The activities of the IRA Security Unit

 In March 1983 I broached 'A prospectus for intelligence-led operations ' with Bernie O Connor,the Director of Intelligence of the Fermanagh Brigade.

Shortly afterwards I pointed out that we should not adopt the Walter Mitty-style unit type of organisational structure favoured by Adams.

I believed from the beginning in 'open warfare'.

To maintain a corps d'esprit other methods of not allowing the informer phenomenon to develop were in dire need of deployment.

Intelligence operations being a form of offence and attack,I believed that for the purpose of defence,a Security Unit was required.

I knew little of the subsequent work of this proposed Security Unit which I said should be delegated to those who specialised in this task.

In 1984-5 I wrote a Security Operations Handbook,a companion to the Intelligence Operations Handbook of 1983-4.

This was photocopied by Manus Maguire and given to British Military Intelligence in January 1985 to barter for his freedom and the original documents were handed over to Kathleen Gleeson in August 1987.

Maguire also gave the document to the IRA,I surmise,because In 1985 the Security Unit ramped up its activities (more than two years before I handed over the originals).

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The main task of the Security Unit within the IRA was to interrogate suspected double agents,kill informers who had had IRA men killed and deal with the criminal classes from whom informers were recruited. In the event,the activities of the Unit attracted much alarm amongst volunteers and violated the laws of lawful armed conduct, bringing the IRA into disrepute and entailing that the whole organisation had to be disbanded eventually.

The Security Unit drove out criminals from Catholic areas in association with other IRA units and armed groups of volunteers. 2 000 -3 000 criminals were given their marching orders under 'the 48-hour rule'. That rule I decided in the mid-eighties.