McGuinness is not a british spy - Sinn Féin

Cork

28/05/2006 - 10:47:31 AM

McGuinness is not a british spy - Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin today rubbished claims by a former British Army intelligence officer that its chief negotiator Martin McGuinness was a British spy.

The allegation, which was carried in a Sunday newspaper, was made by former agent handler Martin Ingram.

Mr Ingram two years ago identified Belfast republican Freddie Scappaticci as the prized British agent Stakeknife, within the IRA – an allegation he denied before fleeing his home in the west of the city.

I would not give one hoot - If it came out that SF was full of British spies. Parties up there have a window to get Stornmount up & running. That is what - the people of this country voted for.

Reports like the above serve little purpose.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

interesting, is that who Ingram is saying is the spy?

i always read the Phoenix for insights into what is really happening in the media coverage of Sinn Fein.

bet this story was carried in the Sunday Times. That paper is known for its ability to be influenced by the british secret services.

Ingram is particularly unworthy of respect. Why has he not been arrested for feeding stories from secret documents to the media? very suspicious.

Dirk Gently

Cork wrote:

Reports like the above serve little purpose.

Depends what way you look at it. There is a strong link between the intelligence services and loyalist paramilitaries. Old habits die hard. No doubt explosive information is leaked at very delicate times in order to derail efforts to progress the sharing of power. Remember the whole SF spying fiasco that brought down the assembly last time. There are people up there who will do everything they can not to share power and leaking information (either true or lies) is often designed to undo any kind of trust and undermine the confidence of the people involved. You're right reports like this serve little purpose when trying to get stornmount up and running but that is not what they're designed for. The opposite is often true. Its all dirty tricks

growler

It has now emerged that Gerry Adams was the only real republican in the entire IRA and Sinn Fein ranks since 1982, all others were actually British agents, informers, spies, double agents or confused. British officials are embarassed as the latest revelations show that they have waged an expensive, bloody and secret war against themselves for over twenty years. Meanwhile Margaret Thatcher has revealed that she was the de-facto head on the INLA throughout the 80's and that Ian Paisley was "quite high up" in Opus Dei.

This kind of report is another juvenile attempt as **** stirring in order try and create internal hassels for the shinners and delay progress in powerr sharing for as long as possible, or until marching season when they can all start rioting again.

mike65

bet this story was carried in the Sunday Times. That paper is known for its ability to be influenced by the british secret services.

the Sunday Tribune and Sunday World published it.

Mike.

Munya

growler wrote:

It has now emerged that Gerry Adams was the only real republican in the entire IRA and Sinn Fein ranks since 1982, all others were actually British agents, informers, spies, double agents or confused. British officials are embarassed as the latest revelations show that they have waged an expensive, bloody and secret war against themselves for over twenty years. Meanwhile Margaret Thatcher has revealed that she was the de-facto head on the INLA throughout the 80's and that Ian Paisley was "quite high up" in Opus Dei.

lol:D

I disagree

If it turned out to be true then it would show that the GFA was a construct of British intelligence to some extent. It might give anti-agreement Republicans a stick to beat Sinn Féin with and their support may increase if the ordinary civilian has doubts about their "leaders".

cronin

there is no way he is a spy! if he was everything which has been worked for will be discredited. also i doubt very much that Gerry Adams would not have know if he was a so called spy. Anyway people who sell stories such as these are up there with the crap i scrape of my shoes at the end of day.

Agent Smith

tbh if he was a spy, and it turned out to be true, i'm pretty sure he signed his own death warrent...

Crash

Or, more accurately, some guy called Ingram signed it for him :P

RedPlanet

Well if he was a spy then he'd be working a British agenda.
Which would put Unionist intransigence toward SF in a different light wouldn't it?

Hydroquinone

Not to mention putting a bit of stress on the IRA's decomission.

I cannot see it for a minute, not even for a nanosecond and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who thinks less of McGuinness than I do.

walshb

Elvis being alive and well I think is more damn plausible!!!!

tallus

walshb wrote:

Elvis being alive and well I think is more damn plausible!!!!

I have to say I agree I think we will see flying pigs before an allegation of that nature is proven to be fact.

Jackie laughlin

Cynics! At last someone says something praiseworthy about the guy and no one will believe it!

my_house

it wouldnt make sense, otherwise how can the british justify the 35 years of the troubles if they had someone that influential in the ra and SF ..... plus if you cast your minds back a few years, this is a repeat of the 'Gerry is a British Spy' claims from a few years back.

I think divide and conquer is the term used for such techniques

joebhoy1916

my_house wrote:

it wouldnt make sense, otherwise how can the british justify the 35 years of the troubles if they had someone that influential in the ra and SF ..... plus if you cast your minds back a few years, this is a repeat of the 'Gerry is a British Spy' claims from a few years back.

I think divide and conquer is the term used for such techniques

They had people in the IRA.

Funny no goverment in the north over the so called spy ring when the intelligence was found but the guy they found it on was an informer

my_house

it's a dirty war so they obviously had people in the ira, as the ira had people in the british establishment - but it wasnt martin mcguinness. they found their own spy in the spyring - i am also certain he was also Stakeknife - not yer man freddie. it is strange how the british government brought down the assembly because of thier own spy and then blamed the republicans - theres just one other little tit-bit that was fed to the public (as in the ira spyring) and which was eagerly consumed by irish politicians.

growler

did anyone else spot the picture ini lasst week's Private Eye of McGuinness in a dinner jacket with the caption "the New James Bond" ?

quality

Jackie laughlin

Calling him a spy is the nicest thing ever heard about Martin McGuinness. If true, it would perhaps go some way to redeeming him. As things stand he admits not only to membership of the IRA but to being a commander in Derry. That's more than enough to exclude him from ever being regarded as a democrat or even as a decent human being.

my_house

thats a bit of a sweeping statement to make. first off, how can being a spy redeem anyone, and secondly, if you grew up in Derry during those times, and experienced a lot of the things people growing up in the north experienced, how sure are you that you wouldnt do the same things? granted not all people in the north join the IRA, but many did and it wasnt because they were wanna-be murderers

Its easy to slag people off from a distance without having an iota of an idea of the reasons that influence people in doing what they have done.

Jackie laughlin

My House,
Do you realise that this is the same line of defence that the child abusers use, i.e. we have to understand the circumstances in which these acts took place and if we did, we wouldn't regard them as crimes? By this route thugs of all description can be deemed innocent.

Come off it! Evil doers choose assault and murder. Decent people must condemn them.

You ask a fair question of me. If I had grown up in Derry, I would have been with the Civil Rights Movement and then the SDLP. There was a choice: constitutional politics or the SF/IRA murder machine.

Almost anything - including being a paid British informer - would be morally superior to membership of the IRA.

solskjaer20

Calling him a spy is the nicest thing ever heard about Martin McGuinness. If true, it would perhaps go some way to redeeming him. As things stand he admits not only to membership of the IRA but to being a commander in Derry. That's more than enough to exclude him from ever being regarded as a democrat or even as a decent human being

You trying growing up in Derry then.

Jackie laughlin

Many people grew up in Derry and joined the Civil Rights Movement and then the SDLP. I used to think they deserved enormous respect for NOT joining SF/IRA but now I see them as normal, decent people reacting in the only way possible to their oppression. Others unfortunately were either already so disposed or became murderers.