Kenneth Lesley-Dixon - Northern Ireland: The Troubles: From the Provos to the Det, 1968-1998

FROM THE PROVOS TO THE DET 19681998

KENNETH LESLEY-DIXON

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

PEN AND SWORD MILITARY

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Copyright Kenneth Lesley-Dixon, 2018

ISBN 978 1 526729 17 0

eISBN 978 1 526729 18 7

Mobi ISBN 978 1 526729 19 4

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Northern Ireland by County

Belfast & Londonderry / Derry: Religious Demographics

Northern Ireland: Political Demographics 19972017

It is, of course, no secret that undercover special forces and intelligence agencies operated covertly in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic throughout the troubles from 1969 to 1999, and beyond. What is less well known is how these units were recruited, how they operated, their strategy and mission and what they actually did. This book provides a record of their murders, torture, collusion, shooting to kill, undercover conflict, covert surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering.

An astonishing number of clandestine agencies were active in the province during The Troubles: this account focuses on the Official ) and the Red Hand Defenders. The Force Research Unit (FRU) and MI5 are also covered.

The book explores such still contentious and challenging issues as shoot-to-kill, murder squads, the Disappeared, political assassinations and British government collusion with loyalists. Operations such as Loughgall and the Gibraltar Operation Flavius are examined. Official, hitherto classified papers newly released by the Irish government in December 2017 are assessed.

The glue that joins all this together is the prevalence of murder squads during The Troubles, the title of the series of which this volume is part. The various agencies operating in The Troubles have the dubious distinction of rubbing shoulders with other murder squads and their atrocities that have tainted world history down the years. The intention, the aims and scope of The Troubles is certainly not to publish (yet another) melodramatic or sensationalist, unsubstantiated and gratuitous account. Rather, the book is intended to give an objective, non-partisan, non-judgemental description of the serial killing and murderous activity that afflicted Northern Ireland from 1969to let the facts, as far as they have been allowed to emerge, speak for themselves, In addition, it is an attempt to correct the imbalance in various accounts of various events caused largely by the systematic and overt suppression of pertinent facts, by British government collusion and by the false facts pedalled by successive governments in relation to government policy and strategy on covert activity in Northern Ireland. Some of this may be excused by the in the public interest mantra, or conveniently and ironically, on the grounds of security, but by no means all of it. There were other, more sinister agenda at play: government apologies have started to seep out. Forty years of graphic news bulletins and newspaper headlines told us all about the atrocities perpetrated by the IRAquite right toobut comparatively less coverage was given to the inequalities meted out to Catholics and nationalists by the British government in the 1960s which were one of the root causes of The Troubles. At the same time, there was comparatively less coverage devoted to the equally savage atrocities perpetrated by the six or so loyalist paramilitary organizations.