Shadows: Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch

by Alan Barker (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $40.05

  In the early hours of 30 April 2003, twelve armed and uniformed officers accompanied by four plain-clothes detectives burst into Alan Barker's house. They stayed for hours, turning over rooms, seizing documents, impounding computers, files and anything else that interested them. The family were treated as terrorist suspects, the operation resembling so many others in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. But Alan Barker was and is no terrorist. In fact, he has spent his adult life fighting terrorism on the streets of his native province. Barker belonged to the Special Branch, the RUC's elite unit dedicated to fighting the IRA, the INLA and loyalist terrorists. He gives a gripping insider's account of life on the frontline and demonstrates how the RUC used sophisticated listening devices and informants, including the notorious supergrass Raymond Gilmour, in their fight to gain the upper hand. After nearly 30 years of loyal service, Barker retired angry and disillusioned about what he views as the government's capitulation to the terrorists. This is the book that Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office don't want you to read. It is a story of courage under fire, guile, Le Carre-esque plots and treachery.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $31.07

  In the early hours of 30 April 2003, three police Land-Rovers arrived at the door of Alan Barker. Twelve armed and uniformed officers accompanied by four plain-clothes detectives entered the house. They stayed for four hours, turning over rooms, seizing bundles of documents, impounding computers, disks, files and anything else that interested them. The family subjected to this dawn raid were treated as common criminals, the operation resembling so many others in Northern Ireland over the Troubles when police and troops swooped on the homes of terrorist suspects. But Alan Barker was and is no terrorist. In fact, he has spent his adult life fighting terrorism on the streets of his native province. Alan Barker belonged to Special Branch, the RUC's elite unit dedicated to fighting the IRA, the INLA and loyalist terrorists. From the first days of his career in the RUC, when he was almost lured to his death by an IRA Mata-Hari, to his running of agents who inflicted major damage on the Provisionals in Derry, Barker gives a gripping inside account from the front-line struggle against terrorism. He demonstrates how the RUC had inside knowledge of IRA political and military thinking in the build-up to and after the historic 1994 ceasefire, using not only informants but also sophisticated listening devices. The book also details how one of Barker's key intelligence assets, Raymond Gilmour, caused chaos within the ranks of first the Derry INLA and later the IRA. Alan Barker faces the wrath of the State for detailing how the war on terrorism in Britain's backyard resulted ultimately in those who waged that war left feeling betrayed and let down. Shadows will have an explosive impact on the Northern Ireland peace process and those who have shaped its direction for the last decade.