McGartland - whose first best-selling book, Fifty Dead Men Walking, tells the remarkable true story of how he infiltrated the IRA and saved more than 50 people from certain death. He went on to state, "the authorities wrote to the BBC back in 1997 admitting that I have been resettled and was being protected because of my service to them. On 23.03.72, thirteen-year-old Fianna na hireann Sean O'Riordan was 'killed in action' when participating in an attack on a British Army foot patrol in Cawnpore Street on the Falls. Fultons real name is purportedly Peter Keeley, a Catholic from Newry, who joined the Royal Irish Rangers at the age of 18. He also revealed that he had a heart complaint and was an alcoholic. Martin was kidnapped by the IRA in 1991 and escaped by jumping from a third floor window. Garda (ROI police) said they had been aware of his presence since January and they had warned him of a threat to his life. [11], He enjoys occasional games of backgammon and eating tiramisu, Come back soon for a feature on loyalist Supergrasses. McGartland additionally has a contract which was signed by MI5 after he was shot in England in which the representatives of the PSNI and Northumbria Police acknowledged his service in general terms. [29] In Finucanes case, both the RUC and the Stevens Report have said that he was not a member. Most critically, he (an officer named only as Police R by the review) was of the considered view that the attack was most likely carried out by the Provisional IRA and that this fact was known to the original SIO (senior investigations officer) within a very short timeframe following the attack. Since the beginning of the Troubles, many Irish republicans reported offences to Sinn Fein, a political party associated with the IRA, rather than the RUC. Freddie Scappaticci (born c. 1946)[1] is a purported former high-level double agent in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), known by the codename Stakeknife. In that same year 1991, McGartland provided information about a mass shooting attack planned on Charlie Heggartys pub in Bangor, County Down, where British soldiers frequently drank after what was generally a football match between the prison wardens. He was later given almost 100,000 to set up . He was later shot six times by an IRA gunman, but recovered from the injuries. While in jail he told his story to The Sunday Times. [5], After the original allegations broke in 2003, Scappaticci, by now living in the Riverdale area of West Belfast, claimed his involvement with the IRA ended in 1990 due to his wifes illness. [20][20][21][22], In his defence, Samhan claimed that OCallaghan was a willing participant and had requested that he be tied up during a gay bondage session with the two men. Canada. You can follow Martin on facebook and Bebo. He has written two books about his life, Fifty Dead Men Walking: The Terrifying True Story of a Secret Agent Inside the IRA and Dead Man Running. [8] McGartland says because he was sickened by increasing Provisional IRA violence directed at young Catholic petty lawbreakers in the form of punishment beatings (often carried out with iron bars and baseball bats) and knee-cappings, in 1986 at the age of 16 he agreed to provide information to the RUC about local IRA members, thereby preventing them from carrying out many attacks against the security forces. McGartland has always alleged that this line of inquiry was invented and fed to media sources by either MI5 or elements of the Blair government to deflect from the IRAs role in the botched assassination. He made friends around Whitley Bay and began dating the woman who remains his partner. His activities also attracted the attention of the IRA and on several occasions he narrowly escaped local disciplinary squads. His lawyers have asked the British Ministry of Defence to provide him and his family with new identities, relocation and immediate implementation of the complete financial package, including his army pension and other discharge benefits, which he had been reportedly promised by the MoD for his covert tour of duty. However, he was awarded 100 for a delay in returning items of property. Request to Independent Office for Police Conduct by Martin McGartland (Account suspended). On 29 November 1988, after having again resigned from the Provisional IRA, OCallaghan walked into a police station in Tunbridge Wells, England. Kevin Fulton is a British agent from Newry, Northern Ireland, who allegedly spied on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) for MI5. After learning of MacIntyres deal from FBI agent John Connolly, Bulger murdered him and buried him in a South Boston basement. [10] On 12 April 2009, the Real IRA claimed responsibility for his death.[11]. Explore Martin McGartland Wiki Age, Height, Biography as Wikipedia, Wife, Family relation. When he was exposed as an agent in 1991 he was abducted by the IRA, but escaped and was resettled in England. He joined the Irish Republican Army in the mid-1960s while still in his teens, well before the start of the Troubles. In addition to calling for a fresh investigation into the 1999 attack on McGartland, the review suggests that NP (Northumbria police) to consider external force to progress investigation in its entirety. [26] He had attempted to wrestle the gun away from his assailant, but was shot in the left hand, the blast almost destroying his thumb. He was told that he should not return to Northern Ireland and to increase security at his home in England. Detective Superintendent Chris Symonds of Northumbria Police told a news conference in Belfast that a DNA sample taken from the scene could link "a presently unidentified person" to the plot to kill the . In 1981 he was arrested by French authorities at Orly airport, along with fellow IRA volunteer, William Blue Kelly. He later alleged that McCarthy and Hamilton were also RUC informers based on what he had personally observed of the men during his kidnapping as he waited to be interrogated, tortured and subsequently executed. In 2007, Gilmour publicly voiced his desire to return home to Derry, asking Martin McGuinness for assurances of his safety. McGartland remembers thinking the inevitable had just happened, but also that "I must not die this day." . His body was found by Garda about 5pm after a passer-by reported seeing a broken window and a smashed-in door. On June 17, 1999, Marty was shot six times at close range by a masked man as he sat in his car in the rear lane. For more than four years, Martin McGartland lived a double-life. [24] McGartland escaped being killed by jumping from a third floor window in the Twinbrook flat where he had been taken for interrogation following his abduction. [3], On 5 November 2006, he was released without charge after being arrested in London, and transferred to Belfast to be questioned about his knowledge or involvement in the deaths of Irish Peoples Liberation Organisation member Eoin Morley (aged 23), Royal Ulster Constabulary officer Colleen McMurray (34), and Ranger Cyril Smith (aged 21). Please consider making a small or large donation as I am very poor and every donation is most welcome and goes towards the cost of running this blog. He is a clever man, this Agent Carol, Martin Ashe, Martin McGartland, or whatever his name is now, he won't tell. The ex-spy insisted this line was covered up and obscured by false, malicious lies by senior figures in the security and political establishment to conceal the IRAs role at a delicate stage in the peace process. [11] McGartland was given the code name Agent Carol by the RUC. Donaldson has been accused, by an unnamed republican source, of being part of the IRA team that carried out the La Mon restaurant bombing in 1978, one of the most notorious bomb attacks of the Troubles.[2]. In December 2005, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland dropped the espionage charges against Donaldson and two other men on the grounds that it would not be in the public interest to proceed with the case. By the late 1960s, the teenaged OCallaghan had ceased practising the Catholic religion, regarding himself as an atheist and a Marxist. I came to believe that individuals taking responsibility for their own actions is the basis for civilization, Without that safety net we have nothing.[9], The final straw, was OCallaghans disgust over the IRAs fatal bombing attack on the yacht of Lord Mountbatten, which also killed Mountbattens 14-year-old grandchild and a 15-year-old boat employee. Fifty Dead Men Walking is a 2008 English-language crime thriller film written and directed by Kari Skogland.It is a loose adaptation of Martin McGartland's 1997 autobiography of the same name. This was confirmed by Donaldson in a statement which he read out on RT, the Irish state broadcaster, shortly afterwards. Martin is accepted by many to be one of MI5's best spies in Northern Ireland during the late 1980's and early 1990's. Martin's second Book, Dead Man Running, is also . He reportedly gave evidence to the Smithwick Tribunal, in which he reasserted his claim that Garda Owen Corrigan was a double agent for the IRA. There may come a time when their patience runs out. Marty said: "I don't live any sort of normal life. Your email address will not be published. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. He has published a book detailing his experiences as a spy, Fifty Dead Men Walking. Im not complaining. [12] He was cleared of perverting the course of justice. [29] In June 1997, the BBC broadcast a television documentary on his story. He reminded Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, that this was a condition of the early release of paramilitaries under the Good Friday Agreement. [4] It was at this point that he apparently agreed to become an undercover agent for British security forces. Two men were arrested yesterday in connection with the attempted murder of the former IRA informer, Mr Martin McGartland (29), who was shot six times in . At the strangest of times I would find myself reliving the events of my years in the IRA. Since the beginning of the Troubles, many Irish nationalists reported offences to Sinn Fin, a political party associated with the IRA, rather than the RUC. Explore books by Martin McGartland with our selection at Waterstones.com. Kearney is a son of the civil rights and MacBride Principles campaigner, Oliver Kearney. ", Martin McGartland and police activity in Whitley Bay at the time of the shooting, 17/06/1999 (centre, bottom). Their methods were not met with approval by all residents. [34], In 2000, Lord Vivian asked in the House of Lords whether the government intended to remove police protection from McGartland and was told by Lord Bassam of Brighton that Individual protection arrangements are a matter for the chief constable of the police force concerned and are not discussed for security reasons.[35], The day after he was shot, the incident, along with the murders of Eamon Collins, Brendan Fegan, and Paul Downey, was cited by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in an interview with reporters in Belfast, to question whether the IRA ceasefire was being maintained. Gilmour was sent on remand to Crumlin Road Prison. [29] In June 1997, the BBC broadcast a television documentary on his story. Marty says looking over his shoulder is now part of his everyday life. The dwelling had not been modernised and so there was no running water or electricity.[7]. At this point OCallaghan was still opposed to helping the British in a similar manner. When he was exposed as an informer in 1991, he escaped from IRA custody and was resettled in England. The Court of Appeal has ruled that the home secretary can use secret court hearings to defend a damages claim being brought by a former IRA informer. His cover was blown in 1991 when he tipped off police about a planned attack on a pub in Bangor, County Down. This effectively made the IRA a police force in some areas. [8] In response, OCallaghan decided to become an informer. [8] Gilmour claims that he helped to foil many other IRA attacks, saving the lives of numerous police and soldiers. [6] In 1978, after two years with the INLA as an RUC agent, he left on police instructions. He was then kidnapped by the IRA and only escaped being killed by jumping from a third-floor window. Harrison, a soldier from London, who was shot by the IRA at the home of his East Belfast fiancee where they were making wedding plans. When he asked Sinn Fin president Gerry Adams when he would be able to, he was informed that it was a matter between him and the IRA. was he brave? Most of the people in the local community lived in fear from the IRA bully . It is always there if I close my eyes. His paternal grandfather had taken the Anti-Treaty side during the Irish Civil War. And while MI5 admitted in a letter that there was a continued threat to McGartlands life, they commented it is not such that he needs immediate police protection or to abandon immediately his residence. Ms Asher, who is Mr McGartland's full-time carer, resettled with him after he was tracked down and shot seven times by an IRA hit squad at their home in Gateshead in 1999. This news broke immediately after the Secretary of States comments that he believed the IRA had ended all of its illegal activity.[44], Despite McGartland being known as one of the best agents to operate during the Troubles,[45] British Home Secretary Theresa May told a court in early 2014 that she refused to confirm or deny that he was a British agent working for MI5 offering as explanation, in case providing such information would endanger his life or damage national security. The theatre had been searched before the concert and a second search following the warning revealed no device.[17]. I had been working for the security services in Northern Ireland since I was 16. Its findings appear to support McGartlands claims over the past two decades that the IRA rather than a local north-eastern criminal gang was behind the murder attempt in Whitley Bay on 17 June 1999. MI5 Raymond Gilmour full interview and news story, He was born in 1959 into a working class Catholic, nationalist family in Creggan, Derry to Patrick and Brigid Gilmour. Martin Mcgartland (164 results) You searched for: Author: MARTIN MCGARTLAND. Between 1979 and 1988, he was also an informant for the Garda Sochnas Special Branch. I'm just so grateful, I couldn't be more grateful. Browse Martin McGartland's best-selling audiobooks and newest titles. [31], In 1999, he was shot six times at his home by two men receiving serious wounds in the chest, stomach, side, upper leg and hand. By RACHEL DONNELLY. I personally did not kill people, he stated. | Belfast Child, 2nd February Deaths & Events in Northern Ireland Troubles | Belfast Child, 17th June Deaths & Events in Northern Ireland Troubles | Belfast Child. Nee subsequently served a long sentence in the US Federal Prison system for his role in the shipment. Martin McGartland Wiki & Bio [30], Journalist Kevin Myers praised McGartlands heroism and the Sunday Express newspaper described him as a real-life James Bond. Product Type All Product Types . They were some of the nicest blokes I had ever met.". As always you can unsubscribe at any time. [16], Gilmours former RUC handler advised him not to return, citing the 2006 murder in Glenties, County Donegal, of Denis Donaldson, a high-ranking Sinn Fin politician and activist who was revealed to have been a long-term informer.[17]. Because he is unable to claim State benefits due to security reasons MI5 had previously helped him financially; however this assistance was withdrawn after he gave an interview to the Belfast Telegraph. [5], Donaldsons daughter Jane is married to Ciaran Kearney, who was arrested along with Donaldson in the Stormontgate affair. Paternal grandfather had taken the Anti-Treaty side during the Irish civil War body was found by Garda about 5pm a! 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