Denis Donaldson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Denis Donaldson (* 1950 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ; † 4. April 2006 at Glenties in County Donegal , Ireland ) was a member of the Irish organizations Provisional Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein , which in 2005 as a spy in the service of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary ) was exposed.

Life

Donaldson joined the IRA's Belfast Brigade at the age of 16 and took an active part in the bloody clashes between Catholics and Protestants in the Short Strand neighborhood there in the early 1970s, was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. Like many IRA activists , he was imprisoned in Maze Prison (also known as Long Kesh ), Northern Ireland , where he befriended Bobby Sands and Gerry Adams . The Maze became the cadre forge for IRA members; Denis Donaldson later rose to serve as the IRA intelligence officer. After the end of his prison term, he attended a PLO training camp. Later he was the liaison between the Basque separatists of the ETA and the IRA. He was temporarily arrested in Paris in 1981 for false identity documents.

In the 1980s, British intelligence services managed to "turn him around" and recruit him as an informant . Various rumors are circulating about the reasons: The British are said to have blackmailed Donaldson, the Catholic and family man, with his allegedly numerous women’s stories. According to other accounts, Donaldson is said to have collected large sums of money.

In his capacity as a member of the Republican Sinn Féin, Donaldson had access to the Northern Irish parliament building in the Stormont suburb. On March 17, 2002, Belfast State Security documents containing information about Protestant celebrities were stolen. On October 4, 2002, Sinn Féin members were accused of running a spy ring for the IRA in parliament. As a result, the Sinn Féin office manager was arrested. On October 14, 2002, the Northern Ireland Assembly was dissolved, the Northern Irish regional government suspended and the province temporarily ruled from London again .

The Ulster authorities have since been investigating and investigating the suspicion that there was an agent ring inside Stormont Castle collecting files on potential IRA victims. In December 2005, however , the investigation was suddenly stopped due to a lack of public interest; allegations against Denis Donaldson and two other members of Sinn Féin were dropped. Gerry Adams, Denis Donaldson and Sinn Féin saw the closure of the proceedings as proof that there never was an IRA spy ring.

After Donaldson publicly admitted his activity as a British informant ("Mole") shortly thereafter and regretted it, Sinn Féin excluded him. Contrary to the “ Green Book ”, the IRA constitution, according to which traitors are shot (“ Touts will be shot ”), the IRA ignored Donaldson. He disappeared with an unknown destination. He turned down a new identity for a life abroad offered to him by MI5. The journalist Hugh Jordan the Dublin Sunday World on felt Donaldson in March 2006 in a small house without water and electricity. Jordan reported on a neglected looking and emaciated man who was extremely depressed.

On the evening of April 4, 2006, Donaldson was found shot dead near the village of Glenties in Donegal, Ireland. The exact circumstances of his death are still unclear. Both Sinn Féin and Gerry Adams expressed their disgust for the murder.

Web links