Vincent Browne: On the morning of Friday, October 4th, 2002, over 40 police officers, many of them dressed dramatically in antiseptic white overalls, raided the Sinn Féin offices at Stormont.
TV stations and photographers had been tipped off in advance which meant that the evening bulletins and the following day's newspapers had spectacular visuals to accompany their stories about the uncovering of a republican "spy ring".
Within a few days the DUP members of the Northern Executive had resigned and within a further few days the ministers of the UUP had gone as well. The institutions of the Belfast Agreement had collapsed.
The then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, said he had had advance knowledge of the police raid on the Sinn Féin offices at Stormont since the previous July. David Trimble said the raids were a vindication of his stance on the IRA. He said the affair was "bigger than Watergate".
Jeffrey Donaldson welcomed the police raid. Peter Robinson said the raids were a tangible proof of the links between the IRA and Sinn Féin. Ian Paisley said the raids were confirmation of his party's view: "IRA/Sinn Féin is not and never was committed to peaceful, democratic and non-violent means."
The Irish Times reported on October 5th, the day after the raids: "Not only can (the IRA) breach Special Branch security at Castlereagh but it can penetrate right to the political heart of the British government in Northern Ireland (according to police sources)."
Other reports claimed that confidential White House information, including transcripts of calls between the US President and Tony Blair had been acquired by the IRA. The Daily Telegraph claimed Sinn Féin had used intelligence during the negotiations at Weston Park in the summer of 2001.
It was claimed in this paper on October 9th, 2002 that "memos, documents and minutes involving figures such as Mr Tony Blair, Dr John Reid, Ms Jane Kennedy, the security minister, Lieut Gen Sir Alistair Irwin, head of the British army in the North, Mr David Trimble, and Dr Ian Paisley are said to be in IRA hands."
Denis Donaldson, the chief administrator at Sinn Féin's office at Stormont, and his son-in-law, Ciaran Kearney, were charged with having documents of a secret, confidential or restricted nature that originated in government offices. They were also charged with having documents likely to be of use to terrorists, following the "discovery"of documents at the home of Denis Donaldson.
Also charged were William Mackessy, a civil servant, and Fiona Farrelly, a west Belfast woman. It was claimed in relation to Fiona Farrelly that a laptop computer had been found in her home, which had saved on its disk details concerning prison officers. That latter charge was perhaps the most serious for it suggested an ongoing IRA strategy to target and eventually murder prison officers.
That was in October 2002, 16 months ago. Since then the peace process in Northern Ireland has been in crisis, with the institutions suspended.
There was a spectacular development in this case over three weeks ago which has got very little attention. All charges related to the alleged "spy ring" were dropped against the accused. Denis Donaldson and Ciaran Kearney remain charged with lesser offences, unconnected with the alleged "spy ring". All charges against Fiona Farrelly were dropped last December. Nobody is now charged with having information concerning prison officers that might be of use to terrorists.
No explanation has been forthcoming for the dropping of the major charges that captured such attention 16 months ago: those related to the "spy ring" and the prison officers.
So it now emerges that the institutions established under the Belfast Agreement were suspended because of claims that have now turned out to be unfounded - that there was evidence to ground criminal charges against Sinn Féin members for illegal possession of confidential documents and information that suggested an intention to target and murder prison officers.
And nobody thinks, apparently, there is anything odd about this.
It is of course possible that there was/is some evidence against those accused of involvement in a "spy ring", but evidence not sufficient to secure a conviction in court. If so, why were we not told that at the time?
Is it likely that the institutions would have imploded if it had been acknowledged that the evidence was threadbare?
And where are the confidential White House transcripts, the Weston Park intelligence, the memos and minutes involving Tony Blair, John Reid, Jane Kennedy, Lieut Gen Sir Alistair Irwin, David Trimble and Ian Paisley?
Who set up this caper and what was their intention?
Who leaked all this guff to the media?
John Reid says he knew about this "spy ring" three months before the raid, so he should be of assistance. Whoever was engaged in this scam subverted an agreement sanctioned by the vast majority of the people of Ireland. We should know who they were and for whom they were working.