Sinn Féin News, January 24, 2005
Spooks, Robbers and Dirty Tricks
By Martin McGuinness
In 1973 two brothers Keith and Kenneth Littlejohn appeared in a Dublin Court
charged with -at the time - the biggest bank robbery in the history of the
26 County State. Now at first glance the only thing that would seem out of
the ordinary is the scale of the robbery. But what unfolded during the trial
surprised many when the two Englishmen informed the court that they were
working for British Intelligence against the IRA.
John Wyman who ran a number of agents in Ireland for MI6 the British
Military Intelligence Agency recruited the Littlejohns. These agents were
paid handsomely for infiltrating republican organisations and acting as
agents‚ provocateur who organised and carried out bank robberies, and bomb
attacks in the south for which the IRA was blamed. The Littlejohns admitted
in court that they were instructed to carry out the bank robbery in order to
discredit the Republican Movement and force the Irish government to
introduce draconian legislation to be used against republicans.
The Northern Bank Robbery should be seen in the context of the history of
British Intelligence Agencies' manipulation of events in Ireland and their
persistent efforts to undermine the Peace Process.
It is no coincidence that every time we move to a position that looks like
it will deliver progress with unionists under pressure to accept the
equality agenda and to recognise all-Ireland Institutions with no plausible
way out the RUC/PSNI, MI6 uncover some "scandal" that allows them off the
hook. The RUC/PSNI Chief Constable's "opinion" based solely on faceless
intelligence sources that the IRA is involved in something or other is all
that is required to derail the Peace Process.
Early on in the Process, in 1998 when the multi-Party Talks were under way a
senior UDA figure was killed in Belfast. A few days later the then RUC Chief
Constable, Ronnie Flanagan blamed the shooting on the IRA and three young
men were arrested. The BBC, solely on the basis of an RUC briefing ran with
a story that the men were known IRA members. Despite an IRA statement that
its "cessation" was intact unionists demanded Sinn Féin's expulsion from the
multi-Party Talks. Sinn Féin challenged the British government to produce
the evidence of IRA involvement but they were unable to do so. Despite the
fact that they could not produce any evidence the British government bowed
to unionist demands and expelled Sinn Féin from the talks.
In her autobiography Mo Mowlam writes about the events leading up to the
expulsion. She says, "I accepted and agreed with the RUC Chief Constable's
assessment that the IRA authorised and were responsible for the murders. At
first the Irish were wobbly, fortunately the information they were getting
from their security people was the same as mine. And in the end we issued a
joint statement concluding the IRA was involved." Sound familiar? Some
months later the charges against the three men were dropped because the RUC
never had any evidence against them. But the political damage was done, Sinn
Féin had been sanctioned and the unionists were placated.
But this was not to be the last time that the RUC/PSNI and British Security
Services came to the rescue of unionism when it seemed that it was under
pressure. Remember Castlereagh? RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan blamed the IRA for
breaking into the top security base and stealing sensitive files on agents
and informers. Again, despite IRA denials of involvement high profile raids
were carried out on the homes of prominent republicans on both sides of the
border. Nothing was ever found to justify Ronnie Flanagan's allegations that
the IRA was to blame and three years later they have still not produced any
evidence. Again Unionists were provided with an excuse to stall progress.
At his Party Conference in 2002 David Trimble proclaimed his intentions to
create the conditions to collapse the political institutions and at the same
time have republicans held responsible for the crisis. Then, so very
conveniently, we had the charade of a raid on the Sinn Féin Offices at
Stormont with a UTV camera crew tipped off so that it would be carried out
in the full glare of publicity. The PSNI clearly for the optics were seen to
leave the building with an envelope containing two computer discs. No search
of the office was carried out but a PSNI member simply lifted two discs out
of hundreds that were in the office and removed them. The discs turned out
to be computer systems discs and were returned within two days.
Simultaneously the homes of republicans in Belfast were being raided
including that of Sinn Féin‚s Head of Administration at Stormont, Denis
Donaldson. Denis and three others were arrested and held in custody. The
woman arrested was subsequently released without charge and after being held
in custody for several months all of the serious charges of "spying and
possession of documents" against the other three were dropped. But once more
the damage was done, Sinn Féin was again charged, tried and convicted on the
airwaves and Unionists once more appeased. Trimble forced the suspension of
the Institutions and they have still not been reinstated.
December 2004 we were once more on the cusp of a breakthrough with little
sign of unionism being able to opt out until the PSNI again came to its
rescue with unfounded, unsubstantiated allegations that the IRA was
responsible for the Northern Bank Robbery. The more things seem to change
the more they stay the same. The one constant in the past thirty-odd years
is that whether in 1973 with the use of the Littlejohns, 1976 with the
removal of political status from prisoners, 1981 during the hunger strikes
or the latest attempt in 2004 - 2005 attempts to criminalise republicans
will fail.
