Dead Man Running: A True Story of a Secret Agent's Escape from the IRA and MI5 (31 page)

I tackled Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams during a radio talk show earlier this year asking him when Sinn Fein/IRA were going to allow people like me to return in safety to Northern Ireland without fear of reprisals. His answer was evasive. That too made me realise that I had to keep my wits about me. I heard in May this year that MI5 had warned senior politicians, including several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, to take extra care over security for they feared the Provos were intent on launching a new wave of violence. But no one warned me. My Ma told me when she saw me lying in the hospital with bullet wounds all over my body, ‘Marty, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get away. You know the Provos will never give up trying to kill you, peace or no peace.’ I know she’s right; my Ma was always right. Now I must persuade the Home Secretary and the Northumbria Police to listen, take note and give me some protection.

Glossary

ASU Active Service Unit

BOX MI5/MI6

CAT Civil Administration Team – Provisional IRA Internal Security Unit

E4A Plain-clothes surveillance unit of the RUC

INLA Irish National Liberation Army

JIS Joint Irish Section of MI5

Peelers Police

Pigs Armoured personnel carriers

PIRA Provisional wing of Irish Republican Army

Provos Members of the Provisional wing of the IRA

RUC Royal Ulster Constabulary

Sinn Fein Political wing of the PIRA

SB Special Branch

TCG Tasking Co-ordination Group comprising of MI5, Special Branch, SAS and Military Intelligence officers

Tout IRA slang for an Informer

UCBT Under-car booby trap

VCP Vehicle check point

Martin McGartland is also the author of the Top Ten bestseller Fifty Dead Men Walking.