Spying On Ireland

Irish neutrality during the Second World War presented Britain with significant challenges to its security. Exploring how British agencies identified and addressed these problems, Eunan O'Halpin casts fresh light on the significance of both espionage and cooperation between agencies for developing wider relations between the two countries.

In 1943 Martin Quigley was one of three intelligence agents sent to Ireland to evaluate Ireland's neutrality during World War II, or the Emergency as it was euphamistically termed by the Irish. The only agent to retain his cover (as a representative of the U.S. film industry), his mission was to confirm or deny the widely-held view that Ireland was unhelpful to the Allies and even pro-German, a sentiment that still remains in the former Allied countries today.

One of the Irish Times' Books of the Year, 2008 Rebellion, partition and a messy peace settlement ensured that Ireland was a constant thorn in Britain's side after 1916. Britain was confronted by the bombs and bullets of militant republicans, the clandestine intrigues of foreign powers and the strategic dangers of Ireland's wartime neutrality - a final, irrevocable step in the country's difficult transition to independence. Using newly-opened archives, this book reveals for the first time how the British intelligence system responded to these threats. It lifts the lid on the underground activities of Britain's secret agencies - MI5, MI6/SIS and the Special Branch. It puts secret intelligence in the context of the government's other sources of information and explores how deep-rooted cultural stereotypes distorted intelligence and shaped perceptions. And it shows how, for decades, British intelligence struggled to cope with Ireland but then rose to the challenge after 1940, largely because the Dublin government began to share its secrets. The author casts light on characters long kept in the shadows - IRA gunrunners, Bolshevik agitators, Nazi agents, Irish loyalists who acted as British spies. His compelling book fills a gap in the history of the British intelligence community and helps explain the twists and turns of Anglo-Irish relations during a time of momentous change. PAUL MCMAHON gained his PhD from Cambridge University.

Documented study of the German espionage effort in Ireland during the Second World War, based on official sources and on conversations with surviving protagonists.

Orphan Johnny Dunne has fled Balbriggan, where he spied for the rebels in Ireland's War of Independence. Now he has a new and even more dangerous mission. Rebel leader Michael Collins engages in a cut-throat secret war with British Intelligence: and Johnny, Ireland's youngest spy at only fourteen years of age, finds himself at the centre of the action. In a Dublin full of gunmen, soldiers, police informers and the dreaded Black and Tans, Johnny has to watch his every move. But it's hard to turn his back on the past, especially on his friendships with Alice Goodman, and with Stella Radcliffe, the daughter of a British officer, who risked her own life to save his. As the War of Independence grows more lethal, the three friends must decide where their loyalties lie. Then a secret from Johnny's past changes everything...

Based upon declassified papers first made available in 1999. These edited papers reveal the establishment and work of MI5's Irish section BIH, including its crucial liaison with Irish Army intelligence during World War II.