Letter to Vincent McKenna from Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams
Vincent McKenna: Detectives from Northumbria questioned Vincent McKenna for several hours at Castlereagh holding centre in Belfast in 1999 in relation to the shooting of RUC tout Martin Mc Gartland, this at a time when MI5 agent Dennis Donaldson was running a smear campaign against McKenna from his cosy Sinn Fein Office at Stormont. It was alleged that McKenna had infiltrated a group known as Families Against Intimidation and Terror (FAIT) in order to gather information for an elite unit of the Provisional IRA who were investigating the killings of over two dozen members of their organisation in County Tyrone including the killing of 8 IRA members at Loughgall in 1987. It would appear that the closer Mc Kenna got to the truth about Loughgall the more intense the smear campaign against him became.
It was alleged that Martin Mc Gartland had sent a cheque for two thousand pounds sterling to FAIT in order to support the groups work, it is alleged that the name on the cheque was that of a woman and that the woman's bank details were in fact Mc Gartland's details. It is alleged that McKenna passed the cheque details to the PIRA in west Belfast and they used that information to shoot Mc Gartland at his hide out in England. It is alleged that Mc Kenna passed the information to a former IRA prisoner who had been on hunger strike with McKenna's cousin Sean McKenna in 1980. It would later transpire that Mc Gartland used several identities and disguises including that of women. Mc Gartland regularly dressed up as a woman and wore a wig, he always keep his RUC issued hand gun under his pillow.
While Mc Kenna was being targeted by Dennis Donaldson and other British agents from within the republican movement, the security services in the north reported seeing Mc Kenna on a number of occasions in the company of senior members of the Provisional IRA including Joe Cahill whom he would meet at the car park of the B&Q store on Boucher Road in Belfast. It is believed that Mc Kenna had first meet Joe Cahill in 1983 when Sinn Fein’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin had introduced them at Sinn Fein HQ at 44 Parnell Square Dublin so that Joe Cahill could advice Mc Kenna on his extradition at that time. Mc Kenna had been charged with an arson attack on the home of an RUC officer when he had been a member of Na Fianna Eireann (junior IRA).
It is believed that Mc Kenna was told to do whatever he had to do, in order to garner information about the killings of IRA volunteers in Tyrone. It would appear that Joe Cahill had no difficulty with Mc Kenna’s persona as an anti-IRA activist as long as Mc Kenna was able to gather intelligence about British agents within the republican movement. On the 18th July 1998 Vincent Mc Kenna was attacked by six members of the republican movement on the Ormeau Road in Belfast for his newly found anti-IRA position, however, Mc Kenna was sworn to silence and simply dealt with the un-sanctioned IRA attack as would any other citizen, to have done differently would have raised serious questions.
It is believed that while Vincent Mc Kenna was being questioned at Castlereagh holding centre in 1999 about the shooting of RUC tout Martin Mc Gartland, Mc Kenna noted a weakness in the security routine at Castlereagh and that this information would lead to an IRA raid on Castlereagh holding centre in 2002 at which time a great deal of RUC information was taken by the IRA. Mc Kenna had previously been involved in an escape plan in Crumlin Road Jail in 1984 when he had teamed up with Seamus Shannon and the PIRA Chief in Crumlin Road Jail at that time Big Joe, the plan was abandoned after prison officers discovered make-shift prison officer uniforms during a routine search of the republican A Wing of the Jail.
Martin Mc Gartland was a small time hood who was easily bought. Mc Gartland became involved in petty crime, which brought him to the notice of the RUC. He agreed to provide information to them about the IRA, which he infiltrated and was given the code name, "Agent Carol". He led a double life, kept secret even from the mother of his two children. From 1987 to 1991 he provided information to the RUC Special Branch, rising to the centre of IRA and Sinn Fein operations.
McGartland's reported greatest regret was his failure in June 1991 to save the life of 21-year-old Private Tony Harrison, a soldier from London, who was shot at the home of his East Belfast fiancée where they were making wedding plans. Martin was brought into the operation so late he had no time to advise his handlers although he had previously indicated the IRA's interest in the area. A taxi driver, Noel Thompson, who picked Harrison up at Belfast airport and informed the IRA was later jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to murder.
In 1991, Mc Gartland provided information about an attack planned on a Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland pub where soldiers frequently drank: the RUC intercepted the courier delivering the gun to be used, and McGartland was exposed. He was abducted but escaped IRA execution by jumping from a third floor window, and was rescued by passers-by before being hospitalised.
He moved to England and received nearly £100,000 to buy a house and establish a new life in Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear, going by the name Martin Ashe and a number of other aliases. He failed in his attempt to receive compensation for criminal injuries as the state he had sold out to viewed him as a criminal. Mc Gartland had a thirst for publicity and was in regular contact with certain journalists in the north, following his shooting in 1999 it is alleged that Mc Gartland sent faxes to media outlets in the north alleging that Vincent Mc Kenna was an active IRA Intelligence Officer and that Mc Kenna’s anti-terrorist persona was a cover.
Caoimhghin O' Caolain TD is Sinn Fein Leader in Dail Eireann and will contest the General Election in 2011 to retain his seat in Monaghan/Cavan.
