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, and 3007, 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 and betrayed, with explosive new revelations about the hidden agendas of leading figures like Martin McGuinness, John Joe Magee and Freddie Scappaticci, and how British Intelligence was able to read the minutes of the IRA’s top-secret meetings before they were distributed to its membership.

With extraordinary profiles of Britain’s top spy masters, their strategies and tactics, as well as the role of MI5, the RUC and SAS in deadly covert action missions, Agents of Influence offers a rare and shocking glimpse into the hidden world of secret agents and British intelligence strategy 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 NewsLetter and The Irish News.