One of the great feuds in Irish politics is between the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin. Their mutual loathing is unmissable. It surfaced again during the week when the Dáil debated the Kenova report on Stakeknife, the British agent in the IRA’s internal security unit during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Stakeknife was Freddie Scappaticci, which everyone has known for years, though the British government continues to refuse to confirm or deny he worked for them. Micheál Martin named him in the Dáil on Wednesday.
Scappaticci’s handlers in the British security services allowed him to continue his operations for many years, in effect sacrificing his victims in order to protect his cover. So he and other IRA volunteers abducted, tortured and murdered people they suspected, or someone suspected, of being disloyal. They were investigators, interrogators, judge, jury and executioners.
The battered bodies of those who had been tortured, found guilty and executed were typically dumped in public places to serve as a warning to everyone, not just about the consequences of being a “tout”, but about falling foul of the IRA. Some were dumped secretly, some have never been found. The fact that the IRA killed more Catholics than the British army during the Troubles may be an inconvenient fact for the Kneecap generation, but it is a fact nonetheless.
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In his speech, Martin pointed out that Scappaticci’s crimes – for which Sinn Féin was blaming the British authorities – were carried out for the IRA, on the orders or with the consent of its leaders on the army council.
Yes, he said, the British army’s knowledge of what Scappaticci was doing was “utterly abhorrent and shocking” – but what he was doing was part of the IRA’s campaign, intended to instil a brutal discipline within its own ranks and fear within the nationalist community. It’s an irrefutable point.
None of the Sinn Féin TDs who spoke on the debate once mentioned the IRA. The Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe called for a “truth commission”, long a demand of the party. But what would Gerry Adams say to the commission? That he wasn’t in the IRA?
Micheál vs the Shinners will have plenty more outings, you can be sure of that. But the shadows of history are not only perceived by the Fianna Fáil leader. In an even-handed speech, Labour leader Ivana Bacik saw them too.
“This is not about partial truths; it is about full truth and honesty. I listened to the Sinn Féin leader. We need to hear full truth and honesty in this House,” she said.
Bacik has been appearing at Mary Lou McDonald’s elbow a fair bit in the last year, but there is a sizeable chunk of her party discomfited by that. Perhaps it is in recognition of their unease that Bacik has decided to remind people that honesty about the past is a prerequisite to learning from it.
The conversion of the republican movement to exclusively democratic means of advancing its objectives has been an overwhelmingly positive development in Irish politics. But there has also been a concerted effort to fashion the narrative of the past in a way that glosses over the brutality and depravity of what was done in the name of the Irish people – without ever consulting them and in flagrant contravention of their repeated choices, democratically expressed, in both parts of the island. It is right that the dirty war of the British security services should be brought out of the darkness and into the light. But the same standard should apply to republicans, too.
The shadows of history no longer loom over Irish politics in the way they once did. But it would be folly to forget the mistakes and unjust to ignore the misdeeds of the past.
Violence in politics can come in various guises.
The parties are beginning to line up candidates for the Dublin and Galway byelections in May. This week Gerard “The Monk” Hutch also announced that he would run in Dublin Central, having narrowly failed to win a seat at the general election.
As Conor Lally’s detailed reporting has laid out, Hutch has been a central figure in organised crime in Dublin. He was famously acquitted of the gangland murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel by the Special Criminal Court, but the court described him as the leader of the Hutch crime gang. It also concluded he was in control of three AK-47s, the weapons used in the Regency attack, afterwards when he gifted them to dissident republicans in the North.
He has been targeted twice by the Criminal Assets Bureau for the income derived from crime. The Hutch-Kinahan feud has left 18 people – so far – dead.
There will be a lot of talk in the coming months about a possible transfer pact between the parties of the left, as the coalition that elected Catherine Connolly to the presidency seeks to translate that achievement into the sort of electoral and political clout that might open up the prospect of a left-wing government. It will certainly be one of the things to watch.
The parties and their voters will also need to consider if Gerry Hutch is someone who should be in the national parliament. As it happens, our electoral system is perfectly designed for an effort designed to keep one candidate out; voters can indicate their preferences down the ballot paper, ensuring that their vote will go to anyone else. I am not in the habit of advising readers how to vote, but the people of Dublin Central have an important choice to make.
