The family of murdered republican informer Denis Donaldson has accused the Irish government of “double standards” after Justice Minister Helen McEntee turned down a request for an independent judge-led commission of inquiry into his death.
The former republican prisoner and senior Sinn Féin official was shot dead in Co Donegal in April 2006. The now defunct Real IRA later claimed responsibility.
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Months before his death Mr Donaldson admitted working as an MI5 informer within the republican movement for many years.
In 2002 he was arrested in connection with an alleged Stormont spy ring and had been accused along with two other men of gathering information about the Northern Ireland Office and from local political parties.
The then fragile political arrangements at Stormont collapsed a short time later.
In December 2005, all charges linked to ‘Stormontgate’ were dropped, as a prosecution was “not in the public interest”.
Donaldson was then revealed as an informer and later shot dead.
In 2022 Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson said there was a “corporate failing” on the part of the PSNI before his murder.
While her investigation found no evidence that the PSNI leaked information about the former Sinn Féin man’s location prior to his killing, Ms Anderson concluded that police should have carried out a further risk assessment when media reports revealed he was in hiding in a remote cottage in Co Donegal after he was revealed as an agent.
To date his inquest has been adjourned 27 times.
In 2021 a group of human rights figures wrote to Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee supporting the Donaldson family in calls for a judge-led commission to be established to review all information held about the events that led to Mr Donaldson’s exposure and murder.
Mr Donaldson’s family has now been told the request for an independent probe had been refused.
They say that in recent correspondence Ms McEntee suggested that “in the light of an active ongoing criminal investigation” by Gardai the she does not believe “that it would be prudent to consider the establishment of a commission of enquiry in this jurisdiction”.
Mr Donaldson’s daughter Jane highlighted the contradiction in the Irish government’s approach.
“The Irish Government is publicly demanding an Article 2 (right to life) compliant approach to legacy cases in the north of Ireland while it continues to refuse to provide an Article 2 compliant investigation into my father’s murder,” she said.
“In two decades since my father’s murder, no Irish government minister has been willing to meet my family and account for its double standards and differential treatment.”
The grieving daughter suggests that unlike notorious British agent Freddie Scappaticci, who was known by the codename Stakeknife, her father was not protected.
“Whilst others - like agent Stakeknife - were shielded and shepherded away to safety, my father was left exposed and given no protection,” she said.
“State agencies and officials in both jurisdictions were complicit in that and it is in the public interest to uncover the truth in an open, robust and transparent manner capable of commanding public confidence.”
