 4 December 1974, p. 4 (italics mine).

  92. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, pp. 253–4, 385.

  93. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 308–9.

  94. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 308–11.

  95. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 310–11.

  96. Kerr, The Destructors, pp. 13–15, 249–326.

  97. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 262–328.

  5 The Intelligence War: July 1972 to December 1975

  1. Cf. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 50–4; see similar views in Moloney, Secret History, pp.133–42.

  2. Cf. Moloney, Secret History, p. 138.

  3. Conway, Southside Provisional, p. 182.

  4. Operation Banner, points 505, 838, 848–49.

  5. Moloney, Secret History, p. 118.

  6. Interview with Tommy McKearney, Monaghan, 18 April 2011.

  7. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 138–9; Interview with Tommy McKearney, Monaghan, 18 April 2011.

  8. See Appendix A.1.

  9. Taylor, Brits, pp. 154–6; Hughes in Moloney, Voices, pp. 151–74.

  10. Bradley with Feeney, pp. 105–6, 117, 130–1.

  11. Hughes in Moloney, Voices, p. 162.

  12. Operation Banner, point 505.

  13. Cursey, MRF, p. 172.

  14. Cursey, MRF, p. 172.

  15. Hughes in Moloney, Voices, pp. 118–24; Moloney, Secret History, pp. 119–22; Taylor, Brits, pp. 131–7; reference numbers 624, 626, 627, 1741 in David McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  16. ‘IRA Investigation Locates Grave Sites’, An Phoblacht, 1 April 1999: www.anphoblacht.com/contents/4724; disappearing was not a set policy in Belfast, since the IRA shot another alleged spy that day in public, Edward Patrick Bonner. See reference number 625 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  17. ‘IRA Investigation Locates Grave Sites’.

  18. Hughes in Moloney, Voices, pp. 124–32; Matchett, Secret Victory, p. 48; Reference number 699 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  19. ‘Jean McConville Timeline’, The Guardian, 3 May 2014: www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/03/jean-mcconville-timeline-murder-gerry-adams.

  20. For Jean McConville’s family’s view of her see ‘Bodies Found: Jean McConville’, https://thedisappearedni.co.uk/index.php/people-found.

  21. Bernard’s last name is spelt differently by various sources as either Teggart or Teggert. See reference number 959 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives; ‘15-year-old Bernard Teggert Was Not an Informer’, An Phoblacht, 6 August 2009: www.anphoblacht.com/contents/20457; Susan McKay, Bear in Mind These Dead (London: Faber and Faber, 2008), pp. 51–5, 234–5.

  22. Hewitt, Snitch!, pp. 8–10, 60–6.

  23. ‘IRA Investigation Locates Grave Sites’; see also the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains: at www.iclvr.ie/en/ICLVR/Pages/Confidentiality.

  24. ‘IRA Investigation Locates Grave Sites’.

  25. See reference number 1321 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  26. ‘IRA Investigation Locates Grave Sites’.

  27. Harnden, ‘Bandit Country’, p. 99; for Eamon Molloy’s family’s memories about him, see ‘Bodies Found: Eamon Molloy’: at https://thedisappearedni.co.uk/index.php/people-found.

  28. See reference 1321 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives; Bradley with Feeney, Insider, pp. 117–20; Moloney, Secret History, pp. 133–42.

  29. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 133–42; Bradley in Feeney, Insider, pp. 117–19; reference number 1321 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives; Hughes with Moloney, Voices, p. 162.

  30. Bradley with Feeney, Insider, pp. 117–20.

  31. Cf. Moloney, Secret History, p. 138; see similar view in Matchett, Secret Victory, p. 51.

  32. Bradley with Feeney, Insider, p.106; Interview with Tommy McKearney, Monaghan, 23 May 2012.

  33. Interview with Laurence McKeown, Belfast, 4 February 2014; Interview with Tommy McKearney, Monaghan, 23 May 2012; Operation Banner, point 303.

  34. Interview with Séanna Walsh, Belfast, 21 May 2012 in Thomas Leahy, ‘Informers, Agents, the IRA and British Counter–Insurgency Strategy during the Northern Ireland Troubles 1969 to 1998’ (King’s College London: Unpublished PhD, 2015), p. 84.

  35. Bradley with Feeney, Insider, p. 106.

  36. Interview with Danny Morrison, Belfast, 22 May 2012.

  37. Bradley with Feeney, Insider, p. 128.

  38. ‘Loose Talk Can Be Fatal’, An Phoblacht, 25 January 1974, p. 4.

  39. Operation Banner, point 504.

  40. Operation Banner, point 504.

  41. Interview with former British soldier 1, 26 June 2012.

  42. Interview with Danny Morrison, Belfast, 18 May 2011.

  43. Bradley with Feeney, Insider, pp. 103–4.

  44. Charters, ‘Have a Go’, pp. 206, 217.

  45. Kalyvas, Logic of Violence, pp. 12–13.

  46. Operation Banner, points 226–29.

  47. Cursey, MRF, pp. 174–6.

  48. Bradley with Feeney, Insider, pp. 96–9.

  49. TNA, CJ 4/650, untitled document, 4 September 1972.

  50. TNA, DEFE 24/837, Robert Fisk, ‘Army’s Computer Has Data on Half the Popul
ation in Ulster’, The Times, 5 December 1974, p. 1; for more details on the computerised Vengeful vehicle check system, see TNA, DEFE 13/914, C. E. Johnson to Secretary of State, 10 January 1975.