16 Facts About Denis Donaldson

1.

Denis Martin Donaldson was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army and a member of Sinn Fein who was killed following his exposure in December 2005 as an informer in the employ of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

2.

Denis Donaldson joined the Irish Republican Army in the mid-1960s while still in his teens, well before the start of the Troubles.

3.

Denis Donaldson was a friend of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, and the two men served time together in Long Kesh for paramilitary offences in the 1970s.

4.

Denis Donaldson has been accused by an unnamed republican source of being part of the IRA team that carried out the La Mon restaurant bombing in 1978, one of the most notorious bomb attacks of the Troubles.

5.

In 1981, he was arrested by French authorities at Orly airport along with fellow IRA volunteer William "Blue" Kelly; the duo were using false passports and Denis Donaldson said that they were returning from a guerrilla training camp in Lebanon.

6.

At the 1983 general election, Denis Donaldson was the Sinn Fein candidate in Belfast East, but only polled 682 votes.

7.

Martin Galvin, a Bronx-based Irish-American attorney and future dissident republican, later claimed that he had warned the republican movement's leadership that he suspected Denis Donaldson of being a British government informer.

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8.

On 16 December 2005, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams announced to a press conference in Dublin that Denis Donaldson had been an agent for British intelligence.

9.

Denis Donaldson stated that he was recruited after compromising himself during a vulnerable time in his life, but did not specify why he was vulnerable or why he would risk his life as an intelligence agent for the British Government in an area such as West Belfast.

10.

On 4 April 2006, Denis Donaldson was found shot dead inside a cottage where he had been living for several months, and which was owned by a relative.

11.

Denis Donaldson's body was found by Gardai after a passer-by reported seeing a broken window and a smashed-in door.

12.

The Republic's Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell initially said that Denis Donaldson had been shot in the head, and his right hand was badly damaged by gunshot.

13.

In May 2005, Minister McDowell advised a US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland that he believed the outing of Denis Donaldson as an informant was a clear message from the British Government that it had another, more valuable, source of information within the republican leadership.

14.

On 8 April 2006 Denis Donaldson was buried in Belfast City Cemetery, rather than at Milltown Cemetery, the more common burial place for republicans.

15.

The man in his 40s was released without charge but Gillespie was charged with having in his possession information regarding the involvement of another person in Denis Donaldson's killing, was granted bail and awaited trial.

16.

In 2019, Gardai announced they would be charging a man with the murder of Denis Donaldson, but did not release the name.