"...whoever carried it out was hostile to the concept of peace in Ireland." Martin McGuinness
9.4.2006
Reports obtained from:
(1)
Irish Republican News, (2)
RTÉ Television, (3)
Daily Ireland
(4) Pat Finucane
Centre, (5) Sunday
Business Post
Tuesday, 4 April, 2006
Thursday, 6 April, 2006
Friday, 7 April, 2006
Sunday, 9 April, 2006
Flash: Top informer found dead
By Irish Republican News
Denis Donaldson, who spied for British forces while working as a top Sinn Fein official for over twenty years, has been found dead.
Following his outing as an informer in December, Mr Donaldson had begun living a hermit-like existence in an abandonded cottage near the County Donegal village of Glenties.
According to reports, Mr Donaldson died of a single gunshot wound. A pathologist is currently performing a post-mortem.
A one line statement from the Provisional IRA this evening said the organisation had no involvement whatsoever in Donaldson's death.
Donaldson had been the most senior Sinn Fein official based at Stormont Parliament Buildings. The west Belfast resident and one time friend of hunger striker Bobby Sands was a key aide to Gerry Adams who helped ensure Sinn Fein's Stormont machine ran smoothly.
Mr Donaldson came to public attention in October 2002 after the PSNI raided Sinn Fein's offices at Stormont as part of an investigation into republican intelligence-gathering.
His arrest, along with that of his son-in-law, Ciaran Kearney, and of William Mackessy, a former Stormont porter, became known as Stormontgate.
His double life was exposed when the allegations of an IRA spy ring at Stormont last year. The scandal over the allegations heralded the end of power-sharing under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Donaldson said he had been a British agent for the last two decades, having compromised himself in the 1980s during what was a "vulnerable" period of his life.
"Since then I have worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch. Over that period I was paid money," Mr Donaldson said in a statement to RTE last December.
He said he "was not involved in any republican spy ring in Stormont. The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction, it never existed, it was created by Special Branch.
"I deeply regret my activities with British intelligence and RUC PSNI special branch. I apologise to anyone who has suffered as a result of my activities as well as to my former comrades and especially to my family who have become victims in all of this."
Mr Donaldson said the allegations of an IRA spy ring had been an attempt to blame the IRA for the collapse of the Good Friday Agreement and to sustain the political life of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.
Donaldson shot dead in Co Donegal
By RTÉ Television News
Former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson, who had admitted being a British agent for more than 20 years, has been shot dead just outside the town of Glenties in Donegal.
Mr Donaldson, who was the former head of Sinn Féin's office at Stormont, had been living in Donegal since his admission of spying last year.
It is understood he had been dead for up to six hours when he was found by a neighbour at around 5pm. He had sustained a shot gun wound to the head and his body had suffered some mutilation.
A murder investigation has been launched.
Mr Donaldson's wife is still being sought by gardaí. It is not yet known if she was at the house at the time.
The scene has been preserved for technical examination.
IRA says it had 'no involvement' in killing
The IRA has said it had 'no involvement whatsoever' in the death of Mr Donaldson.
Sinn Féin's Chief Negotiator, Martin Mc Guinness, said he was very angry about the killing of Mr Donaldson. Speaking to RTÉ News, he described the death as an attack on the peace process.
Mr McGuinness said Sinn Féin absolutely dissociated itself from the killing and said whoever carried it out was hostile to the concept of peace in Ireland.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has condemned what he called a brutal murder.
He said he hoped those responsible for 'this callous act' would be brought to justice as soon as possible.
DUP leader Ian Paisley said that the murder had political implications. Mr Paisley said that 'eyes will be turned towards IRA/Sinn Féin on this issue'.
He said that whatever activities Denis Donaldson may have been involved in, no-one in a civilised country is entitled to take another man's life.
Meanwhile, the Government has confirmed that Thursday's meeting in Armagh between the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will go ahead as planned.
A Government spokesperson said the murder will serve to further concentrate efforts in terms of positive politics and the search for a lasting political solution in Northern Ireland.
Copyright © 2006 RTÉ Television News
Republicans' enemies had everything to gain
By Jude Collins, Daily Ireland
Let's get the most obvious point about Denis Donaldson's death out of the way first - its impact on the peace process. This point has drawn most comment since the news of Donaldson's death broke, with commentators and politicians filling columns of newsprint and hours of airtime. The combined conclusion - the killing of Denis Donaldson will destabilise plans and prospects for the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin to work together.
As a useless conclusion, that gets an A star. There can't be anyone in Ireland or Britain with the slightest interest in politics who doesn't know that the prospects for a working executive here could not be destabilised by this or any other event, for the good reason that such stability didn't exist in the first place.
Within hours of Tony Blair announcing his grand plan for a series of six-week sessions at Stormont, Ian Paisley lumbered towards the cameras and denounced the plan as pointless because his party would under no circumstances go into an executive with Sinn Féin by November. Sinn Féin likewise declined to opt in. Martin McGuinness and others repeated what the party had told reporters a couple of months ago - Sinn Féin would have no hand, act or part in a shadow executive.
With both main political parties opting out, to talk of Denis Donaldson's killing as destabilising is absurd. Donaldson's death doesn't give Paisley cover for his policy of obstructionism. Mr Paisley has always had a long list of excuses for not getting serious about power sharing. At this point, it's probably useful to remind ourselves that the failure to talk and enter government together isn't the failure of two parties to work together - it's the failure of one party. Even the rabid Dublin 4 anti-republicans know that Sinn Féin is willing to enter into talks and share government of the North with the DUP. In direct contrast, Paisley's party from the start turned its face away from any such prospect and continues to do so. For the DUP, Donaldson's death is a tiny flag on top of the ever-present mountain of its refusal.
Next question: Who killed Denis Donaldson? Answer: We don't know and may never know.
Plenty of people claim to know. Within hours of the news breaking, the DUP's Edwin Poots was on RTÉ television telling viewers that the death was the work of either aliens from outer space or "IRA/Sinn Féin" and he knew it wasn't the aliens. Mr Poots hasn't a shred of evidence to support his unquestioning conclusion but then evidence has never been the DUP's strong suit.
Of course, Poots could be right. The IRA could have killed Donaldson, but it's unlikely. Since the 1980s, Irish republicanism has been moving steadily away from political violence and towards peaceful politics. This movement has unnerved republicans' opponents. James Molyneaux meant it when he identified the IRA ceasefire as being the biggest threat to unionism in decades. As the IRA withdrew from violent activity, Sinn Féin's strength has grown at the polls. Since the most thick-headed child could have predicted the DUP reaction to Donaldson's death, it would be an act contrary to republican policy and interests for the IRA to kill Donaldson. The IRA could have done it but the odds and logic are against it.
Then who did? Well, Martin McGuinness didn't spell it out on Tuesday night but it was obvious who he had in mind when he spoke of "those opposed to the peace process". In Mr McGuinness's vocabulary, that usually refers to the British securocrats and the dirty-tricks department.
For most law-abiding people, this idea that Mr Donaldson might have been killed by the forces of the state is near unthinkable. Years of media reporting have encouraged people to see such acts as the work of paramilitaries, either unionist or republican, never of the forces of law and order, but there are many people who find thoughts of state murder easy to entertain. The killings of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson speak loudly of this possibility, as do many other deaths less widely reported. So is it possible that British forces, working with or without the assistance of unionist paramilitaries, killed Denis Donaldson? Yes, indeed. Despite Mr Poots' protestations, British undercover operators have previous in such conduct. As for Poots' protestation that the location of Mr Donaldson's killing - in Co Donegal - makes the IRA the prime suspects, tell that to the relatives of Eddie Fullerton.
Killings arouse strong passions but to arrive at any reasoned conclusion regarding responsibility for a murder, you need to consider who had the means and the motive.If you're a British spy at the heart of republicanism for a couple of decades, you'll almost certainly have provided information that led to the imprisonment and death of many of your comrades. A lot of people affected by that betrayal had the motive for killing Donaldson. Any one of dozens of betrayed comrades may have done the deed.
Likewise, the IRA as an organisation had sufficient motivation to kill Donaldson. He almost certainly did great damage down the years to its ability to carry out successful operations.While the IRA may feel prompted to act against those it knows damaged it by betrayal, the organisation has been affected by other motivation. This motivation has led it to end its campaign, decommission its weaponry and declare its war over. For it now to embark on a campaign of score-settling would contradict its policy of the last ten years or more. No, the people who have most to gain from the killing of Donaldson are not republicans but those resolutely opposed to republicanism. These are people who can see no end to the growth of Sinn Féin's political success and fear it may ultimately change politics on this island. Having succeeded in hanging the McCartney killing around the neck of republicans and failing to hang the Rafferty killing around their necks, these people are highly motivated to find another death that will stop or at least slow the electoral advance of the republican party. Their hope is that the Donaldson killing will fit the bill.Will they be successful? Only if the media - as they have already started to do - convince the public that no one else but republicans could have had the means or the motivation to perform the killing.
A minute's thought will show that the opposite is the case. Republicanism had nothing to gain from killing Denis Donaldson. Its enemies had everything.
Jude Collins is an academic, writer and broadcaster. His latest novel is Leave of Absence (TownHouse, £6.99/€9.99). Website: www.judecollins.net
Copyright © 2006 Daily Ireland
Press statement on behalf of the Donaldson family
By Pat Finucane Centre
”Denis was a loving husband, a devoted father and grandfather and a good brother. The events of recent months have been very difficult for our family.
In December, Denis left his home in Belfast and moved to Donegal where it was his desire that he be left alone to rebuild his life. Unfortunately, he continued to be pursued by sections of the media, some of whom gave details about his whereabouts.
On Tuesday 4th April, Denis was murdered. We do not know by whom. But the difficult situation which our family has been put in is the direct result of the activities of the Special Branch and British Intelligence agencies.
We acknowledge the speedy statement from the IRA disassociating themselves from this murder. We believe that statement to be true.
We would ask those politicians and media commentators who have sought to use this tragedy to score cheap political points to stop doing so.
In the next few days, Denis will return home to Belfast to be with his family for one last time and to be buried. The funeral will be private and we would ask the media to respect our privacy at this time.
Finally, we wish to express our deep gratitude to friends, neighbours and the wider community for the compassion, solidarity and sympathy given to our family throughout this
Madden & Finucane Solicitors Patrick J. Finucane (1949 - 1989) 88 Castle Street Belfast, BT1 1HE Peter J. Madden, Gerald Hyland, Andrew Russell, Roisin McKenna, Ciarán Shiels, Cathy McGrann, Paul LenehanEx-RUC man helped find Donaldson
By Colm Heatley
A former RUC officer was one of the two men who exposed the whereabouts of the self-confessed British spy Denis Donaldson in a Sunday tabloid last month.
Colin Breen, who worked in Tennent Street station in Belfast and is now retired, travelled to the Glenties area of Co Donegal with a Sunday World journalist to track down Donaldson.
Breen, who allegedly has close ties with the Special Branch, secretly videotaped Donaldson outside his remote hideaway five miles from Glenties. He is not a Sunday World staff member, and the newspaper’s regular staff photographers were not used.
The newspaper printed the pictures and location of Donaldson, which until then was unknown to the public. The secretly-filmed video was also sold to a number of British television stations. Donaldson was shot dead at the cottage on Tuesday.
Gardai refused to say whether the Sunday World journalist who wrote the story, Hugh Jordan, or Breen would be interviewed as part of their inquiries.
‘‘For operational reasons, we are unable to comment on the ongoing investigation,” a spokeswoman said. Gardai also refused to say whether they knew the two men were in Donegal searching for Donaldson.
It is understood that, in recent years, Breen has worked as a freelance video-maker. He was unavailable for comment at his home in Belfast this weekend.
The revelation that a former RUC man was involved in the report has caused concern within the nationalist community in the North.
In his newspaper story, Jordan described how he searched for Donaldson in Donegal for a number of days. However, no mention was made of Breen’s role.
Copyright © 2006 Sunday Business Post
Timing of Donaldson killing spells trouble for peace process
By Colm Heatley
Within an hour of Denis Donaldson’s body being found, senior DUP members were issuing dire warnings about the peace process. It was, said one republican, as though the DUP leader Ian Paisley wanted all hopes of progress to be buried alongside Donaldson.
‘‘This is a mafia-style killing, and all eyes will be looking to Sinn Fein/IRA,” said Paisley.
‘‘I don’t see how any progress can be made with this murder: it is a serious blow to both government’s plans.”
However, the DUP were alone in their analysis, with both Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern urging caution and asking who benefited from Donaldson’s death.
Indeed, with the murder taking place just 48 hours before new plans to restore the Assembly were unveiled by Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair in Armagh, the timing could scarcely have been worse.
Most political parties agreed that if the killing was not part of a vendetta with Donaldson, whoever was behind it was opposed to the peace process.
Downing Street was swift in its reaction. ‘‘The prime minister condemns this as much as anyone but, equally, we note Gerry Adams has strenuously condemned this and distanced peace process republicans from it,” said a spokesman for Blair. The British prime minister himself later added that people should ask themselves who benefited from the killing.
Republicans clearly would have had most to lose by sanctioning the murder. Any further delays in the peace process would have created serious internal problems for Sinn Fein.
Sinn Fein always believed that part of the reason for Donaldson’s ‘‘outing’’ last December was to influence the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report, which was due out a few weeks later.
Had Donaldson been killed or harmed that month, the IMC report on IRA activity would have been damning.
In any event, it was a negative report, following the public intervention of Sam Kinkaid, one of the North’s most senior policemen. Just a few days before the IMC report was due to be published, Kinkaid claimed that republicans were still engaged in criminal activity.
Since Donaldson was exposed as an informer, republicans have tip-toed around the issue, preferring to keep it in the background and disassociate themselves from him.
Within hours of the murder being made public last Tuesday, the IRA issued a one-line statement denying all responsibility.
Sinn Fein said that the murder was an attempt to ‘‘up-end’’ the political process and set back progress.
With the exception of the DUP, the general political reaction to the murder was noticeably more muted than previous high-profile events such as the killing of Robert McCartney, the Northern Bank or Donaldson’s exposure.
In December, as republicans in Belfast were bombarded with questions about Donaldson’s role as an informer, the city’s rumour mill went into overdrive, with fresh allegations about other ‘‘agents’’ within Sinn Fein. Donaldson’s death attracted less interest, however.
By the end of the week, the focus had switched to the political process and the plans laid out by Blair and Ahern in their joint statement at the Navan Centre in Armagh.
Thursday’s statement by the Irish and British governments laid out the long-expected framework for a return to power-sharing government in the North.
The Assembly will be recalled on May 15 without the power-sharing executive, but both Blair and Ahern made it clear that they would dissolve the Assembly and push ahead with all-Ireland aspects of the Good Friday Agreement should an executive fail to materialise by November.
To unionists, such talk is dangerously close to joint authority, and over the next seven months the DUP faces a stark choice between the British and Irish governments implementing all-Ireland bodies over their heads, or sharing power with Sinn Fein.
Copyright © 2006 Sunday Business Post