Spy faces life on the run after being unmasked
The blinds on the windows of the former Sinn Féin member's home were tight shut.
The terraced house at Aitnamona Crescent, west Belfast, was deserted as Donaldson pondered a future well away from Belfast after being branded a British spy by Gerry Adams.
There was no sign of Donaldson. A neighbour remained tight-lipped about him, saying: "I keep myself to myself and he keeps himself to himself."
Another made it quite clear outsiders were not welcome in the street, which lies in the republican heartland.
A former close associate said: "I presume now he will have to blow how could you look people in the eye after this? It is his wife Alice and his daughter I feel sorry for."
The IRA may have laid down its weapons, but remaining at home is hardly the option for a man wanting to stay out of harm's way.
"Is this a death sentence for Mr Donaldson?" asked Democratic Unionist Party security spokesman Ian Paisley Jnr.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there are serious repercussions as a result of this revelation and maybe this is the opening of the can of worms that is Stormontgate," he said.
Donaldson, 55, was the Sinn Féin head of administration at the Northern
Ireland Assembly at Stormont when he was arrested in 2002 and charged with having documents likely to be of use to terrorists.
His arrest, along with that of his son-in-law and a civil servant, became known as Stormontgate a republican spy ring at the heart of government.
It caused the collapse of the devolved power-sharing administration and suspension of the Assembly.
More than three years on, there is little sign of the British and Irish governments making progress in reviving them.
The latest turn of events indicates that far from being a republican spying on the government, he was a British agent working at the heart of Sinn Féin.
The announcement from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams sent shockwaves through the republican movement. But it was not for the first time. Down through the years, republicans have been unmasked as agents.
Many were killed with IRA bullets. The last survived. Freddie Scappaticci, deputy head of the IRA's internal security unit, was unmasked as a British agent accused of being Stakeknife in 2003. He skipped out of Northern Ireland just in time.
If possible, Donaldson's double life is even more of a shock. He was a key aide to Gerry Adams and the Sinn Féin machine.
He was the linchpin of their political operation, privy to secrets and plans, and it was he who ensured the smooth running of the party's Stormont machine.
He was well known to the other political parties a regular visitor to their offices as he discussed the business of the house with them.
Donaldson was arrested after police raided Sinn Féin's offices at Stormont as part of an investigation into republican intelligence- gathering in October 2002.
Two days later, he appeared in court on five charges, and exactly 10 days after the raid, devolution collapsed.
During a High Court bail application, it was claimed Donaldson had risked his life to help free Beirut hostage Brian Keenan.
Mr Keenan held hostage in the Lebanon between 1986 and 1990 sent a letter of reference to the court. It said Donaldson had talks with an advisor to the Hezbollah group holding him.
"For the whole period of my incarceration, only two human beings put their lives at risk on my behalf one was Terry Waite and the other was Denis Donaldson," Mr Keenan said.
Last week, a surprise court hearing was told the Director of Public Prosecutions was not proceeding with the case against any of the three men involved in Stormontgate.
No reason was given. Donaldson's lawyers said it was because they had been seeking documents from the Crown relating to claims that the security services had a spying operation.
This operation, it was claimed, had secretly copied files stolen by the IRA from the British government's main offices at Stormont.
The lawyers were alerted by a journalist who said that Operation Torison was part of a major British intelligence gathering exercise involving a mole high up within the republican movement.
Special Branch and MI5 had traced documents which went missing from government offices at Castle Buildings, Stormont, copied them at police headquarters and then returned them to where they had been hidden by the IRA, it was alleged. The operation ended when Donaldson and his co-accused were arrested and charged, it was claimed.
The day after the charges were dropped, Donaldson sat in a press conference back at Stormont flanked by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.
He insisted the spy-ring charges he had faced were "politically inspired."
And he said: "There was no spy ring at Stormont. There never was."
Now it seems there was spying at Stormont but not in the way people thought.
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