Rory O'Connor
05-27-2008, 07:57 PM
This article is nearly two years old, but I think that it is interesting and that it can still be discussed.
A FORMER army officer has claimed that three members of the IRA’s South Down unit which killed eight soldiers in bomb attacks during 1989-90 were Special Branch agents.
The unnamed officer has also alleged that security chiefs not only allowed the attacks to go ahead despite knowing about them in advance, but then continued to use the agents.
The incidents referred to include an explosion which killed three members of the Parachute Regiment in Mayobridge in November 1989 and the so-called human bomb attack in which a Royal Irish Rangers soldier died outside Newry the following October. Also mentioned was a landmine attack which killed four UDR men outside Downpatrick in April 1990.
According to the army officer, all or some of the agents were involved in each of the three blasts, although none of them knew that their colleagues were also working for Special Branch.
“RUC Special Branch was running these men hands on,” he told a Sunday newspaper. “They knew the IRA was planning these attacks – the agents were providing police with that information. Yet the attacks were allowed to proceed and several soldiers died needlessly.”
The former officer alleged that the Mayobridge device was built by a top IRA bomb maker who was later linked to the 1998 Omagh atrocity, while it was detonated by another leading Provisional. Neither of these men have been charged in relation to the attack.
It is claimed that the information about the agents was uncovered as the Police Ombudsman probed the IRA murder of Constable Colleen McMurray in Newry in March 1992.
“Relatives of the dead soldiers have a right to know why their loved ones were callously sacrificed,” the officer commented. “They should be asking the Police Ombudsman to investigate these deaths.”
http://saoirse32.blogsome.com/2006/07/01/three-ira-members-were-special-branch-agents
A FORMER army officer has claimed that three members of the IRA’s South Down unit which killed eight soldiers in bomb attacks during 1989-90 were Special Branch agents.
The unnamed officer has also alleged that security chiefs not only allowed the attacks to go ahead despite knowing about them in advance, but then continued to use the agents.
The incidents referred to include an explosion which killed three members of the Parachute Regiment in Mayobridge in November 1989 and the so-called human bomb attack in which a Royal Irish Rangers soldier died outside Newry the following October. Also mentioned was a landmine attack which killed four UDR men outside Downpatrick in April 1990.
According to the army officer, all or some of the agents were involved in each of the three blasts, although none of them knew that their colleagues were also working for Special Branch.
“RUC Special Branch was running these men hands on,” he told a Sunday newspaper. “They knew the IRA was planning these attacks – the agents were providing police with that information. Yet the attacks were allowed to proceed and several soldiers died needlessly.”
The former officer alleged that the Mayobridge device was built by a top IRA bomb maker who was later linked to the 1998 Omagh atrocity, while it was detonated by another leading Provisional. Neither of these men have been charged in relation to the attack.
It is claimed that the information about the agents was uncovered as the Police Ombudsman probed the IRA murder of Constable Colleen McMurray in Newry in March 1992.
“Relatives of the dead soldiers have a right to know why their loved ones were callously sacrificed,” the officer commented. “They should be asking the Police Ombudsman to investigate these deaths.”
http://saoirse32.blogsome.com/2006/07/01/three-ira-members-were-special-branch-agents