Stormontgate

Stormontgate is the name given to the controversy surrounding an alleged

spy ring and intelligence-gathering operation based in Stormont, the parliament building of Northern Ireland. The term was coined in October 2002 after the arrest of Sinn Féin's Northern Ireland Assembly group administrator Denis Donaldson

, his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney, and former porter William Mackessy for intelligence-gathering on 4 October 2002.

Immediate repercussions

Ten days after the arrests, devolved government in Northern Ireland collapsed. The raid involved "scores" of Police Service of Northern Ireland officers who entered the building to remove two computer disks from the Sinn Féin offices. Thousands of documents were reportedly discovered by the police in Donaldson's Belfast home.

Charges dropped

On 8 December 2005 the charges against all three men were dropped by the

Provisional IRA announced on 26 September 2005.^{[citation needed}

]

British agent

On 16 December 2005, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams announced to a press conference in Dublin that Donaldson had been a spy in the pay of MI5 for over twenty years. This was confirmed by Donaldson in a statement to broadcast media outlet RTÉ shortly afterwards.

In his statement Donaldson described the alleged Sinn Féin spy ring in Stormont as "a scam and a fiction".

Police Ombudsman, who ruled that the raid was not politically motivated. O'Loan found that the "decision to seek a warrant authorising a search of a specific desk in the Sinn Féin offices was reasonable, proportionate and legal" but was critical of the number of vehicles used and the scale of the police operation.^[4] Normally the Ombudsman's office is given access to all relevant codenames and reports relating to informants.^{[citation needed}

] O'Loan was unaware that Donaldson was an informant. Following the public unmasking of Donaldson, O'Loan stood by her 2004 judgement on the search.

Political fallout

Both the

British governments have ruled out inquiries into the controversy. Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) of the Republic of Ireland Mary Harney said: "I think the last thing we probably need right now is some form of inquiry which may not get very far".^[5] British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain described the unfolding scandal as turbulent, but said that inquiries "cost hundreds of millions of pounds. I am not going down that road when it is quite clear that it is not in the public interest to do so.^[6] Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described events surrounding the incident as "bizarre".^[7]

Immediately after the December revelation, unidentified security sources said that a second informer acting independently of Donaldson disclosed the alleged spy ring.[8] ^{[citation needed]} Former IRA prisoner and critic of Gerry Adams, Anthony McIntyre, has claimed that a more important British agent is operating in the organisation and that Donaldson was sacrificed by Sinn Féin to deceive people into thinking that the most serious infiltration had been ended.^[9]

However, Donaldson denied the existence of any sort of spy ring, stating "The plan was to collapse the institutions to save Trimble. David Trimble was trying to out-DUP the DUP and in the end the DUP swallowed him up. The whole idea was to get Trimble off the hook and get republicans the blame. But it didn't work because Trimble is history now."^[10]

Donaldson killed

Since his admission, Donaldson had been living in the

Real IRA

used their Easter message to claim that they had killed Donaldson.

References

^ See BBC News Thursday, 8 December 2005 available here.
^ See Guardian newspaper 17 December 2005 available here.
^ See BBC News 17 December 2005 available here.
^ See Ombudsman statement for 1 August 2004 available here. Archived 21 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ See The Irish Times 19 December 2005 available here.
^ See Guardian 20 December 2005 available here.
^ See comments of Bertie Ahern available here.
^ [1]^{[dead link]}
^ See The Telegraph report for 20 December 2005 available here^{[dead link]}.
^ "'Spy' Donaldson living in Donegal". Derry Journal. Archived from the original on 14 July 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2010.
^ See Irish Times report 5 April 2006 available here^{[dead link]}.

[1] See BBC News Thursday, 8 December 2005 available here.

[2] See Guardian newspaper 17 December 2005 available here.

[3] See BBC News 17 December 2005 available here.

[4] See Ombudsman statement for 1 August 2004 available here. Archived 21 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine

[5] See The Irish Times 19 December 2005 available here.

[6] See Guardian 20 December 2005 available here.

[7] See comments of Bertie Ahern available here.

[8] [1]^{[dead link]}

[9] See The Telegraph report for 20 December 2005 available here^{[dead link]}.

[10] "'Spy' Donaldson living in Donegal". Derry Journal. Archived from the original on 14 July 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2010.

[11] See Irish Times report 5 April 2006 available here^{[dead link]}.

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[5]

[6]

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[9]

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