Martin McGartland

Martin "Marty" McGartland (born 30 January 1970 in Belfast)^[1] is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) agent^[2] who joined the organisation in 1989 in order to pass information to British security forces. When he was exposed as an Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch agent in 1991 he was abducted by the IRA, but escaped and was resettled in England. His identity became publicly known after a minor court case. He was later shot six times by an IRA gunman, but recovered from the injuries. He has written two books about his life, Fifty Dead Men Walking: The Terrifying True Story of a Secret Agent Inside the IRA and Dead Man Running.

Life

Childhood in west Belfast

Born into a staunchly Irish republican, Roman Catholic family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, McGartland grew up in a council house in Moyard, Ballymurphy at the foot of the Black Mountain. His parents were separated and he had one brother, Joe and two sisters Elizabeth and Catherine. As the violent religious-political conflict known as the Troubles escalated, republican areas such as Ballymurphy increasingly came under the control of the local Provisional IRA (IRA) who maintained a vice-like authority and discipline over the residents.^[3] One of the effects of the continuous rioting and the campaign of bombings and shootings waged by paramilitaries in Belfast and all over Northern Ireland, was to make McGartland grow up quickly as he witnessed first hand the devastation the Troubles had wrought.^[4]

McGartland described his childhood in West Belfast as one in which he would join with older boys in stone-throwing to goad the British Army. He also became involved in battles with other Catholic youths against Protestant boys from nearby loyalist estates; this mostly involved throwing stones at each other. His sister Catherine was one of many children recruited by the IRA to move weapons around the Ballymurphy estate. She was later killed after accidentally falling through a skylight at her school. He attended Vere Foster Primary School and later St.Thomas' Secondary School. He was a high-spirited, mischievous child who enjoyed playing pranks such as stealing eggs and leading cattle from fields below Black Mountain to graze in his neighbours gardens.^[5] He also befriended a homeless man who sheltered in the disused Old Broadway cinema on the Falls Road; McGartland provided the man, Oliver, with food and money.^[6] McGartland's first job was working a paper round and this was followed by a job delivering milk.^[7]

Special Branch agent

He became involved in petty crime, which brought him to the notice of the RUC. His activities also attracted the attention of the IRA; on several occasions he narrowly escaped local disciplinary squads. Since the late 1970s, Catholics had been persuaded to report offences to Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing rather than the RUC. This effectively made the IRA the police force of the Catholic community.^[8] Sickened by increasing Provisional IRA violence directed at young Catholic petty lawbreakers in the form of punishment beatings - often carried out with iron bars and baseball bats - and knee-cappings, in 1986 at the age of 16, he agreed to provide information to the RUC about local IRA members, thereby preventing them from carrying out many attacks against the security forces. At the same time, the IRA employed him as a security officer in a protection racket; his job was to guard a building site in Ballymurphy which was under the protection of the IRA.^[9] He then worked for a local taxi firm as an unlicensed driver, paying a percentage to the IRA. This enabled him to better identify suspects who had been targeted by RUC Special Branch. He recounted in his book Fifty Dead Men Walking that he occasionally drove IRA punishment squads around and overheard them boast about the beatings they had meted out to their victims, many of whom were innocent people who had somehow incurred the wrath of a member of the IRA.^[10]

Infiltration of the IRA

McGartland later infiltrated the IRA in autumn 1989 having been asked to join by Davy Adams, a leading IRA member and the nephew of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. This was after being recommended by childhood friend Harry Fitzsimmons, whom McGartland often drove around Belfast. Fitzsimmons was part of an IRA bomb team. Davy Adams immediately gave his first assignment which was to check the house of a well-known Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) figure.^[11] McGartland was given the code name, Agent Carol by the RUC.^[12]

Holding the rank of lieutenant in the IRA Belfast Intelligence unit, he ended up working mainly for Davy Adams, whom he drove to meetings and to survey potential IRA targets. McGartland had a special tracking device attached to his car.^[13] He was also recruited by an IRA Active Service Unit (ASU) which was headed by a man known as "Spud".^[14] He convinced his IRA associates that he was a committed member of the organisation and he successfully led a double life, which was kept secret even from the mother of his two sons. From 1989 to 1991 he provided information about IRA activities and planned attacks to the RUC Special Branch. During his time as a Special Branch Intelligence agent, he became close to senior IRA members, having daily contact with those responsible for organising and perpetrating the shooting attacks and bombings throughout Northern Ireland.^[15] He also worked closely with Belfast actress Rosena Brown, a prominent and highly skilled IRA Intelligence Officer.^[16] Working in the IRA Intelligence unit enabled McGartland to learn about the organisation's command structure pertaining to finance, ordnance, intelligence and the detailed planning of operations.^[17] He discovered how IRA sympathisers had infiltrated various public institutions and businesses, and many members acquired computer skills, thereby enabling the IRA to gain access to detailed information on a wide range of people in Northern Ireland including politicians, lawyers, judges, members of the security forces, Loyalist paramilitaries, and prison officers.^[18]

Although McGartland prevented the IRA from carrying out many "spectaculars", including the planned bombing ambush of two lorries transporting British soldiers from Stranraer to Larne that would have resulted in the loss of over a dozen lives,^[19] his reported greatest regret was his failure in June 1991 to save the life of 21-year-old Private Tony Harrison. Harrison, a soldier from London, was shot by the IRA at the home of his East Belfast fiancee where they were making wedding plans. McGartland had driven the IRA gunmen's getaway car and had been brought into the operation so late he had no time to advise his handlers although he had previously indicated the IRA's interest in the area.^[20] A taxi driver and republican sympathiser, Noel Thompson, who picked Harrison up at Belfast airport and informed the IRA was later jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to murder.^[21]

Exposed as an agent

In that same year 1991, McGartland provided information about a mass shooting attack planned on Charlie Heggarty's pub in Bangor, County Down, where British soldiers frequently drank after what was generally a football match between the prison wardens. The RUC intercepted the two couriers delivering the guns to be used to shoot the soldiers and McGartland was exposed as an infiltrator.^[22] Diaries of the late Detective Superintendent Ian Phoenix, head of the Northern Ireland Police Counter-Surveillance Unit, revealed that he and the other Special Branch officers had advised senior RUC officers against stopping the gun couriers' vehicles as doing so would put McGartland's life at risk as well as allow the actual IRA gunmen to escape.^[23] The penalty for informing on the IRA was an interrogation session which involved beatings and torture. Once the suspect made a forced confession (whether he or she was innocent or guilty) the agent or informer was immediately killed with two bullets fired into the back of the head.^[24]

With his cover blown he was kidnapped in August 1991 by Jim "Boot" McCarthy and Paul "Chico" Hamilton, two IRA men with previous convictions for paramilitary activities. He would later allege that McCarthy and Hamilton were RUC informers based on what he had personally observed of the men during his kidnapping as he waited to be interrogated, tortured and subsequently executed. These allegations, however, were strongly denied by both men.^[25] McGartland only escaped an IRA execution having jumped from a third floor window at the Twinbrook flat where he had been taken for interrogation following his abduction.^[26]

England

He moved to England and received nearly £100,000 to buy a house and establish a new life in Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear, going by the name Martin Ashe.^[27] He failed in his attempt to receive compensation for his injuries.^[28]

Three years after moving to England, the IRA sent his mother a Catholic mass card with McGartland's name written on it. Mass cards are sent as tokens of sympathy to bereaved families when a member of the family has died.^[29]

In 1997, his identity was revealed publicly by the Northumbria Police in court when he was caught breaking the speed limit and subsequently prosecuted for holding driving licences in different names, which he explained as a means of avoiding IRA detection.^[12] He was cleared of perverting the course of justice.^[30] In June 1997, the BBC broadcast a television documentary on his story.^[31]

Shooting

In 1999, he was shot six times at his home by two men receiving serious wounds in the chest, stomach, side, upper leg and hand. He had attempted to wrestle the gun away from his assailant, but was shot in the left hand, the blast almost destroying his thumb. He received assistance from his neighbours and was rushed to hospital where he recovered from his injuries after being in intensive care. The IRA was blamed.^[32][33] He was relocated immediately, protected by 12 armed officers and given a specially armoured car. Total costs, including the investigation, amounted to £1,500,000.^[34] In 2000, Lord Vivian asked in the House of Lords whether the government intended to remove police protection from McGartland and was told by Lord Bassam of Brighton that "Individual protection arrangements are a matter for the chief constable of the police force concerned and are not discussed for security reasons."^[35]

The day after he was shot, the incident, along with the murders of Eamon Collins, Brendan Fegan and Paul Downey, was cited by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in an interview with reporters in Belfast, to question whether the IRA ceasefire was being maintained. He reminded Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, that this was a condition of the early release of paramilitaries under the Good Friday Agreement.^[36] A week later, it was mentioned in the Northern Ireland Grand Committee as evidence that IRA arms decommissioning had not taken place,^[37] and in January 2000 by Robert McCartney in the Northern Ireland Assembly.^[38]

In 1997 McGartland published a book about his life, Fifty Dead Men Walking.^[39] The title indicates the number of lives he considers he saved through his activities.^[12] The following year he won his lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard and This is London web site, which had published an article alleging the shooting might be related to connections with local criminal gangs.^[40]

In 2003, IRA member Scott Monaghan sued Northumbria Police for £150,000 for alleged ill-treatment when he was arrested (but not charged) over McGartland's shooting. McGartland had frequently criticised the police for inadequate protection but offered to testify on their behalf, saying: "There are people who have been the victims of terrorist attacks, who've lost loved ones, and some of them haven't been compensated. It's a scandal. I am the victim of an attack and I got around £50,000 in compensation, which is not a big amount considering my injuries. I'm not complaining. At the end of the day I was grateful to be alive. The reason I will help Northumbria Police is that this is an injustice."^[30] Monaghan's main claims were for false imprisonment, assault and wrongful interference with goods. They were rejected by the High Court in January 2006. However, he was awarded £100 for a delay in returning items of property. As of September 2008, no one was ever charged with the shooting.^[41][42]

Threats to his family

After the 1994 ceasefire, McGartland appealed to be allowed to return home to West Belfast. When he asked Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, when he would be able to, he was informed that it was a matter between him and the IRA.^[12] McGartland has said that his relatives have received harassment from Republicans;^[12] in 1996, his brother Joe was subjected to a severe and prolonged IRA punishment beating with baseball bats, iron bars and a wooden plank embedded with nails. The assault left him confined to a wheelchair for three months.^[43] In August 2006 Ian Paisley told Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, "We have also heard how the sister of IRA informer Martin McGartland was told by police that her safety was under threat. This news broke immediately after the Secretary of State's comments that he believed the IRA had ended all of its illegal activity."^[44]

Journalist Kevin Myers praised McGartland's heroism and the Sunday Express newspaper described him as a "real-life James Bond".^[45]

Film

A film Fifty Dead Men Walking (the number of lives he believed he saved) inspired by his book went on general release in April 2009;^[46] the film was directed by Kari Skogland and stars Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess in the role of McGartland. However, Martin McGartland disowned the film having said, "The film is as near to the truth as Earth is to Pluto."^[47]

Books by Martin McGartland

• Fifty Dead Men Walking: The Terrifying True Story of a Secret Agent Inside the IRA, 1997, ISBN 1-85782-178-5
• Dead Man Running, 1999 ISBN 0-8038-2005-4

See also

• Denis Donaldson
• Raymond Gilmour
• Sean O'Callaghan
• Kevin Fulton

References

External links

• "Informer fights for his life after shooting", Irish Examiner, includes details on his 1991 escape