Through his long-term deception, Willie Carlin was partly responsible for setting the Provos on the path to political engagement that ultimately undermined their armed struggle and saw them embrace the ballot box," he said. However, he says that despite what he saw, he does not believe Mr McGuinness worked for British intelligence. McGuinness then confided in Carlin, telling him: “Well, I don’t know about policy, but it would certainly go against the grain. The Scots were disenfranchised, just the same as the Irish. The English took away their language and killed off their culture, so I think it’s more a principle than a policy.” Metaphorically, you don’t put a bullet in the head of your cousin – you just don’t do that,” Carlin told The Herald on Sunday. “There were too many imponderables – the ferry, the support, the safe houses, shooting a policeman who might have had nationalist sympathies, a lot of Glasgow policemen have connections to Ireland.” But Stakeknife saved him with a message to his bosses about what was going to happen to Carlin, who was flown out of Derry in Mrs Thatcher’s private jet — a move that still amazes him. But he believes it was prompted by a concern that he was going to give up crucial secrets to the IRA.

NARRATOR: But Shorty had bigger problems than girl trouble. On the evening of February the 2nd, 1977, a man called Jeffrey Agate was shot outside his home by IRA gunmen. Agate was the managing director of the DuPont chemical factory in Derry. By the late 1970s, the IRA was flirting with a new, anti-capitalist ideology. Their belief at the time was that any company that contributed to the Northern Irish economy was, in essence, helping the British and, therefore, the enemy. And it looked

Maybe I've rose-tinted glasses on, but I believe I did good in the community. I also played a part in getting volunteers off the army road and down the democratic road, when they all entered the city council," he says. NARRATOR: Doreen, it transpired, was a member of the Cumann na mBan, the women’s IRA. Her role as a gun carrier worked like this: a young Republican would collect his weapon from a safe house, fire a few shots at his target, and flee the scene before he could be captured or killed. He would find Doreen or someone like her. Doreen would take the weapon or ammunition and the IRA man would disappear. Doreen would bring the contraband home, concealed beneath her maxi skirt. Sometimes a gun would be hidden beneath a baby’s buggy. Nobody suspects a young mother. This is the reality of guerrilla warfare. Nobody is exempt and nobody is above suspicion. Even so, excluding his sister, the next three years were fairly uneventful in terms of intelligence Willie could provide. The intelligence was passed up the line to London and an MI5 officer came to debrief Carlin on “the Celts of Scotland”. The MI5 officer, who Carlin refers to as “Stephen”, told him: “That’s a real gem of a piece of information you know, Willie.” Carlin asked him why the intelligence was important and was told: “It’s the first time it’s ever been confirmed.” Later in the book Mr Carlin says that despite what he saw, and claims subsequently made by former FRU handler Ian Hurst, he does not believe Mr McGuinness worked for British intelligence.

I think the British became aware sooner than the public imagined that here was a man that they could do business with.” Frank had to take the Manchester United job, didn’t he?” said Willie. “Jimmy came in, but then (in September 1971) Jimmy Sirrel signed me for Notts County. There were a lot of young lads there and, after just missing promotion to the Second Division in 1972, we won promotion in 1973.” He said McGuinness was reluctant to stand, but McLaughlin and Adams worked on him. Carlin said that the IRA “considered McGuinness their man” and that McGuinness worked hard to keep them on side, including the more hardline elements.a b "Willie's Rams medal snatched by thieves". Derby Telegraph. 29 April 2011 . Retrieved 2 August 2016. Mr Carlin said that one of his London-based MI5 handlers, Stephen, had told him that IRA men facing jail if convicted on the word of supergrass Raymond Gilmour could escape because of political “guidance”. Carlin worked for MI5 but later moved to work for the British army’s undercover Force Research Unit (FRU) which was responsible for handling former UDA intelligence officer Brian Nelson, who provided information which was later used to target Catholics. NARRATOR: Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission, you’ll hear the true stories behind the world’s greatest espionage operations. You’ll meet the people who navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? Born into a devout Catholic family, he contemplated joining the priesthood as a teenager but was talked out of it.

WILLIE CARLIN: I mean, I was going to leave anyway and go home to Derry. So I thought: “Well, why not?” His book details one road trip to Omagh, where McGuinness opened up and, at one point, the talk turned to Scotland. McGuiness said it would “go against the grain” for any action by the movement there. Willie spent three seasons at Carlisle. The Blues were promoted as Third Division champions at the end of Willie’s first season, more than held their own in the second tier the following season and then missed promotion to the top flight by one place in the season after that. One of Willie’s team-mates at Carlisle was the future Leicester City cult hero, the centre-forward, Frank Large.This dramatic story begins and ends Carlin’s book, Thatcher’s Spy — My Life as an MI5 agent inside Sinn Féin. Carlin came from a republican, working-class family in Derry, but he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the British Army in the mid-1960s. In the early months of living in England, he found himself battling the withdrawals of such a high. He said he feels responsible as he sent Ms Mathers to the house where she was killed and says she is never far from his thoughts. Mr Carlin also revealed that he was told that he and Nelson only lived a mile apart in the same Welsh town after they were relocated by British intelligence.

The gunman smashed through a glass door as he chased Ms Mathers into the house before shooting her a second time. In his new book, 'Thatcher’s Spy: my life as an MI5 agent inside Sinn Féin’ Willie Carlin reveals that he spoke with Ms Mathers just minutes before she was killed. a b c d e f g h i "Willie Carlin newspaper interview". LFCHistory (source) . Retrieved 2 August 2016. After we’d been promoted, we beat Liverpool 4-0 at Anfield on a Bank Holiday. All my Liverpool supporting family went, they couldn’t believe it. After the game I went to this big pub outside Anfield. My family were there and wouldn’t speak to me! Willie Carlin

Feeding back political intelligence

There is a wee second hand bookshop not too far from Daniel O’Donnell’s home place of Kincasslagh where if you go in you’ll find a very pleasant woman with a strange accent – I have never been able to place where she’s from – who plays haunting classical music.