THE CASE OF a British undercover police officer operating in Ireland is to be raised with British Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
During Leaders’ Questions last Wednesday, AAA-PBP TD Paul Murphy informed the Dáil that undercover agent Mark Kennedy – infamous following an inquiry in the UK – was also operating in Ireland.
The Taoiseach was told the British citizen had been exposed as a “secret member of the national public order intelligence unit” in the UK.
In 2011, details of Kennedy’s double life – during which he embedded himself with environmental activists for more than seven years – began to emerge.
The Guardian reported that Kennedy visited more than 22 countries taking part in protests against the building of a dam in Iceland, touring Spain with eco-activists, and penetrating anarchist networks in Germany and Italy.
Undercover with protesters
Murphy told the Dáil that Kennedy was in Ireland and participating in the Shell to Sea protests in the Taoiseach’s constituency.
He organised meetings here in the run up to the protest in Gleneagles at the G8 in 2005. He was arrested by the gardaí in Dublin on 3 May 2004…
He had multiple intimate relationships with women using his false identity as an environmental activist called Mark Stone.
While travelling the world, it’s claimed Kennedy had many sexual relationships with women within the activist movements.
It resulted in some of these women taking legal action against the police.
Subsequently, the Metropolitan Police in the UK published a full apology for the ‘totally unacceptable behaviour’ of undercover officers entering into such affairs with women.
Last week, Murphy revealed that a woman who was involved in a protest group was in a relationship with Kennedy while he was operating in Ireland in 2005.
Operating in Ireland
He called for the Pitchford Inquiry, which was launched in 2015 following scandals involving officers and women who said they were tricked into relationships, to be extended to take in Ireland.
The German and Scottish governments have formally requested that their jurisdictions also be included.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Minister Charlie Flanagan raised the issues connected to the Pitchford inquiry with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire during his visit to Dublin yesterday.
The Secretary of State undertook to convey these concerns to the British Home Secretary,” he noted.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say