Sean O'Callaghan
Sean O'Callaghan (10 October 1954 – 23 August 2017)[1] was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s worked against the organisation from within as a mole for the Irish Government with the Garda Síochána's Special Branch.
In the mid-1980s he left the IRA and subsequently voluntarily surrendered to British prosecution for actions he had engaged in as an IRA gunman in the 1970s. Following his release from imprisonment, he published a memoir detailing his life in
Former Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald described O'Callaghan as one of the Irish Government's most important spies operating within the Provisional IRA during the late 20th century's The Troubles.[2]
Early life
O'Callaghan was born on 26 January 1954, into a family with a
By the late 1960s, the teenaged O'Callaghan had ceased practising the Catholic faith, adopted
Soon afterwards, he was arrested by local
Provisional Irish Republican Army activity
After becoming a full-time paramilitary with the IRA, in the early to mid 1970s O'Callaghan took part in over seventy operations associated with
Irish Government agent within the IRA
In 1976, aged 22, O'Callaghan ended his involvement with the IRA after becoming disillusioned with its activities. He later recalled that his disenchantment with the IRA began when one of his compatriots openly hoped that a female police officer who had been blown up by an IRA bomb had been pregnant so they could get "two for the price of one."[11] He was also concerned with what he perceived was an undercurrent of ethnic hatred in its rank and file towards the Ulster Scots population. He left Ireland and moved to London. In May 1978, he married a Scottish woman of Protestant unionist descent.[12] During the late 1970s, he ran a successful mobile cleaning business.[13] However, he was unable to fully settle in his new life, later recalling: "In truth there seemed to be no escaping from Ireland. At the strangest of times I would find myself reliving the events of my years in the IRA. As the years went on, I came to believe that the Provisional IRA was the greatest enemy of democracy and decency in Ireland".[14]
In 1979 O'Callaghan was approached by the IRA seeking to recruit him again for its paramilitary campaign.[15] In response, he decided to turncoat against the organisation and become an agent within its ranks for the Irish Government. In his memoir, O'Callaghan described his reasoning as follows:
I had been brought up to believe that you had to take responsibility for your own actions. If you did something wrong then you made amends. I came to believe that individuals taking responsibility for their own actions is the basis for civilisation, without that safety net we have nothing.[16]
O'Callaghan later told authors Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphey that he decided to become a double agent even though he knew that even those who hated the IRA as much as he now did have a low opinion of informers; as he put it, "there is nothing worse in Ireland than being an informer." However, he felt it was the only way to stop the IRA from luring teenagers into their ranks and training them to kill.[11]
Soon after being approached by the IRA to re-join he returned to
During the
In 1984 he notified the Garda of an attempt to smuggle seven tons of
O'Callaghan claimed to have been tasked in 1983 by the IRA with placing 25
In 1985, O'Callaghan was elected as a Sinn Féin councillor for Tralee Urban District Council, and unsuccessfully contested a seat on Kerry County Council.[citation needed]
Imprisonment
After becoming disillusioned with his work with the Irish Government after the murder of another of its agents within the IRA (Sean Corcoran in
Although the Royal Ulster Constabulary offered him
Post-IRA life
In 1998 O'Callaghan published an autobiographical account of his experiences in Irish Republican paramilitarism, entitled The Informer: The True Life Story of One Man's War on Terrorism (1998). In the book's text he stated (shortly before the death of Eamon Collins, another former IRA member who had prominently turned upon the organisation):
I know that the organisation led by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness would like to murder me. I know that that organisation will go on murdering other people until they are finally defeated. It is my belief that in spite of IRA/Sinn Féin's strategic cunning, and no matter how many people they kill, the people of the Irish Republic expect, because they have been told so by John Hume, that there will be peace. There may come a time when their patience runs out. If that were to happen there would be no place for IRA/Sinn Féin to hide. We must work tirelessly to bring that day forward.[26]
O'Callaghan lived relatively openly in London for the rest of his life, having refused to adopt a new identity. He was befriended in the city by the Irish writer
In 2006, O'Callaghan appeared in a London court with regard to an aggravated robbery that had occurred in which he was the victim.[28]
In 2015 O'Callaghan published James Connolly: My Search for the Man, the Myth & his Legacy (2015), a book containing a critique of the early 20th century Irish revolutionary James Connolly, and what O'Callaghan considered to be his destructive legacy in Ireland's contemporary politics.[29]
Death
O'Callaghan died by drowning after suffering a heart attack at the age of 63 while in a swimming pool in
Disputed claims of O'Callaghan's accounts
Sources in Sinn Féin have publicly denied aspects of the statements made by O'Callaghan with regard to his IRA career, particularly the claim that he had attained the leadership of the IRA's Southern Command, and had been a delegate to the IRA Army Council, claims O'Callaghan made both in print and before a Dublin jury under oath. A 1997 article in An Phoblacht alleged that O'Callaghan "has been forced to overstate his importance in the IRA, and to make increasingly outlandish accusations against individual republicans".[32]
O'Callaghan also claimed to have attended an IRA finance meeting in
While O'Callaghan claimed to have quit being an informant after being disillusioned by the murder of Sean Corcoran, there remains suspicion that O'Callaghan may have been the perpetrator of Corcoran's death. O'Callaghan once claimed that the IRA had ordered him to kill Corcoran and that he did so to protect his cover, but he later repudiated this claim, stating he had only admitted to the murder to trigger a police investigation.[37][38]
Publications
- The Informer. Bantam Press. 1998. ISBN 978-0593042854.
- James Connolly: My Search for the Man, the Myth & his Legacy. Century. 2015. ISBN 978-1780894348.
References
- ^ “Sean O’Callaghan: Former Provisional IRA commander and informer“, The Irish Times (2 September 2017), www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/sean-o-callaghan-former-provisional-ira-commander-and-informer-1.3205149%3fmode=amp. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ "Sean O'Callaghan: Former Provisional IRA Commander & Informer (obituary)". Irish Times. 2 September 2017.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), pages 8-9.
- ^ Harnden, Toby (15 February 1997). "The smearing by the green". The Spectator. p. 16. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
- ^ a b c Sean O’Callaghan, high-ranking IRA bomb maker turned informant, 'The Independent' 28 August 2017.
- ^ 'The Royal Irish - The Irish Soldier in Service to the Crown' website. Account of the attack on the UDR Clogher base on 2 May 1974. https://www.royal-irish.com/events/first-female-soldier-udr-pte-eva-martin-killed-ira-clogher
- ^ 'James Connolly, My Search for the Man, the Myth and his Legacy', by S. O'Callaghan (Pub. Century, 2015), pp. 226–7.
- ISBN 0-552-14607-2
- ^ Photo of Peter Flanagan, Victor Patterson website (2018). https://victorpatterson.photoshelter.com/image/I0000rCF7LUZXkrE
- ^ O'Callaghan, pp. 103–13
- ^ ISBN 9780393087727.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), pp. 87–89.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), pp. 88–89.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998).
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), p. 90.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), p. 89.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), pp. 92–93.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), p. 95.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), p. 96.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), pp. 109–12.
- ^ The IRA informer who kept Gardaí on track in search for Shergar, Irish Examiner, 20 April 2000.
- ISBN 9-7815-6833-1843.
- ^ a b Whitaker, James, "John and Norma aghast at wedding", Daily Mirror, 23 May 1998
- ^ O'Callaghan, p. 197
- ^ O'Callaghan, pp. 307–09.
- ^ O'Callaghan (1998), p. 316.
- ^ "Ex-informer defends RUC against critics". Newsletter. Belfast. 25 January 2007.
- ^ Dudley-Edwards, Ruth (27 August 2006). "Revealed, the naked truth about me, the IRA whistle-blower & the gay bondage orgy". The Independent. Eire.
- ^ "Sean O'Callaghan, how I lost my faith in James Connolly". Irish Times. 25 November 2015.
- ^ "IRA informer and author Sean O'Callaghan dies aged 62". Irish Independent. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
- ^ "Son pleased at recognition of O'Callaghan for fighting terror". News Letter. Belfast. 22 March 2018.
- ^ "O'Callaghan - the truth". An Phoblacht. 27 February 1997. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
- Daily Telegraph. 18 April 2003. Archived from the originalon 16 April 2008. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
- ^ "The Terrorist's Brief". The Spectator. 21 October 2000. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ Owen Bowcott (13 December 2010). "Wikileaks cable describes legacy of distrust left by Finucane killing". The Guardian.
- ^ "Adams denies IRA book allegations". BBC News. 22 September 2002. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
- ^ Vincent Browne (8 January 1997), "Murderer served IRA and Garda but mostly himself", The Irish Times, retrieved 29 June 2019
- ^ Harrison Smith (25 August 2017), "Sean O'Callaghan, IRA assassin turned informant, dies at 62", The Washington Post, retrieved 29 June 2019
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0862787691
- The Sunday Business Post
- O'Callaghan, Sean The Informer, Corgi Books (1999); ISBN 0-552-14607-2