The chilling sound that signalled death for IRA 'informers' - BBC News

An inquiry into the "dirty war" between British intelligence and the IRA is due to report this week.

2 days agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsThe TroublesImage caption, Claire Dignam's husband Johnny was killed by the IRA for being a suspected informerBy Peter TaylorBBC NI SpotlightOf all the sounds that still echo in my memory from 50 years of covering the conflict in Northern Ireland, one above all still haunts me.

It's not the sound of bombs and bullets but the banging of a pan.

On recordings made by the IRA's notorious Internal Security Unit (ISU), that noise was the signal for suspected informers to begin confessing they had been working for the "Brits".

The tapes were delivered to families as alleged proof of their betrayal. The penalty for the informers was - as Martin McGuinness, the IRA leader at the time, told me - "death, certainly".

These chilling recordings are crucial evidence in a seven-year police investigation known as Operation Kenova. Its interim findings will be published later this week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68424617

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