One time IRSP vice-chairman Kevin 'Bap' McQuillan has rejected charges made by former comrades that he was acting as an informer at the time of a 1997 siege in Maghaberry jail. The allegation came to light as a result of proceedings at the inquiry into the death of LVF leader Billy Wright, who was shot dead by INLA inmates at the Maze prison in December in 1997. Two of the three man gun team had recently been transferred to the Maze (Long Kesh) following a siege at Maghaberry in which they took a warder hostage.

The allegation against McQuillan stems from an MI5 officer's testimony that on the day of the siege he took a call from an informant who notified him of the hostage situation in the jail. Previously the former governor of Maghaberry had told the inquiry how he had kept an external IRSP representative informed about latest developments in the developing siege. It is the IRSP's contention that the person referred to by both witnesses was Bap McQuillan.

McQuillan strenuously denies the informer claims, blaming damage resulting from a severe beating received in 1998 for his inability to provide the Republican Socialist Movement (IRSP / INLA) with a full and satisfactory explanation of his role in events at the time. Cynics would point out that, in spite of the very serious informer charges the IRSP have made against McQuillan, they are still happy to accept his account of a visit he and Sinn Féin's Danny Morrison paid to Long Kesh at a crucial point of the 1981 Hunger Strike, an account that feeds into the conspiracy theory building up around that momentous event and one which Danny Morrison hotly disputes.

Kevin 'Bap' McQuillan from Spingfield Park in west Belfast had a long involvement with the IRSP before quitting the party a decade ago. During the eighties he was first imprisoned on the word of supergrass Harry Kirkpatrick and later shot and wounded during the course of a bloody internecine feud. Currently McQuillan is a spokesman for the Republican Network for Unity. After examining the case put forward by the IRSP the RNU adjudged the evidence against McQuillan as 'inconclusive'.

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An agenda emerges, there is considerably more to the hunger strike debate than an account of an prison visit by Kevin McQuillan. Remove that from the equation and it in no way affects the known fact that an offer containing 4 or the five demands was made prior to the death of Joe McDonnell, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh claims that he and the leadership of the Republican Movement weren't told about it and it was accepted by the prison leadership.

Seizing so desperately to this McQuillan issue does nothing to diminish the questions surrounding this key moment of Irish history.

The McQuillan issue also raises the question of collusion in the liquidation of rogue state agent Billy Wright.

Oh jesus let's not go into the internal politics of the IRSP!

Even so, it would seem that another element of the case is suspect to say the least, particularly as the current allegations relate to communicating issues inside the prison to the organisation outside. It's interesting that both the IRSP and RNU initially tried to hush this up.

With regards to the Billy Wright case, agreed.

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This sentence lacks clarity.

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What is the point in you continuing this thread when your agenda has already been torpedoed?

Well I'd like you to clarify your previous post for starters. Is that sentence intended to read two ways?

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You did read what ROB said; neither he, the SF leadership, nor the IRA army council were made aware of the offer. That's the leadership of the Republican Movement, at that time, by anyone's definition. The prison leadership, which was a localised and isolated command structure, discussed and accepted the offer; according to Richard O Rawe and witnesses.

What are you failing to understand?

Thank you for providing the clarification sought. I'm sure you didn't mean to create a misleading impression.

Presumably you are aware that the IRA leadership was factionalised at that time and that while Mr Ó Brádaigh may have been unaware of a verbal offer made by spooks other members of the then Army Council including GA and MMG may very well have been aware of it.

Do you think the fact that RNU and IRSP tried to keep the informer allegations against Mr McQuillan under wraps may have been in some way related to this issue? After all both organisations are at the forefront of pushing this colourful conspiracy theory.

Also do you think the fact that the informer allegations centre on how things were communicated between a prison and the outside world and the fact that Mr McQuillan admits to suffering from faulty recollection effects the substance of his claims about what was and wasn't communicated to the INLA and its prisoners during the relevant period - i.e. July 1981?

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Your point is?

I don't give much thought to the present internal workings of either the RNU or the IRSP and Kevin McQuillan is not significant to the overall hunger strike debate. Go ahead now and clarify what you mean by such agenda exposing terminology as "colourful conspiracy theory."

There is no evidence to suggest that McQuillan was told of the offer and there is evidence to suggest that IRA prisoners and their families weren't told of the offer so it's pretty reasonable to conclude that he had no knowledge of the offer, thus your increasingly ridiculous attempt to signify McQuillan's relevance is utterly without merit.