SF had stretched our credulity long before the Donaldson spy story

“A STRAIGHT arrow guy,” is how one veteran US Sinn Féin sympathiser, Maureen McCullogh, continues to describe Denis Donaldson, the central figure in what must rank as Ireland’s most unusual spy story.

Ms McCullogh seems intent on perpetuating one of our most beloved stereotypes that of the gullible Yank. Super spy or double agent, Donaldson is hardly a straight arrow guy.

To discover that one of its most senior figures was in fact an MI5 spy has to be a major shock for the Sinn Féin leadership. Gerry Adams may deny that Donaldson was at leadership level in his organisation, but Donaldson was head of administration at Sinn Féin's Stormont offices and one of the Republican movement's key "fixers" at international level. He was a big fish.