Is Informer Being Hidden From IRA?

A former DUP politician has linked the continued existence of an IRA 'Army Council' with the 'disappearance' of an unmasked MI5 agent.

The IRA terrorist organisation's governance was back on the agenda again after a republican - just revealed as an informer - was taken into "protective custody" late last week.

Roy McShane was once part of the so-called security team that looked after transport arrangements for the republican leadership, including Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams.

Mr McShane was reported to have been taken away for his own safety by the intelligence services, and in a similar fashion to the earlier unmasking of the later murdered Denis Donaldson as a "tout", Sinn Fein themselves revealed the matter to the media.

Now, break-away politician Traditional Unionist Voice MEP Jim Allister, has said: "The announcement that a republican has been taken into 'protective custody' raises the fundamental and important question: from whom is being protected?

"The answer, of course, is Sinn Fein/IRA, because despite all the whitewash they still have a military wing," he said, alleging that it already had killed Cullyhanna man, Paul Quinn and would kill Mr McShane too.

"So much for all the political sanitisation of of Sinn Fein/IRA: they are still the same violent, threatening organisation. Clearly the police know this, hence the protective custody for this man."

Mr McShane was part of a pool of drivers for senior republican leaders from the time of the IRA's first ceasefire in 1994 and one of the Gerry Adam's drivers during one of the most politically significant periods of the 'Peace Process', the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The unmasking of yet another British agent inside the republican movement in Belfast is an embarrassment for Sinn Féin and an indication of the depths to which the security forces penetrated the organisation in the latter years of the Troubles.

A security source said MI5 was so concerned to get the man out quickly that he had to leave behind his wife and family.

But Sinn Féin, who said McShane had never been a party member, emphasised he was "not under any threat from republicans".

Alex Maskey, Sinn Féin's Assembly Member for South Belfast, said McShane had confessed to his family that he was working for the British security forces.

Trying to play down McShane's significance, Mr Maskey said: "I see him under no threat from republicans. The war is over. We made steps sometime ago to remove him from his position as a driver, but we didn't have specific evidence against him."

He said McShane was safe to return and the affair had been "extremely distressing" for his family.

However, the same was said about another informer, Denis Donaldson who was brutally murdered at a poorly hidden 'getaway' cottage in Co Donegal - being blasted repeatedly with a shotgun at close range.

No one has been charged with that murder, or to date, with that of Paul Quinn, whose parents insist was killed last year after a personal fall-out with local IRA commanders in South Armagh.

(BMcC)