Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Martin McGartland

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep per WP:SNOW – PeaceNT 07:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Martin McGartland

Martin McGartland (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) – (View log)

Another non notable alleged IRA terorist. Fails WP:BIO. Astrotrain 22:51, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

• Delete, although note he was actually a Special Branch agent who infiltrated the IRA. --Dhartung | Talk 22:59, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Vote changed to keep with new sources. --Dhartung | Talk 01:25, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep, apart from being a former memeber of the IRA he then worked for M15 as a spy and wrote one of the most well known books on this subject and I think the IRA then tried to "take him out" in England. I think puts the NN issue to bed.--Vintagekits 23:04, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep, He's an intersting charactor and is a published author of Fifty Dead Men Walking. He's not alleged anything this time. Definately notable Weggie 23:09, 25 January 2007 (UTC) Also film book. I volunteer to get this article up to scratch (NPOV) Weggie 23:14, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
• Delete as non notable, and failing wp:bio. I'll change to keep if more info is added and heavily expanded. SynergeticMaggot 23:27, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

• Comment, The guy has a book and a film based on his story and thats NN!!! I would like a chance to add to the page but Astrotrain has nominated a number of similar pages for AfD at the same time without any prior discussion, so it is pretty difficult to keep up and work on all the articles.--Vintagekits 23:39, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

• Keep. Notable. I've added a little more about him to the article, just spending 5 minutes using Google. Hopefully editors (like Vintagekits) will add more useful info. Argyriou (talk) 00:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep as re-written/edited & Kudos to Argyriou! SkierRMH 01:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• Very strong keep When nominated this article was a stub. I did a google search, which quickly revealed an abundance of sources with significant mentions, including national press, TV documentary, questions in parliament and references by politicians. I have added this information to the article and greatly increased it, but I find it extraordinary that the nom either didn't do a google search, or, if he did, didn't see these results, or, if he did see them, failed to recognise their value. Badly researched AfD nominations not only waste community time, but stand to deprive the encyclopedia of worthwhile articles. I note the nominator has also proposed "a number of similar pages for AfD", and I trust he will check carefully to ensure that that is the right course of action for them. It could otherwise look very much like bad faith noms, which is a form of vandalism. Tyrenius 06:59, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
  • It was not a bad faith nom - Wikipedia is not a memorial site for IRA terrorists - and this person is not notable. There are lots of criminals and criminal gangs in the UK that appear in the papers- this does not make them notable. He fails WP:BIO Astrotrain 08:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
    • You should be very careful what you say per WP:BLP amongst other reasons. This man is of course not a terrorist but working undercover with the police, so that is irrelevant and confused thinking or just Chewbacca. Similarly he is not a criminal and I presume you are not implying he is, but that is merely there for some kind of inappropriate analogy. However, you might like to check out Category:English criminals for future reference. In WP:BIO there is actually a specific mention of notability: Persons achieving renown or notoriety for their involvement in newsworthy events (my underline). Tyrenius 08:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
      • The possible serious consequences of unfounded accusations can be seen here. Tyrenius 09:02, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• The first line of the article says he is in the IRA- which is a terrorist organisation in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Astrotrain 09:53, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Please desist from highly selective readings to advance a false argument and create a misleading impression. The first line says, "Martin McGartland is a former IRA Volunteer and informer. When his cover was blown, he escaped", which communicates an entirely different situation to the one you have just stated. Tyrenius 14:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Comment Well I think the above highlights the blatant bias that Astrotrain has with regards this issue.--Vintagekits 09:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Keep IRA and MI5 member, published author and controversial figure overall. I think he passes the notability test with flying colors. User:Dimadick
• Strong KeepEasily makes notability criteriaMs medusa 11:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Ireland-related deletions. --   ⇒ bsnowball  09:21, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• Strong keep: as a surviving double agent/IRA informer, he is quite notable, just as much so as Sean O'Callaghan, for example.El chulito 16:21, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - Kittybrewster 16:44, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.