REVELATIONS ABOUT THE secret agent known as Stakeknife left republican leaders in Northern Ireland “paralysed and damaged” in 2003, according to newly released records.

Stakeknife, who is widely believed to be the late Freddie Scappaticci, was the IRA’s highest-ranking agent for many years.

He ran the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, which was involved in torturing and murdering informants – people who gave information to British security forces.

In 2003, it was revealed that Stakeknife was himself a double agent working for British authorities – a disclosure that rocked Sinn Féin and the wider republican movement.

The shocking revelations came at a pivotal moment in the peace process when the Good Friday Agreement was being reviewed and negotiations to get the IRA to decommission its weapons were ongoing.

Many people believed the Stakeknife affair had done immense damage to Sinn Féin’s reputation. State Papers made public this month shed new light on private conversations between British and Irish officials about the matter.

Officials at a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) discussed the fallout of the Stakeknife affair at a meeting in London in May 2003.

A steering note written by an official at the government’s Anglo-Irish Division on 19 May 2003 details the topics likely to be discussed.

Earlier that month, the British Government passed the necessary legislation to allow for the postponement of the Assembly elections in Northern Ireland.

“The Secretary of State has discretion to set a date for elections prior to 15 November,” the file notes, adding that the Irish government wants elections to be held that autumn.

The document adds that, since a previous meeting at Farmleigh in Dublin on 6 May, the political landscape has been “overtaken by the Stakeknife revelations and allegations”.

“These have convulsed the republican movement already traumatised by the failure of its statements and clarifications to meet the standard of clarity required by both Governments and the British decision to postpone elections.”

Conspiracy theories 

The file notes that then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern indicated the previous week that “the Stakeknife controversy would be raised at this meeting”.

The document states that the postponement of the election in Northern Ireland had left the political process “without focus or direction” and Sinn Féin’s leadership had “for the moment, exhausted its capacity to propel the wider movement in the right direction”.

“The Stakeknife affair has further damaged the Sinn Féin leadership in the eyes of the wider movement, generating all kinds of internal conspiracy theories about who was protecting who and whether this IRA mole was ruthlessly used to eliminate the key opponents of the peace process within republicanism.

The outworking of this affair has potentially very negative implications for the stability of the Sinn Féin leadership.

“The two Governments need to get a firm grip on the situation and not allow matters to drift.”

Another internal document from 20 May 2003 notes that the allegations about Stakeknife suggest “complicity in murder by loyalists was matched by complicity in murder by republicans”.  

The file adds that the Stakeknife revelations left republican leadership “paralysed and damaged”. 

The document also references Thomas Oliver, a 43-year-old farmer who was tortured and murder by the Provisional IRA in 1991.

“The allegations include references to murder in our jurisdiction; it is being suggested that Mr. Tom Oliver met his death because of events surrounding the agent code named Stakeknife.

This raises the fundamental question of how the Irish Government responds to allegations concerning alleged British security force activity in this jurisdiction.

There is no evidence that Oliver was an informer.

In an article marking the 30th anniversary of his murder, the Irish Examiner reported that a barrel containing IRA guns was found on Oliver’s land in 1989. Sources indicated that these arms were hidden without Oliver’s knowledge.

Two years after the discovery, on 18 July 1991, Oliver disappeared while tending to a cow who was calving in a field. His abandoned car was found the next day, and his body was discovered the following day near Belleek, Co Armagh. He had been tortured and shot six times in the head, according to reports.

Scappaticci, who died in 2023, publicly denied involvement with British intelligence. His name is back in the headlines of late as he is the subject of a new BBC Sounds documentary, Stakeknife.

In general, State Papers – official documents from Government departments and the President’s Office – are declassified and released to the public 30 years after the fact.

However, some records are released before or after that timeframe for various reasons. For example, records related to the peace process in Northern Ireland are now typically released after 20 years.

State Papers reference number: 2024/112/15