Stormontgate
Encyclopedia
Stormontgate is the name given to the controversy surrounding an alleged Provisional Irish Republican Army
spy-ring and intelligence gathering operation based in Stormont
, the parliament building of Northern Ireland
. The term was coined in October 2002 after the arrest of Sinn Féin
’s Northern Ireland Assembly group administrator Denis Donaldson
, his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney, and former porter William Mackessy for intelligence-gathering on 4 October 2002.
officers who entered the building to remove two computer disks from the Sinn Féin offices. The raid took place in what was described as a "blaze of publicity". The two computer disks were quietly returned later. Thousands of documents were reportedly discovered by the police in Donaldson's Belfast
home.
by the Provisional IRA announced on 26 September 2005.
announced to a press conference in Dublin that Donaldson had been a spy in the pay of MI5
for over twenty years. This was confirmed by Donaldson in a statement to broadcast media outlet RTÉ
shortly afterwards.
In his statement Donaldson described the alleged Sinn Féin spy ring in Stormont as "a scam and a fiction". Adams has asserted that both the planned leaking of Donaldson's name as an informer and the original Stormontgate allegations were engineered by the security forces to discredit Sinn Féin and cause a crisis in the peace process. The affair had been investigated by Nuala O'Loan
, the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman
, who ruled that the raid was not politically motivated. O'Loan found that the
but was critical of the number of vehicles used and the scale of the police operation. Normally the Ombudsman's office is given access to all relevant codenames and reports relating to informants. Yet O'Loan was unaware that Donaldson was by his own admission, an informant. Following the public unmasking of Donaldson, O'Loan stood by her 2004 judgement on the search. The Northern Ireland Office
has also strenuously denied that Donaldson was an agent.
and British governments have ruled out inquiries into the controversy. Tánaiste
(deputy prime minister) of Ireland, at that time, Mary Harney
said: "I think the last thing we probably need right now is some form of inquiry which may not get very far" British
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Peter Hain
described the unfolding scandal as turbulent, but said that inquiries
Bertie Ahern
, described events surrounding the incident as "bizarre".
Immediately after the December revelation, unidentified security sources said that a second informer acting independently of Donaldson disclosed the alleged spy ring http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=673503. Former PIRA prisoner and critic of Gerry Adams, Anthony McIntyre, has claimed that a more important British agent is operating in the organisation, and that Donaldson was sacrificed by Sinn Féin to deceive people into thinking that the most serious infiltration had been ended.
However Donaldson denied the existence of any sort of spy ring stating "The plan was to collapse the institutions to save Trimble – David Trimble was trying to out- DUP the DUP and in the end the DUP swallowed him up. The whole idea was to get Trimble off the hook and get republicans the blame. But it didn't work because Trimble is history now."
had been living in the Republic of Ireland
where he was debriefed by republicans about the extent of his work for British intelligence. On 4 April 2006 he was found shot dead at house he had been using as a retreat near Glenties
, County Donegal
. Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell
said that Donaldson had been shot in the head and that his right forearm was almost severed. However, a post mortem revealed that he had died from a shotgun blast to the chest. Donaldson's death is now the subject of an ongoing murder inquiry. In 2009 the Real IRA used their Easter message to admit to killing Donaldson.
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
spy-ring and intelligence gathering operation based in Stormont
Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)
The Parliament Buildings, known as Stormont because of its location in the Stormont area of Belfast is the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Northern Ireland Executive...
, the parliament building of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. The term was coined in October 2002 after the arrest of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
’s Northern Ireland Assembly group administrator Denis Donaldson
Denis Donaldson
Denis Martin Donaldson was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army and a member of Sinn Féin who was exposed in December 2005 as an informer in the employment of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland Denis Martin Donaldson (Short Strand, Belfast,...
, his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney, and former porter William Mackessy for intelligence-gathering on 4 October 2002.
Immediate repercussions
Ten days following the arrests devolved government in Northern Ireland arising from the Good Friday Agreement collapsed. The raid involved "scores" of PSNIPolice Service of Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland....
officers who entered the building to remove two computer disks from the Sinn Féin offices. The raid took place in what was described as a "blaze of publicity". The two computer disks were quietly returned later. Thousands of documents were reportedly discovered by the police in Donaldson's Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
home.
Charges dropped 2005
On 8 December 2005 the charges against all three men were dropped by the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service. Lawyers for the service said that"the prosecution for the offences in relation to the accused are no longer in the public interest".Sinn Féin claimed that the prosecutions had been politically motivated and were dropped because of lack of evidence. Some unionists suggested that dropping the charges was a "reward" for the final act of decommissioning
Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was established to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Northern Ireland, as part of the peace process.-Legislation and organisation:...
by the Provisional IRA announced on 26 September 2005.
British agent
On 16 December 2005, Sinn Féin president Gerry AdamsGerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
announced to a press conference in Dublin that Donaldson had been a spy in the pay of MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
for over twenty years. This was confirmed by Donaldson in a statement to broadcast media outlet RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
shortly afterwards.
In his statement Donaldson described the alleged Sinn Féin spy ring in Stormont as "a scam and a fiction". Adams has asserted that both the planned leaking of Donaldson's name as an informer and the original Stormontgate allegations were engineered by the security forces to discredit Sinn Féin and cause a crisis in the peace process. The affair had been investigated by Nuala O'Loan
Nuala O'Loan
Nuala Patricia O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan, DBE is a noted public figure in Northern Ireland. She was the first Police Ombudsman in between 1999 and 2007. In July 2009, it was announced that she was to be appointed to the House of Lords. Consequently, she was raised to the peerage as Baroness O'Loan,...
, the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman
Police Ombudsman
The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is a non-departmental public body intended to provide an independent, impartial police complaints system for the people and police under the Police Acts of 1998 and 2000.-Personnel:...
, who ruled that the raid was not politically motivated. O'Loan found that the
"decision to seek a warrant authorising a search of a specific desk in the Sinn Féin offices was reasonable, proportionate and legal"
but was critical of the number of vehicles used and the scale of the police operation. Normally the Ombudsman's office is given access to all relevant codenames and reports relating to informants. Yet O'Loan was unaware that Donaldson was by his own admission, an informant. Following the public unmasking of Donaldson, O'Loan stood by her 2004 judgement on the search. The Northern Ireland Office
Northern Ireland Office
The Northern Ireland Office is a United Kingdom government department responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and is based in Northern Ireland at Stormont House.-Role:...
has also strenuously denied that Donaldson was an agent.
Political fallout
Both the IrishIrish Government
The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.-Members of the Government:Membership of the Government is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach...
and British governments have ruled out inquiries into the controversy. Tánaiste
Tánaiste
The Tánaiste is the deputy prime minister of Ireland. The current Tánaiste is Eamon Gilmore, TD who was appointed on 9 March 2011.- Origins and etymology :...
(deputy prime minister) of Ireland, at that time, Mary Harney
Mary Harney
Mary Harney is a former Irish politician. She served as Tánaiste from 1997–2006, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from 1997–2004, and as Minister for Health and Children from 2004 to 2011...
said: "I think the last thing we probably need right now is some form of inquiry which may not get very far" British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
Peter Hain
Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath since 1991, and has served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and both Secretary of State for...
described the unfolding scandal as turbulent, but said that inquiries
"cost hundreds of millions of pounds. I am not going down that road when it is quite clear that it is not in the public interest to do so"The Irish Taoiseach
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
, described events surrounding the incident as "bizarre".
Immediately after the December revelation, unidentified security sources said that a second informer acting independently of Donaldson disclosed the alleged spy ring http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=673503. Former PIRA prisoner and critic of Gerry Adams, Anthony McIntyre, has claimed that a more important British agent is operating in the organisation, and that Donaldson was sacrificed by Sinn Féin to deceive people into thinking that the most serious infiltration had been ended.
However Donaldson denied the existence of any sort of spy ring stating "The plan was to collapse the institutions to save Trimble – David Trimble was trying to out- DUP the DUP and in the end the DUP swallowed him up. The whole idea was to get Trimble off the hook and get republicans the blame. But it didn't work because Trimble is history now."
Donaldson killed
Since his admission DonaldsonDenis Donaldson
Denis Martin Donaldson was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army and a member of Sinn Féin who was exposed in December 2005 as an informer in the employment of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland Denis Martin Donaldson (Short Strand, Belfast,...
had been living in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
where he was debriefed by republicans about the extent of his work for British intelligence. On 4 April 2006 he was found shot dead at house he had been using as a retreat near Glenties
Glenties
Glenties is a village in the northwest of Ireland in central County Donegal. It is situated where two glens meet, northwest of the Blue Stack Mountains, near the confluence of two rivers. Glenties is the largest centre of population in the parish of Iniskeel...
, County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
. Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell is a Senior Counsel in the Bar Council of Ireland and a former politician. A grandson of Irish revolutionary Eoin MacNeill, McDowell was a founding member of the Progressive Democrats political party in the mid-1980s...
said that Donaldson had been shot in the head and that his right forearm was almost severed. However, a post mortem revealed that he had died from a shotgun blast to the chest. Donaldson's death is now the subject of an ongoing murder inquiry. In 2009 the Real IRA used their Easter message to admit to killing Donaldson.
See also
- List of scandals with "-gate" suffix
- Freddie ScappaticciFreddie ScappaticciFreddie Scappaticci was accused in the Irish and British media on 11 May 2003 of being a high-level double agent in the Provisional Irish Republican Army , known by the codename Stakeknife.-Early life:...
- StakeknifeStakeknifeStakeknife is the code name of an alleged spy who infiltrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army at a high level, while working for the top secret Force Research Unit of the British Army...
- Operation TaurusOperation TaurusOperation Taurus was the name of a planned prosecution by the Royal Ulster Constabulary against Martin McGuinness.Taurus was to be based on allegations arising from the 1993 broadcast of an edition of the "Cook Report" presented by Roger Cook and involving Freddie Scappaticci aka...
- Martin IngramMartin IngramMartin Ingram is the pseudonym of an ex-British Army soldier who served in the Intelligence Corps and Force Research Unit . He has made a number of allegations about the conduct of the British Army, its operations in Northern Ireland via the FRU, and against figures in the Provisional Irish...