Difference between revisions of "MI5 in Northern Ireland"

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==Direct Rule==
 
==Direct Rule==
 
Following the advent of direct rule in 1972, an [[Irish Joint Section]] was established in London and Belfast, manned by both MI5 and [[MI6]] officers.<ref>Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.621.</ref>  
 
Following the advent of direct rule in 1972, an [[Irish Joint Section]] was established in London and Belfast, manned by both MI5 and [[MI6]] officers.<ref>Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.621.</ref>  
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===MI5 officers in Northern Ireland===
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*[[David Ranson]] c.1980.<ref>Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.55.</ref>
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*[[Patrick Walker]] c.1980<ref>Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.55.</ref>
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*[[Hal Doyne-Ditmass]] - [[Director and Co-ordinator of Intelligence (Northern Ireland)]] c.1981-83.<ref>Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.</ref>
  
 
==External Resources==
 
==External Resources==

Revision as of 22:32, 4 February 2011

According to official historian Christopher Andrew, MI5 sent a liaison officer to Belfast during the IRA border campaign of 1958-1962.[1]

On 17 March 1966, Air Marshal Harold Maguire, deputy chief of the Defence Staff (Intelligence) raised the need for 'up to date information on the IRA threat' at a meeting of the Joint Intelligence Committee. However, the director-general of MI5 Martin Furnival Jones argued that the IRA represented a 'law and order' problem rather than a security one, and intelligence assistance should go through Special Branch. The Defence Operations Centre was suggested as a possible vehicle for this.[2]

On 6 November 1968, the Home Secretary James Callaghan asked MI5 for an up-to-date appreciation of the prospect of violence in Northern Ireland from the IRA. Deputy Director-General Anthony Simkins told the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Allen that this placed MI5 "in a rather Gilbertian situation as we derived our information from the [RUC] and had no independent coverage." An MI5 paper entitled "The Threat of Violence in Northern Ireland" was completed in December 1968.[3]

In the spring of 1969, an internal MI5 newsletter stated: "The total effort deployed by F. Branch in matters Irish was until recently confined to one part-time desk officer in F.1.C.[4]

On 25 April 1969, Simkins told the Official Committee on Northern Ireland that the RUC Inspector General had asked that MI5 send a liaison officer once again:

If we took up this suggestion we should probably get a very good idea of the reliability of the RUC's intelligence about the IRA. Allen said the Home Secretary approved of our doing so, and the meeting warmly endorsed the idea.[5]

An MI5 Security Liaison Officer (SLO) was accordingly posted to RUC headquarters at Knock near Belfast four days later. A full-time Irish desk was established in F1B at around the same time.[6]

Stella Rimington, then a junior assistant officer, wrote of this desk:

In fact at the Leconfield House end, it consisted of one experienced lady assistant officer and myself. We were supporting a small group who had gone to Northern Ireland to work with the RUC and to assess what MI5 should do."[7]

A new Security Liason Officer was appointed in July 1970.[8]

Direct Rule

Following the advent of direct rule in 1972, an Irish Joint Section was established in London and Belfast, manned by both MI5 and MI6 officers.[9]

MI5 officers in Northern Ireland

External Resources

  • MI5, Pat Finucane Centre

Notes

  1. ↑ Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.602.
  2. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terrorism, Andre Deutsch, 2003, p.136.
  3. ↑ Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.602.
  4. ↑ Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.602.
  5. ↑ Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.604.
  6. ↑ Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.604.
  7. ↑ Stella Rimington, Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5, 2002, p.105.
  8. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.618.
  9. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.621.
  10. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.55.
  11. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.55.
  12. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
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