Michelle O’Neill Apologises as Report Exposes Role of IRA Undercover Agent

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill has apologised to the families of alleged informers who were murdered by the Provisional IRA after a report condemned the handling of an undercover agent. The interim findings of Operation Kenova, which examined 101 abductions and murders carried out by the IRA’s notorious Internal Security Unit (ISU)—known as the “nutting squad”—during the period in which an undercover agent known as Stakeknife was operating, were released on Friday. The ISU, led by Stakeknife, interrogated, tortured, and murdered several suspected informers during The Troubles. Although his identity has never been officially confirmed, Stakeknife was outed in the press as Freddie Scappaticci in 2003, a claim he consistently denied until his death in April 2023, aged 77....