|
Names of Republicans in the IRA
A leaked document to the "Sunday Times,25th March, 2001"
names the men who run the IRA
The Sunday Times has revealed for the first time the full list of the men who run the IRA. It has been verified by senior sources in the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Irish police. Bearing the address "Head Quarters, Dublin", it names the seven members of the IRA's ruling army council and the nine members of its general headquarters (GHQ) staff. The list confirms that the organisation is dominated by Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, and his allies.
Sinn Fein members on the council include Adams, the West Belfast MP, and Martin McGuinness, the MP for Mid Ulster who is also the Northern Ireland education minister.
Last night a senior Irish security source said: "This list appears to us to be correct. Adams was off the army council for some time, but has come back since the decommissioning debate opened and now they have many of the leading politicians on it." He added that there was no intelligence to suggest any planned return to violence.
The British government believes Adams is in a strong position to bring about the decommissioning of IRA weapons. The list of names indicates that he enjoys a comfortable majority at the top of the organisation and this will increase government optimism.
The other Sinn Fein members are Martin Ferris, a candidate for the Irish parliament and convicted gunrunner, and a fourth man who cannot be named. The chief of staff and head of the IRA is Thomas "Slab" Murphy, a millionaire racketeer and smuggler from south Armagh who was instrumental in bringing about the 1994 ceasefire and then planning the London Docklands bombing which broke it.
The IRA's assistant chief of staff is Brian Keenan, an Adams supporter and veteran bomber who is the IRA representative on General John de Chastelain's independent international commission on decommissioning (IICD). At his last IICD meeting Keenan said that in the correct circumstances the IRA was committed to putting its arms beyond use.
The seventh council member is Brian Gillen, 31, an Adams appointee from Belfast who has been jailed for arms and explosives offences.
Below the council members are nine GHQ staff members, most of whom took the places of better-known members who left the IRA during ceasefires.The key figure is Martin Lynch, 51, the adjutant-general, who has day-to-day control of the IRA. Last year a car used by Lynch, which took Adams and McGuinness to meetings with the IRA, was found to contain an MI5 bugging device.
The head of engineering responsible for weapons and explosives is Bernard Fox, one of the 1981 hunger strikers and regarded as close to Adams. IRA intelligence is directed by Bobby Storey, who has been jailed on arms charges.
The finance director responsible for organising robbery and racketeering is Patrick Thompson, 47, who was jailed in 1977 for murdering four soldiers.
BBC NEWS Wednesday, 28 March, 2001, 17:32 GMT 18:32 UK Paisley makes IRA accusations
Ian Paisley: Made allegations under parliamentary privilege The Democratic Unionist Party leader has used a House of Commons debate to highlight newspaper claims that three Sinn Fein assembly members are senior IRA men. During Northern Ireland Question-Time in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Ian Paisley asked Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid about weekend newspaper claims that Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Pat Doherty were IRA members.
Under Parliamentary privilege Ian Paisley names terrorists involved in the "Kingsmill massacre"
Pat Doherty was born in Glasgow and is a former Donegal resident, he is also known by the nickname of "Papa Doc". His brother Hugh was part of the IRA Balcombe Street gang. Today he is Vice President of Sinn Fein.
Leading some to speculate that he may have been a long term informer.
|
 |
