Donaldson likely shot to avenge assassin

FORMER associates of a feared IRA assassin killed by the SAS may have murdered Denis Donaldson, security sources claim.

Detectives believe the British spy was gunned down to avenge the shooting of Jim Lynagh.

Lynagh, 32, was among eight Provisionals ambushed as they tried to blow up a police station at Loughgall in Armagh in May 1987.

This is the main line of inquiry being pursued by gardaí, authoritative security services confirmed yesterday.

After it was revealed that Donaldson, 56, one of Sinn Féin’s top officials, turned informer more than 20 years ago, the republican movement knew his betrayal had inflicted major damage, and that may have included briefing his handlers on the IRA plot at Loughgall.

The SAS were lying in wait for the heavily-armed Provo unit when they arrived at the station with a 200lb bomb.

All the terrorists were killed instantly, including Lynagh, from Monaghan, who had been wanted by police for six years.

He was heavily involved in many of the IRA’s operations across Tyrone during the 1980s.

Lynagh was also suspected of involvement in the murder of former unionist MP and speaker at the old Stormont parliament Sir Norman Stronge, and his son James, at their Armagh home in 1981.

“We are 80% certain that his murder was planned and carried out by those who were close to Lynagh,” a security source disclosed.

“There’s also a 10% chance it was individual disgruntled Provisionals and a 10% chance that dissident republicans carried it out.”

Donaldson, a one-time prison confident of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and head of Sinn Féin’s office at Stormont, was buried on Saturday after a low-key funeral in Belfast attended by fewer than a hundred people.

His wife Alice, daughter Jane and sons Pearse and Denis Jnr, led mourners during the private Roman Catholic service.

Afterwards men, including Donaldson’s son-in-law Ciaran Kearney, used umbrellas to shield the coffin from the media as it was carried from the house.

The cortege then drove slowly along the Glen Road before joining the Falls Road and turning into the City Cemetery.

One of Donaldson’s granddaughters clutched a single white rose by the graveside as rain fell.

Umbrellas blocked the view of cameras as the coffin was lowered into the ground.