Newton Emerson: Stakeknife case will cut into comforting narratives
High-profile trials may expose British security’s management of paramilitaries
Alfredo “Freddie” Scappaticci in 1987: Stakeknife was the code-name for a British army agent inside the IRA, identified as Scappaticci. Scappaticci denies the claims. Photograph: Pacemaker Press
The power of the Stakeknife story to upset comforting histories in Northern Ireland can be gauged by the range of people who never mention it. Prominent rights groups, justice campaigns and parties across the political spectrum have little or nothing to say on what is alleged to be the worst single scandal of the Troubles, involving British state collusion in over 50 IRA murders.
In 2003, the Sunday People alleged Stakeknife was the code-name for a British army agent inside the IRA, identified as Freddie Scappaticci, head of the IRA’s internal security unit, responsible for torturing and murdering suspected informers from the early 1980s.