NEWS: Top Sinn Fein I.R.A. Official Confesses To Spying For The British

A leading Sinn Fein official has been expelled from the IRA's political wing after admitting to spying for British Intelligence. Dennis Donaldson apologised to the IRA when he admitted that he had started spying for British Intelligence and the RUC PSLA special branch after he compromised himself in the 1980's and was put on the payroll of the Brits. Donaldson was also one of three men involved in the "Stormont Gate Affair" which alleged that the IRA was spying within the government.



Spying is a nasty business at the best of times and this man has had to and will have to live with the shame of compromising his beliefs and his fellow comrades for the rest of his life. He was compromised in the 80's which is a hell of a long time for him to be passing information over to British Intelligence.

[edit on 17-12-2005 by Mayet]

Dont people die for these kind of things? You cant just say oh my bad im sorry lets still be friends..

execute him!

Im sure he is due to commit suicide ( two shots to the head perhaps) or get some cancerous disease shortly

Spying (Intelligence gathering) is no more "nasty" than being a Soldier or Police Officer, who have to employ Intelligence gathering, as a tool to minimize casualties.

I suppose we should let bombs go off and send soldiers into ambushes so as "not to offend" folk who dislike, their idea of, the term "Spy".

'Changing' beliefs is usualy due to coming to a greater/fuller understanding, which is distinctly different to 'compromising' them. If you discover your peoples 'friend' is infact your peoples 'enemy', what would you do?

If you want Government that swares to protect it's citizens, you want Spys, or you're a hypocrite or "Pooh Bear"(of very little brain).

No its a nasty business of dishonesty, deception, lies, falsehoods, compromising ones beliefs, blackmail, murder and all that sort of stuff.

Even if Spying Has to be done, its still dirty.

Originally posted by suzy ryan
'Changing' beliefs is usualy due to coming to a greater/fuller understanding, which is distinctly different to 'compromising' them. If you discover your peoples 'friend' is infact your peoples 'enemy', what would you do?

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you there, its more likely to be caused by being faced with a lifetime in jail in a hostile country.

Back to the story, according to Sinn Fein, he only came clean after the PSNI informed him that his cover was likely to be blown in the near future. Better to give yourself up than for a hard line member of the IRA to find out.

Its also worth mentioning, that the issue at Stormont (which Mr. Donaldson claims was "a sham") lead to the suspension of Government in Northern Ireland, and the re-implemenation of Direct Rule, for 3 years.

In an addition, the Ulster Unionists have called for a public enquiry into the debacle.

Yep, AS "dirty" as shooting, bombing, burning, poisoning, destroying food, water and shelter, and so on; all other tools of being protected.

"Warn everyone, but Mayet, that a bomb is going off in their neighbourhood. Mayet doesn't want the benifits of the "dirty" Public Servant who gathered the intelligence to save her families lives."

The world is full of "dirty" people who do "dirty" things, like people who judge and condemn others who sacrifice a "normal" life so others may have one.

Every nation has it's spys and counter spys and like being (accidently) stomped with cleats in a game of Rugby Union, it's something you accept as part of "the game".

O.K. maybe you're confusing a spy with a traitor, if so don't compound the mistake by confusing a traitor with a convert. Free, moral, conscience is also something so many Soldiers and Spys of this country have fought and died to entitle you to.

Let' take a minute to consider here. This is not just "spying", as if that were an simple and harmless term, but it is more to the point treason considering the long history of the Brits repression of the Irish. Especially in view of the past one hundred and fifty years. Most of us of Irish extraction today have family histories of prison, exile, execution, starvation, expulsion from our land and homes and death in all manner.

No this "spying" better called treason makes a mockery of all our family and ancestors who died at the hands of the Brits. Mr. Donaldson's actions should be viewed as treason, ... and punished appropriately!

Richard of Danbury (proud decendent of Erin in exile)

StephanMc, I was responding to the general condemnation of "Spys", as the thread didn't justify the condemnation of this indivdual but spying in general.

A traitor for personal reasons, (as I ackowledged in my post) is someone the world can do without and IF that was the point of the post, it and the responses would have read that way.

As to the ins and outs, rights and wrongs of who was spying on whom from inside whichevers government, for whatever reason, WE can't know enough of the truth to pass judgement.

In general, Governments pay soldiers, police, doctors and social workers to save and help people. Accepting payment doesn't prove self interest above payment for services and "danger money".

Treason, like using funds gathered "for the fight" to set up and run private business for personal gain, is just plain wrong, and neither side is free of these people, but few "on the side of the Irish" like to admit this has been done by "their side", which it saddly has, to the detriment of their cause.

I suppose I should state here, that my children are half Catholic Irish.

Dennis Donaldson is probably a hero to many, but his fans have probably never heard his name or known of his existance.

He quite probably saved dozens of lives from terrorist bombs with information that he provided.

So it is my opinion that he is a superstar not a traitor. A man who has a conscience and the admirable quality of respect for the innocent.

To add to Numbercruncher's point....Irish children get in the way of London bombs too.

I doubt he saved too many people from bombs in the last decade or so, since the IRA has had a ceasefire since 1994.

stormont affair? Spying for within the british government? So you mean he was caught spying in the british government and was an IRA member, so they used him to act as a double agent and spy back on what's going on in the IRA?? Have I got it right? I'm confused.

Originally posted by StephenMc
I doubt he saved too many people from bombs in the last decade or so, since the IRA has had a ceasefire since 1994.

Your probably right on not saving many lives in the past decade but seen as he has been a double agent since the 1980's as the article clearly state's i have little doubt that his information saved lives.

Originally posted by Richard of Danbury
Let' take a minute to consider here. This is not just "spying", as if that were an simple and harmless term, but it is more to the point treason considering the long history of the Brits repression of the Irish. Especially in view of the past one hundred and fifty years. Most of us of Irish extraction today have family histories of prison, exile, execution, starvation, expulsion from our land and homes and death in all manner.

No this "spying" better called treason makes a mockery of all our family and ancestors who died at the hands of the Brits. Mr. Donaldson's actions should be viewed as treason, ... and punished appropriately!

Richard of Danbury (proud decendent of Erin in exile)

Blah blah blah, cry m,e a friggin river.

The IRA are terrorist scum, period. Fighting for freedom is one thing. The irish got their own republic already. Blowing up shopping malls full of women and kids to pay back punk behavior of 50 or 100 years ago is petty, pathetic, and cowardly.

For example. I am female. If you want to talk about oppresion, lets talk about the past 6,000 years men have been ruling and oppressing women (especially the Christians, Jews, and Muslims, its part of their religon). Thus, by your arguement, then I should be justified in beating the crap out of and blowing up and terrorizing every man I see on the street, to return the oppresion and abuse of thousands of years. I should pound the living crap out of every single Catholic that walks my way, for their barbaric attitudes and murder of women. And anyone who sympathizes with any man or catholic is a traitor to the female species, and thus, should be prosecuted for collaborating with the male scum who have committed thousands of years of abuse against women.....right?


WRONG.

Why? because even though crude behavior towards women was institutionalized in the past, and still goes on today, I LIVE IN THE NOW. THE PRESENT. And just because a bunch of paranoid old geezers in the past made life hell for all, it does not mean I am gonna hold every man accountable for what maybe their grandaddy's did. I am not going to waste my energy hating an entire portion of the human race or hold a grudge against them for crimes committed by the few a long time ago.

Since the IRA were a bunch of terrorist punks who were oh so brave as to blow up innocent bystanders, I hold NO sympathy for them. Maybe ages ago when they were fighting a REAL war, but once you start turning sunday shoppers into mince meat, my sympathy goes out the window.

So as far as Im concerned, Donaldson did the right thing whether he wanted to or not.

The Irish, the Protestants, the Catholics, the british, ect....this crap is OLD. It is soooooooooooooooo 20th century. I mean, we got a maniacal president trying to start nuclear conflict across the planet cuz god told him to. here we have a current and REAL threat.

So why the hell do people keep living in the friggin past?

The IRA are terrorist scum, period. Fighting for freedom is one thing. The irish got their own republic already. Blowing up shopping malls full of women and kids to pay back punk behavior of 50 or 100 years ago is petty, pathetic, and cowardly.

What about the north of ireland were our people are being discriminated against every day and theirs two sides to every story look at the UVF and UDA how many republican paramilitary members have they killed? 0 How many innocent people whos only crime is being catholic have they killed? countless because the british government just don't care

Please, lets not dig up the history of Northern Ireland and start ranting pro-republican or pro-loyalist lines. ive had a family member murdered by the IRA, so i have been effected by the troubles. but please, lets not dig up history shall we?

last time i heard something along these lines it was German Neo-Nazis having a sizable portion of moles from Verfassungsschutz (basically the Western Stasi) and MI5 among their leaders ...


while i agree that terrorists are scum, i'd like to understand the nature of these moles, i mean if you're part of a terrorist party for decades, the question should be wether these nations are sponsering their own boogeymen for internal reasons (read: suppression of dissent by sweeping laws and decrees in the name of TERROR).


see www.statewatch.org...

GERMANY: Verfassungsschutz role endangers NPD prosecution
After the constitutional test trial initiated by the German government against the far-right NPD (Nationalsozialistische Partei Deutschlands) failed because the constitutional court found a prominent role of secret service informants in the party's leadership (see Statewatch Vol 12 nos 1 & 3), a second court case against violent far-right activists is in danger of collapsing because of a secret service informant's involvement in the planning of racist and anti-Semitic attacks.

if you don't believe me. these secret services are pretty much running the show, or why would they leave a terror organisation alone when they have complete intel and even influence via agents in the leading echelons?

[edit on 9-9-2006 by Long Lance]

Was your relative a british soldier or a loyalist? and ive been effected too, my great grand father was killed by the black and tans, my older brother is in jail for having connections with the IRA and I have a scar running half way down my chest from being slashed with a bottle by a group of loyalists.

[edit on 15/9/06 by CelticFC]