Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey has tabled questions at Westminster following this week’s claims by a Fianna Fail TD that the Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA between 1969 and 1972 was a Garda agent.
Lord Empey said:
“For some reason certain sections of the media have been very slow to react to this story. Whenever there were allegations of MI5 or RUC Special Branch agents being involved in any way with loyalist activity, we have seen extensive coverage by both print and broadcast media, so it is rather curious to say the least, that there is a deafening silence from certain quarters to comments by Sean Haughey TD, claiming that the IRA Chief of Staff in the early 1970s was a Garda agent and informer.
“As my colleague Doug Beattie MC MLA said earlier this week, these allegations are stunning in their implications and must be fully investigated as a matter of urgency.
“If these claims are true then it places a whole new slant on the early period of the Troubles and the growth of the Provisional IRA. Questions are obviously raised as to what Dublin knew, what role it played and how many innocent lives may have been lost because of the activities of a Garda agent at the head of the Provisional IRA.
“I can quite understand how certain vested interests - not least Dublin – might want this story to drop and for the media not to pay any attention. The Ulster Unionist Party is determined that will not happen, and I have now tabled two questions in the Lords seeking a response from Her Majesty’s Government.”