Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams ‘may have grassed up’ an IRA hit squad who were gunned down by SAS
Rumours about the deaths of the eight-strong East Tyrone Brigade came in latest batch of declassified files released for the National Archives
GERRY Adams may have grassed up an IRA hit squad killed by the SAS, declassified police files reveal.
Eight of the feared East Tyrone Brigade were gunned down by the elite force as the gang tried to bomb a Northern Ireland police barracks in 1987.
It was the IRA’s greatest loss of life in a single incident during The Troubles and questions have remained over who tipped off the British Army.
Declassified documents released to the National Archives in Dublin reveal Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was said to have informed on the gang after a row with its leader Jim “The Executioner” Lynagh.
The papers claim the rumours were shared by respected cleric Father Denis Faul, a friend of IRA member Padraig McKearney who died in the Loughgall Ambush.
Father Faul said he was “intrigued” by the theory that Lynagh and McKearney had threatened to execute Adams shortly before the incident.
MAJOR LIFT FOR ROYALS
NEWS that the Queen had agreed to pay income tax was rushed out by PM John Major 25 years ago to deflect media criticism of the royals.
He acted in November 1992 after the monarch’s “annus horribilis”.
Cabinet minutes reveal ministers called the move “most welcome” after royal marriage splits and the Windsor Castle fire.
The documents claim the pair disliked Adams’ political policy and that of the IRA’s former head of Northern Command Martin McGuinness.
After McGuinness died earlier this year there were claims that he was also an informant.
Adams, whose Sinn Fein was regarded as the political wing of the IRA, is standing down next year.
JAG PERK BY MRS T
MARGARET Thatcher kept ministers sweet by approving their appeals for chauffeur-driven Jags.
Cabinet members were supposed to travel in Rovers and only the home, foreign, defence and Northern Ireland secretaries got Jaguars for se-curity. But the PM bent the rules, at least once against official advice, the files show.
The records, released under the 30-year secrecy rule, also claim ex-Irish PM Charlie Haughey was warned by loyalist paramilitaries that MI5 ordered his assassination.
And they suggest the 1987 Enniskillen bomb, which claimed 12 lives, may have been a premeditated attack rather than carried out by a maverick terrorist as the IRA said.
A Sinn Fein spokesman said: “These claims are utter nonsense.”
MOST READ IN NEWS
PM BATS FOR BRITAIN
OFFICIALS seized on John Major’s love of cricket to get him to join a charity match with Commonwealth leaders.
The aim was for the PM to boost diplomacy at a 1991 summit in Zimbabwe, files reveal.
But high commissioner Kieran Prendergast fretted before the match over whether to invite wives or treat it as a “stag party”.