"We will defend the integrity of the Republican struggle"

Bobby Storey has been described as the most influential spymaster in the Republican movement since Michael Collins. As recently as 2005, he was named in the House of Commons as the Provisional IRA’s Director of Intelligence – a title that would make him one of the key players in the Troubles.

However, Bobby Storey is reluctant to discuss his role within the organisation, describing himself instead as a “Republican activist”. It echoes the position taken by both Gerry Kelly and Martin McGuinness when they were interviewed by Hot Press in recent times.
Bobby Storey spent over 20 years in prison, but he was never convicted of anything more serious than being in possession of a rifle, which resulted in a staggering 18 year sentence. However, Storey was accused, tried and acquitted of a litany of terrorist acts, including murder, kidnapping and bombings – including an infamous bomb attack back in 1976 on the Skyways Hotel in Belfast.
“I was arrested for being part of the IRA’s economic bombing campaign,” Bobby says. “I was charged with causing an explosion at the Skyway Hotel. I was in jail on that occasion for a year, but I was acquitted of that.”
Soon afterwards, in 1979, Storey again hit the headlines when he and three others were arrested in London after the authorities became aware of an elaborate plot to hijack a helicopter in order to free IRA boss Brian Keenan, who was imprisoned at Brixton. Storey next hit the headlines when he masterminded the infamous Maze prison escape in 1983, which was the largest break-out of prisoners anywhere in Europe since World War II. He received an additional seven years for his part in the Maze escape. He was released from prison in 1998, following a two-year stint for allegedly having “information” on then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Hutton, and a British soldier. Again, he was acquitted of this charge, although while awaiting trial he was suspected of attempting to mastermind another mass break-out of the H-blocks.
Storey has been in and out of the headlines since his release some 11 years ago. He was accused of helping to mastermind the infamous robbery of £26.5 million from the Northern Bank, the largest ever bank job in Ireland. He was also said to be the brains behind the robbery of highly sensitive computer files and documents at the Belfast headquarters of the police service in Castlereagh in 2002. The sensitive documents included the names and addresses of all of the North’s Special Branch officers, their informers, and prison officer. It apparently cost the British government over £20 million to re-house their people on the list. The daring raid was described as the biggest intelligence disaster in Irish history. However, the IRA denied involvement.
Today, Bobby Storey is chairperson of Belfast Sinn Féin. He is active politically, as the party campaigns in the European elections North and South, and in the local elections in the Republic. Here, for the first time is Bobby’s story in his own words...

JASON O’TOOLE: What motivated you to get involved with the IRA?
BOBBY STOREY: We don’t really talk about IRA membership – we talk about Republican activism. There wasn’t really a strong Republican background ethos in our family, other than we voted Republican. There was no great history of activism. In 1969 we lived in north Belfast; it was an interface area – and we got put out of there by Loyalists. We moved to another interface area and we were forced out of there as well. And then I moved to west Belfast in 1972. But probably the greater influence on me – just in regard to the development of my own politics – were obviously the pogroms. I was living in Belfast when Loyalists bombed McGuirk’s Bar and 15 Catholics were killed. On reflection, I know that had a substantial impact on me because some of the people were friends and neighbours. And of course the massacre in Derry – Bloody Sunday – had a massive influence on me.

So how did you respond, in concrete terms?
There didn’t appear to be any other route or method of response or resistance other than to become a Republican activist. My father got involved in the local defence committee and my brother joined the IRA. He ended up in jail in 1971. I became a Republican activist in the summer of ’72. Harassment of youths my age was very common. The RUC and British army would have stopped, harassed and arrested people on a daily basis. In my own case, I was arrested over 20 times in a four month period. They tied me up once and threw me out on the Shankill Road; they beat me up at a chapel one night. My experience was no different from many other people’s experiences. These were the things that brought me to be a Republican activist.

You say pogroms, which is a normally associated with violence against Jews. Are you comparing the suffering of Catholics in Northern Ireland in some ways to that of Jews in Europe during the Second World War?
It was that bad because there was institutionalised sectarianism within the State. It wasn’t just Unionist or Loyalists mobs which were burning down areas of Nationalists in west or north Belfast – the crowds were either being accompanied or lead by the B Specials. If they weren’t being lead by them on occasions then they were standing by and watching.

Growing up, you must have hated Loyalists?
Hatred has never been a part of my outlook or perspective. I’ve never really hated anybody. I’m not driven by hatred or negative forces – I’m more motivated by what I can do about something. I’ve no sectarianism in me.

But wasn’t the conflict in Northern Ireland fuelled by a religious divide?
I’m not particularly motivated by religion. I don’t buy this British government idea that the problems in the North are to do with religion – a religious divide and so on. There are very clear political, historical and economic reasons for what’s gone on in the North. It’s not down to two particular groups from a religious perspective having a difficulty with one another and the British government are the thin line in between or the meat in the sandwich. I don’t buy all of that.

You were arrested approximately 24 times before the age of 16. What type of activities were you involved in?
The armed struggle in the early ‘70s was flat out. We were all a part of that. I was absolutely in the thick of it. We engaged the British army on the streets. That was the shape of my Republican activism. The British army came in – in Operation Motorman – and took over our local GAA clubs and some of our schools and made them British army bases. There were helicopters overhead every day. The British army were on patrol every day and the IRA engaged them – militarily; shot them; shot at them as often as they could. That was the atmosphere. That was the circumstances we were living in. I don’t really have any egocentric, subjective stories to tell about that. That was during the war. That was during the armed struggle. As the IRA statement has said in recent years, “The war’s over”. And I just leave it like that. I’m very much preoccupied by what’s going on around us now and what’s in front of us, rather than reflecting too much on the past.

You were then interned for two years shortly after your 17 birthday. Why?
As I became known as a Republican activist, I would have been arrested – on average – once or twice a week. I was too young to be interned; I could only be interned when I was 17. I got out in 1975 and I was arrested again in 1976. What did I do to be interned at 17? I was a victim like many other internees. Internment is one of the mast injustices across the history of the British presence in the North. When I was interned they did not provide any evidence against me; they did not charge me with anything. They had a special court. What they would do was get an RUC officer to come in behind a curtain and make a number of allegations to do with Republican involvement. And the so-called judge, who was usually from another Commonwealth country, would make a decision on whether you should be interned for a year or two years. Probably my most memorable night of internment was when we burnt Long Kesh down to the ground.

During the Troubles there was several murder and kidnapping allegations made against you, but you were acquitted of them all. I’m thinking you were either very good or very lucky, or the authorities were very stupid?
It was swings and roundabouts. I would say – like many other Republicans – I was very active. The British government had a determination to keep me off the street. They used internment and when they weren’t able to use internment again they would fabricate evidence. They framed me. They actually pretended that I said things under interrogation which I never said. By the time of the hunger strike, I had done maybe seven years in jail with no convictions – all on remand. Internment by remand.

If they were alleging that you’d done a dozen things, I’m sure you must have been involved in some of them. In the book The IRA 1968-2000: Analysis Of The Irish Army, the author J Bowyer Bell wrote that “police had ample indication that Storey was a gun man, good at his trade, without mercy, compunction, or moderation. He killed on order, was a valuable IRA asset in Belfast...”
Well, there’s been many things said about many people. All I can really say is that I was a Republican activist – like any other – and I was involved in all of that. It’s hard to quantify.

Were you prepared to die for your beliefs?
I’d much prefer if people lived for the cause. On reflection, I wanted to do all that I could – and I still want to do all I can – to remove the British presence from my country. As a Republican activist, I took risks – does that mean I was prepared to die? It’s not a concept that I really thought about. I have been fired at, I have been beaten and, more recently, I have been threatened by so-called dissident Republicans. Of course, you’re fearful. There’s no doubt that I was in fear every day or worried – especially for family, friends and comrades. So, yes, you’re aware of the fear – but those aren’t aspects that would divert you in any way from your activism or ideological commitments.

You were next arrested in ‘79 when the British authorities stumbled upon a complex helicopter escape mission for IRA boss Brian Keenan from a UK prison. They arrested you along with three others – but you were the only one acquitted at the Old Bailey. Why?
My position in relation to that case is that I was innocent. I was a passer-by. The special patrol group, as it was called at the time, came in through the windows and doors at 4 o’clock in the morning with flash lamps on. I’ll always remember being pinned to the bed by a police officer with a sawn-off shotgun and a flash lamp tied to it. I went through a trial and I was acquitted of it. But certainly there was a very determined IRA operation to get Brian out of jail.

Again, you were lucky to not receive a sentence for that.
You may describe me as a lucky man in that respect, but four months later I got 18 years for a gun battle with the British army. As I said, I suppose in many ways it’s swings and roundabouts in that regard. We were arrested after there was a shooting incident with the IRA and the British army. There was a British soldier shot. And within minutes of him being shot, I was in a car with two comrades and we were rammed by an RUC divisional mobile support unit. We drove off and they fired after the car. We were chased through Andersonstown and we avoided being rammed by a British army vehicle and then we were cornered and arrested with two rifles. We received 18 years for possession of the rifles. The type of sentences handed out for possession of weapons in those days, against Republicans, was far in excess to what was handed out to Loyalists. We were charged with shooting the soldier but we were acquitted of that. Our view was that even though we were only convicted for the rifles we were sentenced for the soldier.

According to Republican folklore, you masterminded the great escape from the Maze, which was the largest prison breakout since the Second World War.
I was the OC on the day of the escape. I was given the task by the leadership within the jail of coordinating the escape on the day. But I have to stress that it was completely a team effort. The biggest contribution to making that day so successful was the comradeship.

Did a lot of planning go into it?
People who don’t know much about the escape might think of it as a wham bam, run, attack and climb over the wall, or ram the gate type of action. But – in actual fact – it was a very complicated operation. We embarked on a deliberate strategy of relaxing the H-Blocks and relaxing the wings by having a more practical working relationship with the screws. That actually defused the tensions. It suited us because from a security point of view that gave us more psychological control and more territorial control within the wings and blocks. It also created a less alert climate amongst staff because they weren’t fearful of us attacking them, and so they naturally relaxed. Some of them actually stopped carrying their batons and grills, which were normally locked, would be left open. It created the perfect conditions for us to carry out what then became the biggest escape in British penal history.

Were you surprised that so many managed to escape?
The obstacles we had to face on the day were so substantial that I don’t think that any of us who had responsibility for the escape had thought about actually escaping to freedom. The obstacles were that great – we had to take over the block and manoeuvre through the jail, and we had to get the guns in previously. Many people had roles which involved them staying behind.

You were actually one of the first to be recaptured. I bet you were kicking yourself at that?
I was captured within an hour of the escape and I was brought to a punishment block and severally beaten, but I was absolutely enthused. My morale was sky high. You could not annoy me – being captured could not undermine the euphoria I was feeling that day. I was lying naked and battered and all I could think of doing was keeping my ear to the door to find out how many people were captured. I wanted to know, ‘Did we hammer them?’ For me, the most dominant thought that I had was that if the escape was a success it would absolutely devastate the British government. I wanted to ruin Margaret Thatcher’s life. I just wanted to get back at her. I wanted to shaft her. I wanted her hurt. I wanted her damaged. I wanted the British government damaged.

Speaking of Thatcher, what was the reaction when the IRA failed to get her in that infamous Brighton hotel bomb in 1984?
The IRA nearly killed Margaret Thatcher. I think it was a very successful operation. The British government knew that, when they were dealing with the IRA, they were dealing with a very capable force.

You were IRA’s director of intelligence, correct? In 2005, Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside told the British House of Commons – under Parliamentary privilege – that you were the head of intelligence for the IRA.
There have been many things said about me down the years – and I recognise that was one of them. But I have to tell you that I wasn’t the director of intelligence. (Pauses) And then we had a laugh (laughs).

But you were high up in the IRA ranks? You were on the Army Council?
I have never admitted to being in the IRA. I have never admitted to being in the Army Council. And I’m not on the Army Council. I have never been on the Army Council. I’m a Republican activist. I’m very proud to be a Republican activist. I don’t have any interest in perceived authorities or titles. I have been a busy Republican activist all my life.

You are described as the most successful Republican figure since Michael Collins.
Well, I read that but I don’t really relate to it. The difficulty I have with assertions like that is that it ignores the amount of people involved in the likes of the escape or any operations. It’s always brought down to an individual character and personality which really isn’t reflective of the reality. Everything is a team effort. To look at history or events through an individual personality is not the way to appreciate the reality of the circumstances.

Do you have any remorse for any of the Republican activities you were involved in?
There is a general emerging consensus and acceptance that Republicans of our generation were left with no other option. And, of course, it was those same Republicans who now create new options, created by the Peace Process. I think that debunks any notion that we threw ourselves into the oblivion of armed struggle willy-nilly. The most critical evolution since this struggle began was achieved by those most active and engaged with in it. We Republicans have our own code of human ethics and measure our involvement and actions against that. And for my own part, I have not brought myself or the struggle I represent into disrepute. Had we Republicans not conducted ourselves with honour, our own community would not have supported us in the way that they did. I generally don’t have a particular remorse about any particular thing. Armed struggle and war is very difficult. There is no monopoly on suffering. There’s no monopoly on mistakes. I regard myself as a very honourable, proud Republican activist. I would say there are many regrets by many people, including myself, on a specific matter, but in very broad terms I am quite satisfied by the direction my political life took.

But you acknowledge that the IRA made mistakes?
Of course there were mistakes made by the IRA. There were mistakes made by everyone. Certainly, nobody would have a monopoly on mistakes. The irony in our country is that the media and the propaganda position of governments is that the mistakes by Republicans are the mistakes most accentuated and highlight – and everybody else’s mistakes, incidents or atrocities, particularly the governments and British army’s, are dealt with in a very careful way. Republicans understand that all tragedies cause pain and grief – and that unites all the victims. The IRA has accepted its role in the conflict. Republicans accept responsibility for their part. Indeed many Republicans have gone to jail. On the other hand, not a single British soldier has been brought to justice for the hundreds of killings carried out in the North by the State. And the British have still not accepted responsibility for – or apologised – their role to the Irish people.

The Enniskillen bombing would be, I suppose, a good example of one these mistakes made by the IRA…
The suffering and pain endured that day was enormous. I understand that very well. For the IRA’s part they acknowledged what they did and they have apologised for all those non-combatants killed and injured. It was quite obviously a tragedy, of which there were too many during the conflict. It was one of those moments during the conflict that brought home the level of human tragedy. It should remind us all that we don’t want to be in a situation again where that type of conflict arises. The Sinn Féin strategy now and the Peace Process are obviously the way forward in trying to achieve our political objectives.

Do you think the families of the disappeared will have a resolution in the foreseeable future?
I hope that they do see a resolution in the near future. It’s an injustice that is being corrected with the help of former IRA personnel. I think four of the remains have been found so far, which was assisted by information from the IRA, which I think, is righting a wrong that is overdue. My hopes and aspirations are with the families in discovering the remains of the people missing. I know some of the families quite well; some of them are personal friends of mine, and my thoughts and aspirations are with them all the time.

Do you believe some of those deaths were unjustified?
I think it is unjust to take anybody away and to disappear them; therefore there is an injustice to all of them.

Were you surprised when Freddie Scappaticci – codename Stakeknife – was discovered as being a mole?
An ever-present feature throughout hundreds of years of resistance, by the British ruling our country, has been the use of informants and agents to try and defeat our democratic objectives. So, it was hardly surprising that the British state throughout this latest phase of armed resistance adopted exactly the same strategy. So, was I surprised that the British state recruited informers to try and defeat the IRA? No, of course I wasn’t. I’m a Republican – they were trying to defeat our struggle. Was I surprised that the revelations also revealed that the British state armed, controlled and directed the Loyalists’ gangs? Of course I wasn’t. It was Republicans who actually sought for years to expose it to a hostile and an uninterested media.

What was your reaction to the fate of Denis Donaldson, who was murdered after it was discovered that he was informing on the IRA?
Denis Donaldson worked for the British state. I don’t know any of his circumstances surrounding his position to come clean or even his decision to move from his home. But I am conscious that Denis has a family here in Belfast, who knew nothing of his activities, and they’ve been left to deal with an extremely difficult situation. Denis Donaldson’s exposure was amid the charade of the Stormont Spy ring, all of which was organised by the special branch of the security services to bring down the political institutions at that time.
I’m surprised Stakeknife didn’t receive the same fate as Denis Donaldson.
I want to be clear about this: I believe the IRA when they say they had nothing to do with the circumstances of Denis Donaldson’s death.

What was your reaction to the recent murders conducted by dissident Republicans?
It’s pointless. A worthless act. The killings didn’t have a purpose. They were futile. They were an absolute waste of life. The pointlessness of it is characterised by the fact that – although there is several groups who claimed responsibility for them – nobody gave a rationale because there can be no rationale in this day and age for such an action. I was completely dismayed by it.

What can Sinn Féin do to help stop these dissidents?
We will defend the integrity of the Republican struggle against anyone who brings it into disrepute. The onus is on us all to explain, engage, educate, debate and involve. We are constantly involved in outreach (programmes with) other Republicans to provide clarity about what we believe is the right road – on the road to a united Ireland. The difficulty with so-called dissident Republicanism, or these micro groups, is that a lot of the activity appears to be futile, counterproductive, pointless. There doesn’t appear to be a particular strategy or an objective in any of the actions. There are about seven or eight groups of dissident Republicans and it’s becoming like a Monty Python style sketch of different groups. There are new groups formed and reformed according to fallouts among individuals and personalities as opposed to ideological direction. The activities of late seem to undermine the Sinn Féin strategy, to undermine the Peace Process. They don’t appear to have a progressive or positive objective. It’s a spoiler strategy – it doesn’t have any noble objective.

Would you urge anybody with information about these dissidents to contact the authorities?
Personally, I would rather be involved in outreach work and bringing people in the right direction on the path to peace. But obviously anybody involved in criminality or actions against the people should be brought to justice. We need to get to a point where people have confidence in the justice system, the prosecution service and the police service. We need a situation where due process prevails and partisan agendas have no place.

Liam Clarke wrote in the Sunday Times that you had been given the job of policing the IRA ceasefire. He wrote that you had been “sitting in on the edges of meetings of Sinn Féin sceptics, listening to their reservations, and making it clear to them that the ceasefire was to hold”.
First of all, Liam Clarke is no friend of Republicanism. Today, he’s actually part of a group that’s trying to undermine, rewrite or revise the history of the hunger strikes. I was no more or no less involved in the development and securing of the ceasefire than anybody else. I didn’t have a particular role, other than to develop our strategy.

But weren’t you sent by the IRA’s Army Council to south Armagh to convince Republicans of the need for a ceasefire? According to newspaper reports you were a key figure in the IRA’s decision to “decommission and then to stand down its units”.
I would have spoken to many activists across the country and I would have been a very strong exponent of the leadership’s decision and decision-making process. What that comes down to is: many of us were very active in making sure that Republicans were informed about what was happening, so we could get past all of the spin, so that people had a confidence in where the strategy was going. That people knew, for instance, that the Good Friday Agreement was not a cut-off – that it provided the platform for the next level.

But wasn’t the Good Friday agreement a compromise?
No, for me it isn’t categorised as a compromise. Everybody who signed up to the Good Friday Agreement obviously had an analysis that it served their particular politics better. When we signed up to the Good Friday Agreement it was because we thought that it served the Republican agenda more than it served anybody else. No doubt everybody signed up to it on that basis. But who was right and who was wrong? Now, ten years later, Republicanism is stronger on the island of Ireland than it was at any other time in the past. There are more Republicans on the island of Ireland. There is more (Sinn Féin) representation on the island of Ireland now than there was at any other time in the past. Where is the SDLP? Where is the UUP? Before the Good Friday Agreement was signed, we had 90,000 votes across the island of Ireland in a European election – and today we have a third of a million votes.

Ian Paisley Jnr. told me once: “Republicans wanted to get rid of the British from Ireland – that was their project. They did fail.” So, were the IRA defeated?
Absolutely not. The IRA were never defeated. The IRA did not defeat the British government and certainly the British government did not defeat the IRA or Republicanism. Ian Paisley Jnr. also said – along with his father – that they were going to smash Sinn Féin and going to destroy Republicanism – and that Republicans would not be in government! Actually, we have dragged Unionism millimetre by millimetre across lines that they said they would never cross. Ian Paisley was in government with Martin McGuinness. The DUP are in government with Republicans – with ex-prisoners. We have brought them to that point.

But where to next?
It’s not an inconceivable idea that we can bring them further – even to the point of getting Unionism to accept a shared future within the concept of a United Ireland. Any developments that have occurred over the last couple of years are within the context of what we regard as strategic developments. We have a primary objective of a united Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement and the Saint Andrews Agreement were various platforms that we have used to build on the road to a united Ireland. We have not given up and we are committed to a united Ireland. It is the DUP who are now involved in cross-border institutions. The politics are about making the impossible possible.

Going back to the Paisley’s dynasty, how come the IRA never carried out an assassination attempt on Rev. Ian Paisley?
I’ve never heard of him being a target for anybody. I don’t have a clue. I don’t really know.
Did you mastermind the infamous Northern Bank raid robbery back in 2004?
I didn’t and I know nothing about it. I’m a wee bit bewildered by the notion that I would have had anything to do with it.

Looking at political ramifications of the Northern Bank raid, would you accept that it was a mistake?
Your question appears to presume that the IRA was responsible for it. I don’t know who was responsible. I do know that the IRA said at the time that they were not involved in the robbery – and I believe it. It was certainly used to put pressure on Sinn Féin, which I think was wrong. It was bad. The real issue now with banks, of course, is that millions, if not billions, were stolen or lost or squandered by bankers and golden circles. Those are the issues that people are interested in today. My attitudes about banks, in general, is – as much as it was wrong for whoever robbed the Northern Bank, it is also wrong for banks to be robbing people every day!

We’ve heard Sinn Féin representatives saying that there were flaws in the economy during the Celtic Tiger years, which led to the current crisis in public finances. You have also talked of corruption and cosy cartels. In your view, what were the government’s biggest blunders and how would you root out corruption and break up these ‘cosy cartels’?
The political culture is the biggest obstacle. Some people in government, and banks, etc, are paying themselves more than Barack Obama! And it’s coming out of the public purse. It can’t be categorised as a blunder or a mistake; the problem is endemic and is about their core values – it’s more about how people think, what way they were thinking, and what guides them. The cosy cartels need to be broken up and we need to set mechanisms and boundaries and develop an ethos where people won’t tolerate greedy developers, politicians and bankers in bed with each other.

How do you do that?
We need to expose it, create accountability – most of this was hidden and that was how they got away with it. If we make it public, people won’t accept it. We had economic growth over, say, 15 years with the Celtic Tiger – but all of it was squandered. Those gains should’ve been used as a defence – reserved to sustain us in these difficult times, but it was all wasted. People were lead to believe that they could spend and spend. In recent reports, Ireland was regarded as the second highest country in Europe for luxury cars – yet Ireland’s also regarded as the second in Europe for disparity between the rich and the poor. The wealth was there, but it was not shared. Overall, it was a wasted period.

There is widespread public anger at the government and those elements that are seen to have damaged the economy. There is also a large degree of cynicism at the political system in general. How does Sinn Féin differ from the rest of the herd?
Firstly, we share the cynicism and the anger because it is justified. There has been a lot of job losses, businesses closing, public services in peril – the whole scenario is ridiculous. How do we differ in our ethos? There is a fundamental difference between us and the other parties – for instance, recently we published all of our expenses and we called on others to do it. It shows that all our employees only take the minimum wage and that’s across the party – our MPs, TDs, MEPs and councillors. We will bring that ethos, that equality and that value system to government. Right away, that’s the difference you get when you’re dealing with Sinn Féin.

People who may agree with Sinn Féin might also feel that the party lacks experience and therefore lacks credibility ass a potential party of government.
In regard to our experience and capability, we are actually overflowing with talent. We have councillors, mayors, TDs, MEPs, MPs all over the island of Ireland. We are in government in the North, going on two years. Many of us outside of our political representatives who are not in government are also highly involved and committed to public service. Government for us is about providing leadership – we have been providing leadership for many years.

Sinn Féin has said that it wants not just a united Ireland but ‘an Ireland of Equals’. What does this mean in practical terms?
It means we want to fulfil the ideals of those who fought to free Ireland. A partition-adversity affects people in the 26 counties as well as the six counties. We want prosperity and we want growth, but linked to equality and sharing. We don’t want an island of haves and have-nots. Prosperity without equality destroys the social fabric in society. We need to embed in all of our decision-making. In the Assembly here, all the government decisions go through the EQIA, which is equality impact assessment – we need to embed in all of our decision-making on the island of Ireland. We need that and a culture of rights for workers, men and women alike. That’s the vision that Sinn Fein is bringing to people in the upcoming elections. That’s why our candidates are worth supporting.