The Observer - 11.08.2019

• The Observer
  26 11.08.19 News

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Revealed: priest’s role in

quelling 1970s IRA violence

In 1993, a year before the IRA fi rst
laid down its arms, the existence of a
secret “back channel” between Martin
McGuinness and MI6 was revealed on
the front page of the Observer.
The so-called Derry Link – which
connected the British government
with the Provisionals ’ leadership via
a former priest – eventually led to the
IRA’s cessation of violence a year later.
At the time the revelation was sen-
sational. But a new book on the out-
break of the Troubles 50 years ago

this month shows it had in fact existed

long before, and had been used to

stop specifi c IRA attacks even during

the earliest years of the confl ict.

Denis Bradley , a cleric who more

than 20 years later organised cov-

ert talks between McGuinness and

MI6 offi cers, passed on advice from

Derry’s chief police offi cer that the

Provisionals should call off certain

shootings and bombings in the early

1970s, according to the book.

In Fifty Years On by the Belfast jour-

nalist Malachi O’Doherty , Bradley says

he and a Royal Ulster Constabulary

veteran, Frank Lagan , convinced the

local IRA to cancel operations as they

knew they had been compromised by

special branch via its informers.

Refl ecting on his relationship with

Lagan, Bradley says: “He and I became

fairly, well, ‘close’ – a strange word

because Lagan was not the kind of

guy you could have a close emotional

contact with, but I was very trusting

of him and he of me.”

Bradley, who was ordained in 1970

but gave up the priesthood at the end

of that decade, was also trusted by

McGuinness , then a rising star in the

emerging Provisional IRA T who went

on to become Sinn Féin’s chief nego-

tiator in the peace process. Lagan

thought he could use his contacts to

stymie some attacks.

It was not straightforward: in the

book Bradley claims Lagan told him

that RUC special branch knew about

some upcoming IRA operations but

let some go ahead – probably to pro-

tect informers. Nonetheless, Bradley

says, he and Lagan sent messages

to the IRA that halted a number of

attacks. He refuses to specify which.

“I also was aware through Lagan

of the diffi culty with Special Branch

because he was informing me quite

often of how diffi cult it was. He used

me on occasions to get things stopped

because special branch would have let

it go ahead and people would have

ended up dead,” he says.

Bradley went on to become vice-

chairman of the Northern Ireland

Policing Board in the early 2000s.

Lagan was the RUC’s chief superin-

tendent in Derry at the time of the

Bloody Sunday march in 1972.

He proposed marchers be allowed

through to Derry’s city centre, and

later argued the violence which left

13 unarmed protesters dead – could

have been “relatively contained” if

that had occurred. Through Bradley,

Lagan was given assurances from

the Provisional and Offi cial IRA that

there would be no guns at the protest.

Lagan died last year aged 88.

Henry McDonald

New book claims cleric

helped halt attacks during

earliest years of Troubles

Denis Bradley in

2017. The former
      cleric’s role in
      the Derry Link
      was revealed by
      the Observer in


2018. PA

Police have been sent in to quell

mounting levels of violence inside

one of Britain’s most notorious young

offender institutions, triggering con-

cerns that its staff cannot control the

gangs operating within it.

A fi ve-strong team of offi cers has

been dispatched to help bring order

to the troubled Feltham site, the

Observer has learned.

Concerns about the west London

institution were confirmed by a

recent report from the chief inspec-

tor of prisons who warned that there

had been an “extraordinary” decline

in safety and care at Feltham, which is

home to about 100 offenders.

Now, in a letter to the Labour peer

Lord Ponsonby , justice minister Lord

Keen has confi rmed that police “have

been reintroduced to London pris-

ons (including Feltham YOI) by way

of fi ve police offi cers with a specifi c

focus on addressing gang member-

ship and violence”.

Keen added: “A signifi cant propor-

tion of the work of this team will be

taking place at Feltham, which has

included investigating a number of

incidents, including acts of concerted

indiscipline, that have happened at

the establishment in recent months.

This work is part of wider efforts to

tackle and address gang issues and

violence within London.”

In his report last month Peter

Clarke, the chief inspector of pris-

ons , said the past six months had

brought “what can only be described

as a collapse in performance and out-

comes for the children being held in

Feltham A. The speed of this decline

has been extraordinary”.

The report found that there were

very high levels of violence, a high use

of staff force, poor care, long periods

of cell lock-up and escalating self-

harm. The situation is considered to

be so serious that offenders are no

longer being sent to Feltham.

Peter Dawson, director of the Prison

Reform Trust , questioned what the

decision to send in police said about

Feltham and the wider issue of tack-

ling violence in jails. Reports have

also highlighted gang problems at

London’s Pentonville, Thameside and

Isis prisons.

“Safety and order within a prison

is the day-to-day responsibility of

the governor and prison staff, not the

police,” Dawson said. “The recent dis-

tressing inspection report on Feltham

stands in stark contrast to a very pos-

itive recent report about a larger, but

otherwise similar, young offender

institution in the north of England.

“This huge discrepancy in the qual-

ity of care demands the urgent atten-

tion of a new justice secretary .”

Frances Crook, chief executive of

the Howard League for Penal Reform ,

said there was an urgent need to

rethink problems presented by youth

gangs. “ Putting more police into jails

is not going to solve a problem there

you have failed to solve in the com-

munity; you have to be a bit cleverer.”

The Ministry of Justice said:

“Prisons in London are being sup-

ported by specialist police offi cers

to help tackle gang-related violence.

They work alongside our staff to iden-

tify those involved and help them

turn their backs on crime.”

Police team is sent

into youth prison to

tackle gang violence

Jamie Doward

POLITICS

Ukip elects new

party leader

Richard Braine has been

elected as the new leader of

Ukip after taking more than

half the vote, a party spokes-

man confi rmed. In a ballot

of members, the chairman

of the party’s West London

branch received 53% of the

vote – more than double that

of his closest rival. PA

News

in brief

ENVIRONMENT

‘Pollution’ turns

river neon blue

A mysterious substance

that has turned the tribu-

tary of a river bright blue

is being investigated by the

Environment Agency. Tests

are being carried out on

the River Frome, above, in

Somerset. The agency said on

Twitter it was treating it as

a suspected “pollution inci-

dent”. There are no reports of

dead wildlife. The test results

are due out tomorrow.

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