‘Everyone knows’ who Stakeknife is, Taoiseach Micheal Martin says
The British Army’s top spy in the Provisional IRA should be named, Ireland’s premier has said, after a major report into his activities was published.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the report of Operation Kenova published on Tuesday tells the “very sordid story” of the activities of the agent known as Stakeknife, who he said was “responsible for the deaths of so many people” during the Troubles.
The agent was widely believed to be west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who was 77 when he died in 2023.
Mr Martin said the Kenova report was a “catalogue of tragedy, failure and hurt that affected all communities”.
He said: “It sheds essential light on the harrowing pain and loss caused to individuals, to their families, and through the systematic exercise of terror, to communities at large by the Provisional IRA.
“It shows the complicity of British state forces in allowing this to happen when it suited their ends, failing to include individuals and communities in their calculation of the public good.”
The UK Government has been urged to name Stakeknife, with Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher stating the refusal to do so is “bordering on farce”.
Mr Martin told a press conference in Dublin: “The agent should be named, everybody knows who the agent is.”
The final document includes a report of Operation Denton, which reviewed a series of attacks carried out by loyalists with involvement by some members of the security forces in the 1970s known as the Glenanne Gang.
Mr Martin said the Denton report contains the “seismic” but “expected” finding that the network of loyalist paramilitaries, including members of the RUC and UDR, murdered up to 120 people.
“It is also the case that suspected and known collusion by individuals, time and again during the Troubles and now confirmed in this report, had a corrosive effect on confidence in wider state forces, to the detriment of all,” he said.
The Taoiseach said dealing with the legacy of the Troubles remains essential work for both the UK and Irish Governments.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said the Joint Framework on legacy gives both Governments tools to bring people involved in criminality to justice.
She said: “The framework also provides for fact finding investigations, in cases where criminal prosecutions are no longer possible, but where families nevertheless deserve the full truth of what happened to their loved ones.
“Reciprocal cooperation is at the heart of the Joint Framework. Effective cross-border cooperation is essential to progress in many legacy cases.”