Donaldson buried in Belfast after family funeral

Murdered Denis Donaldson, the Sinn Féin official turned British spy, was buried in West Belfast today following a private family…

Murdered Denis Donaldson, the Sinn Féin official turned British spy, was buried in West Belfast today following a private family funeral.

The 56-year-old was shot dead in a remote cottage near Glenties, Co Donegal on Tuesday.

Donaldson's killing came four months after he sensationally revealed he had been a double agent for more than two decades.

His wife Alice, daughter Jane and sons Pearse and Denis Jnr led mourners during the requiem service in his former home in Aitnamona Crescent.

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Afterwards Donaldson's coffin was driven less than a mile to the City Cemetery where he was laid to rest.

Donaldson's family yesterday said they did not believe the IRA was responsible for his murder.

In a statement, released by Belfast law firm Madden and Finucane, they claimed their grief was the direct result of the activities of the Special Branch and British Intelligence agencies.

The family also blamed the media for reporting details of Donaldson's new location in Ireland.

Sinn Féin's former head of administration was arrested in October 2002 amid allegations of a republican spy ring at the heart of the then Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid's office at Stormont.

But after a three-year legal battle, the charges were dropped last December.

In a remarkable twist, Donaldson, a one-time confidant of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, confessed he had been a British spy for more than 20 years.