State papers: IRA and Sinn Féin leaders were ‘paralysed’ by 2003 Stakeknife revelations

Alfredo Scappaticci, centre, at the funeral in 1987 of an IRA member in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast. 'Scap' was reputed to be the highest-placed British mole, codenamed Stakeknife, working at the heart of the Provisional IRA. File picture: Alan Lewis/Photopress

The emergence of reports in 2003 about a high-level British secret agent in the IRA, known as Stakeknife, left republican leaders in Northern Ireland “paralysed and damaged”, according to newly-released State papers.

Confidential files made public by the National Archives reveal the disclosure about the British spy — who was widely believed to be the late Freddie Scappaticci — rocked Sinn Féin and the wider republican movement at a critical point in the Northern Ireland peace process.