Conspiracy theories run rife in scramble to establish motive for murder

AS in any murder inquiry, the first question is: who had the motive?

The audacious timing of the execution-style slaying - 48 hours before the long-awaited Ahern/Blair bid to revive power sharing - suggests those hoping to scupper this “last-ditch” bid for devolution had the most to gain by carrying out the grim deed.

Breakaway republicans would already have marked Denis Donaldson down as a dead man walking for his double life as a Special Branch agent while at the heart of Sinn Féin’s strategic command for more than two decades.