Agents of Influence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA

Description

Recruited by British Intelligence to infiltrate the IRA and Sinn Féin during the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles, they were ‘agents of influence’. With codenames like INFLICTION, STAKEKNIFE, 3007 and CAROL, these spies played a pivotal role in the fight against Irish republicanism. Now, for the first time, some of these agents have emerged from the shadows to tell their compelling stories. Agents of Influence takes you behind the scenes of the secret intelligence war which helped bring the IRA’s armed struggle to an end.

Historian Aaron Edwards, the critically acclaimed author of UVF: Behind the Mask, explains how the IRA was penetrated by British agents, with explosive new revelations about the hidden agendas of prominent republicans like Martin McGuinness and Freddie Scappaticci and lesser-known ones like Joe Haughey and John Joe Magee. Bringing to light recently declassified TOP SECRET documents and the firsthand testimonies of agents and their handlers, Edwards reveals how British Intelligence gained extraordinary access to the IRA’s inner circle and manipulated them into engaging with the peace process.

With new insights into the spy masters behind the scenes, their strategies and tactics, and Britain’s international intelligence network in Northern Ireland, Europe, and beyond, Agents of Influence offers a rare and shocking glimpse into the clandestine world of secret agents, British intelligence strategy and the betrayal at the heart of militant Irish republicanism during the vicious decades of the Troubles.

Contents:

Dramatis Personae

Preface

Prologue: In the Zone

1. The War against Terrorism
2. Inside the Stormont KGB
3. Operation ARTICHOKE
4. The Oldfield System
5. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
6. The Derry Falange
7. An Honourable Cause
8. Project 3702
9. A Soldier’s Mentality
10. Championing the Bullet and Ballot Box
11. Fighting Britain in her own Home
12. The McGuinness Half Hour
13. The Frank Murray Show
14. Agents Within
15. The Man in the Arena
16. The Button Job
17. Gripping the IRA
18. Fools Handling Fools
19. Not an Absolute Science
20. ‘The madness was so real you could touch it’
21. A 3D War

Epilogue: Collecting People

Provisional IRA Structures (circa 1980s)

British Intelligence Structures (circa 1980s)

About The Author:

Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester. He is the author of several books, including Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of Empire (2014) and UVF: Behind the Mask (2017). His work has featured in The Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph, Belfast News Letter and The Irish News.