Agents of Influence: The shadowy figures who fed IRA information to Britain’s deep state

Despite the dangers and unspeakable punishments if caught, there was no shortage of double agents willing to infiltrate the IRA during the Troubles

Gerry Adams with Martin McGuinness at the funeral of East Tyrone IRA commander Patrick Kelly, who was killed in the Loughgall massacre in May 1987. Picture: PA

HISTORY

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

By Aaron Edwards

Merrion Press, €19.95

Anyone who spied on the Provisional IRA would have been well advised to take out some life insurance. “If republican activists go over to the other side,” Martin McGuinness told a BBC reporter at the height of the Troubles, “then they, more than anyone else, are totally aware of what the penalty for doing that is.”

“Death?” asked ...