Dead men tell no tales

I was watching Ian Paisley on the television news. Ian had just finished his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Myself and Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly had been in Downing Street the day before. So I was particularly interested in what the DUP leader had to say, especially so close to Thursday's visit (5 April) by the Taoiseach and Tony Blair to Armagh, where they are to launch proposals about re-establishing the political institutions.

My mobile phone rang. It was an official from the office of the British Secretary of State. He asked could I take a call from Mr Hain. I said I could. I assumed it was about the governments' proposals. Instead Peter Hain told me that Denis Donaldson was dead. I was half listening to him, half listening to Ian Paisley.

To say Peter Hain's news surprised me is an understatement. I asked him to repeat what he had said. He told me again. Denis Donaldson's body had been found. It was presumed he was murdered.

I told him that I would contact the Donaldson family and that I would issue a public statement on the killing. We agreed to talk later. I rang Martin McGuinness and told him what had happened. I then phoned one of the Donaldson family. He was actually with Denis Donaldson's wife Alice. He told me he would get another member of the family before breaking the news to her.

By this time RTÉ news had broken the story. Within minutes BBC did the same thing. I watched as two of their senior journalists discussed the ramifications of the murder of Denis Donaldson.

Meantime my friend was still on his way to get a family member to accompany him to break the news of her husband's death to Alice Donaldson. Neither RTÉ nor BBC seemed to consider this aspect of their coverage. Of course the media could only have got the story from a garda or Government source. Hours later the PSNI came to the Donaldson home in west Belfast with news that Denis Donaldson was dead. This was long after it was headline news.

I had not seen Denis Donaldson since the day he admitted he had been working for British Intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch since the 1980s. I passed him in the corridor in our office on the Falls Road. He lowered his head and said "Hello Gerry". I said "Hello Denis". That was the last time I saw him. Later he was expelled from Sinn Féin. On Friday 16 December he made a statement to the media in which he confirmed:

That he had worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch since the 1980s;

That he was paid money;

That his last two contacts with the Special Branch were two days before his arrest in October 2002 and the previous evening;

That he had not been involved in any republican spy ring at Stormont;

That this spy ring was a fiction created by the Special Branch.

Readers will be very familiar with the story around the so-called Stormont Spy Ring and its part in the well publicised overthrow of the power sharing Executive.

Denis Donaldson was very unforthcoming about his activities. The party broke off all contact with him shortly after all this. He was told that if he wanted to make a full disclosure he should get in touch with us. He never did.

Those who turn informer or who act as agents rarely do so out of conviction. Invariably they have shown some weakness and this is exploited. I knew Denis Donaldson since I first met him in Cage 11 in Long Kesh in the mid 1970s. I had very little contact with him over the years in terms of our day-to-day business. He was never part of the Sinn Féin negotiating team or of our leadership, but he was genuinely popular and very personable. When I learned that he had been working for the British I was fairly philosophical about this. I was moved to a sharp short twist of anger only when the iconic photograph of Bobby Sands, accompanied by Denis Donaldson, appeared in the media. But that to one side, the war is over. So, Denis Donaldson was one of the lucky ones. Or was he?

He said he earned around £40,000. Maybe he understated this. But even if he was earning more, what a way to end up. Living in self-exile. Trying to come to terms with whatever he had done.

Trying to figure out what to do in the future. Where to go? Like Gypo Nolan in O'Flaherty's The Informer, Denis Donaldson had turned into a pathetic figure. I have huge sympathy for his family as I do for the families of other informers and agents, particularly those who were killed by the IRA.

Did I expect Denis Donaldson to be killed? There was always a danger that he could be attacked if he was in some public place.

But no, I didn't expect that any republican would go out premeditatedly to kill him. Not when the IRA had clearly set its face against this. So, I don't think the killing of Denis Donaldson was a revenge killing.

Only his handlers and Denis Donaldson himself know the type of information he gave to them. Maybe at some point Denis Donaldson may have come forward and made a full disclosure of his activities.

He can't do that now. I think his killing was to make sure that his secrets died with him. The timing may or may not be significant.

Yes Denis Donaldson betrayed his comrades and friends in the republican cause but he also betrayed those he worked for in British Military Intelligence and the Special Branch.