Operation Kenova: PIRA ​terrorist godfathers sought ‘human rights protections’

The report states: “Some of the PIRA senior leadership who commissioned the ISU (internal security unit) would later be active in seeking fairness and human rights protections. There is a stark contrast between their public position and the wanton use of torture and murder against people from their community who were often innocent of the accusations made against them.”

It also cautions against accepting as fact that many of the IRA’s ISU victims were legitimate targets for torture and murder.

“The audio recordings and written statements of some ISU victims in which they apparently admit assisting the security forces should be disregarded,” the report states.

"These people were under extreme duress, suffering physical mistreatment and torture to extract confessions.

"The ISU made some false promises that, should they confess to assisting the security forces, it would stop mistreating them.

"Victims were encouraged to attend Sinn Féin fronted press conferences to criticise the security forces for recruiting agents as propaganda exercises.

"Typically, PIRA did not usually live up to its undertakings and executed many of those who made admissions in a vain attempt to stay alive, not necessarily because they had assisted the security forces in any way.

"Some in the republican movement consider that these activities were legitimate acts of warfare. They were not.”

The report goes on to describe the murders investigated by Kenova as “some of the worst atrocities of the conflict,” and adds: “The republican leadership gave carte blanche to the ISU to commit acts of torture and murder, there was no internal accountability whatsoever.

"The public comments leaders of PIRA and Sinn Féin made about the ISU’s conduct, and of the consequences of being an agent, created an environment in sections of the nationalist community in which victims’ families suffered significant intimidation.”