Experts comb cottage in search for Donaldson killers

Forensic tests are continuing today as police try to find the killer of former Sinn Féin chief-turned spy Denis Donaldson.

Police in the Republic of Ireland are examining the remote cottage near Glenties in County Donegal where 56-year-old Donaldson was shot dead yesterday.

Meanwhile Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were insistent that they would go ahead with a visit to the North tomorrow, despite the murder.

Mr Donaldson, Sinn Féin’s former head of administration at Stormont who was unmasked by Gerry Adams as a British spy last December, had been living in the cottage with no electricity or mains water supply after being ostracised by former republican comrades.

His brutal murder sent shockwaves throughout republicanism and the wider political circle in Northern Ireland last night.

But it also intensified unionist scepticism about Mr Blair and Mr Ahern’s efforts to revive a power-sharing government at Stormont by November.

Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson said the provisional IRA would be regarded by the unionist community as the chief suspects even if there was no absolute proof of the group’s involvement.

“People will remember all the denials from Sinn Féin after the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney which were blamed on the Provisional IRA,” the East Antrim MP said.

“Certainly this will make unionists feel very wary about going into government with Sinn Féin and I think the two prime ministers have got to be asking themselves what are the prospects of achieving their goal in November.

“The next Independent Monitoring Commission report is not going to be capable of giving Sinn Féin a clean bill of health after this, even if there is no absolute proof of Provisional IRA involvement.”

Downing Street and Irish government sources insisted last night that the two prime ministers would not be deflected by the murder from launching their road map in Armagh for reviving devolution in Northern Ireland.

The two governments will advocate a two-phase approach.

They intend to recall the Stormont Assembly in May in a bid to form a power-sharing government featuring the DUP and Sinn Féin by the summer.

However, if, as most people expect, that proves impossible, officials will park the political process through the difficult summer marching season and resume efforts in September, giving the Northern Ireland Assembly an absolute deadline of November 24 to form the executive.

Unionists and nationalists were dubious about the prospects of devolved government before yesterday’s murder.

They were even more sceptical last night.

In a bid to minimise the political damage, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams moved quickly to disassociate peace process republicans from the murder.

The West Belfast MP said: “It has to be condemned. We are living in a different era. Some of us are trying very, very hard to build a future in which everyone can share.

“Those who carried out this killing have no interest in that.”

The IRA, in a statement said it had no involvement whatsoever in Denis Donaldson’s death.

British government sources noted that it was significant that Mr Adams had distanced mainstream republicans from the murder.

Mr Donaldson was unmasked as a spy last December after the dramatic collapse of a three-year court case against him, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy.

The three men had been accused in October 2002 of operating a republican spy ring at Stormont – allegations which led to the collapse of the last power sharing government.

When prosecutors refused to give details last December over why they were withdrawing their case against the men, republican suspicions arose.

Mr Donaldson, within days, confessed to having been a British spy for two decades within the Republican movement after telling Sinn Féin colleagues that he had been warned that he was about to be exposed publicly.

Because of the IRA’s declaration last July that its armed campaign was over, it had been assumed Mr Donaldson would have been allowed to live without fear of reprisal unlike other agents and informers during the Troubles.

That notion was shattered yesterday by his murder.

While the provisional IRA was the chief suspect in his killing, some sources did not rule out the possibility that he may have been killed by disgruntled individuals within the organisation or by hardline dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.

Republicans also suspected that British military intelligence may have had a hand in his death.

But as the DUP held meetings with senior US politicians in Washington including Senators Edward Kennedy and Hilary Clinton, their deputy leader Peter Robinson described the murder as a very serious and disturbing development.

“We await further details but such callous activity will do nothing to build stability,” the East Belfast MP said.