Martin calls for Sinn Féin to apologise for Provisional IRA actions while naming Stakeknife

Eva Osborne

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called for Sinn Féin to apologise for the Provisional IRA’s actions as detailed in the Operation Kenova report.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said she supported the Taoiseach’s call and asked for time to be set aside in the Dáil for a “meaningful” apology to the victims of the Provisional IRA and of Stakeknife.

The Operation Kenova probe examined the activities of Stakeknife, a mole operating within the Provisional IRA’s Internal Security Unit in the 1980s, and found he was linked to at least 14 murders and 15 abductions, concluding that more lives were probably lost than saved through the operation of the agent.

It was unable to confirm Stakeknife’s identity in its final report in December after the British government refused its authorisation to do so.

The British government has been repeatedly called on to formally name Stakeknife, widely believed to be west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who was 77 when he died in 2023.

In the Dáil on Wednesday, Martin, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan and other TDs gave statements in relation to the revelations from Operation Kenova.

Martin said that while the details were “uncomfortable”, he said “the past must not be hidden”.

He said: “The identity of Stakeknife is clear to everybody here, and I’ve previously said that the agent should be officially named by the United Kingdom Government, particularly because of his close relationship with those who like to refer to themselves as the Republican movement.”

Naming Scappaticci in the Dáil, Mr Martin said the Kenova probe found the agent was implicated in “grotesque and serious crimes” as well as “harrowing” and “shocking” acts by the Provisional IRA.

He said: “Setting out the activities of Stakeknife, 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.

“We should have an apology from Sinn Féin in respect of the activities of the Provisional IRA, as documented in this report, it’s long past time for that apology and renunciation of what happened to occur.”

O’Callaghan said that allegations had surrounded Stakeknife for years and said there was a “perverse form of collusion” from British intelligence in relation to Stakeknife.

He said: “Kenova has exposed the nature and extent of the collusion that took place in relation to Freddie Scappaticci.

“Kenova expressed caution about the careless use of the term collusion, but there can be no doubt that collusion took place in relation to Stakeknife.

“It was a perverse form of collusion in which the interests of British intelligence and their efforts to protect their informant at the heart of the Provisional IRA coalesced with the Provisional IRA’s own murderous and illegitimate actions to judge and savagely punish those it deemed a threat to its aims.”

Bacik said Operation Kenova made clear that neither the IRA nor the Republican leadership have apologised to the victims of Scappaticci and the IRA’s interior Internal Security Unit.

She said: “Operation Kenova recommended that the Republican leadership apologise for the Provisional IRA’s abduction, torture and murder of those accused or suspected of being agents, and that they acknowledge the harm and intimidation suffered by victims and bereaved families.

“The Taoiseach earlier called for Sinn Féin to make an apology in this vein, and I support that call.

“I’m asking, will the government make time in the Dáil for such a statement to be made here? It should be a clear and meaningful apology specifically to the victims of the Provisional IRA’s campaign, specifically to the victims killed as a result of Freddie Scappaticci’s actions.”

However, other opposition parties criticised the Government’s attention on Sinn Féin.

People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said: “I just find it interesting that the government’s entire focus in this debate seems to be to score political points against Sinn Féin, rather than to be concerned about the profound implications of the fact that the British state was running an agent like Scappaticci, who was involved in killing people, abducting people.”

A sentiment echoed by Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín who told Mr O’Callaghan: “There is an instinct, especially amongst your party leader at times, to focus on IRA actions rather than British actions.

“And I think at times, there’s more political benefits in the coffins that have been created by the IRA then the coffins that have been created by the British government and I think that’s wrong”.

The Taoiseach also called for the Denton report, 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, to be published in full.

“It is deeply regrettable that the full publication of the Denton report is not available and has been delayed,” he said.

“The summary remains important and offers critical official recognition that a network of loyalist paramilitaries and corrupt members of the security forces, primarily members of the UVF, working with members of both the RUC and UDR, murdered up to 120 people, among them those killed in Dublin and Monaghan in May of 1974.

“It is also the case that suspected unknown collusion by the individuals, which is now confirmed in this report, had a corrosive effect on confidence in wider State forces, to the detriment of all.

“What we see in Kenova is British state forces’ collusion with the Provisional IRA, and in the Denton summary British state forces’ collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.

“In both cases, this led to extensive loss of lives and enabled intimidation across communities and across this island.”