Informing, Intelligence, and Public Policy in Northern Ireland: Some Overlooked Negative Consequences of Deploying Informers against Political Violence

Abstract

Ron Dudai and Kevin Hearty reconstruct and challenge the narrative according to which the work of informers was of the greatest importance to the peace in Northern Ireland. By infiltrating the Irish Republican Army and the smaller Irish National Liberation Army, so the narrative goes, informers and their handlers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch saved lives and ‘defeated’ Republican groups, leaving them no alternative but peace negotiations, ultimately contributing to the abatement of violence. The authors argue that the narrative of ‘heroification’ of informers overlooks the negative consequences of informing, which include the production of what it intended to curb, namely violence. The systematic recruitment of informers has the durable effect of sustaining opposition to peace processes, negatively impacting transitional justice efforts.