Cover: Stakeknife (Radio 5 Live) | BBC Sounds
From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin | Daily Mail
The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show (Radio 2) | BBC Sounds
Two interesting podcasts concerning the north of Ireland this week: one from the BBC, and one, unexpectedly, from the Daily Mail. Both are led by informed, experienced, dedicated journalists and both are pretty indispensable. I’m always surprised by how little people outside Ireland know about what is sometimes called the “situation” in the north. (I’m married to a man from the outskirts of Belfast, so, you know, I’ve been told.) But that’s down to education. Only a few British schools teach anything to do with it. Everyone knows about the Tudors though!
Anyway. I’m going to start with Radio 5 Live’s new Cover series, Stakeknife, though actually I’d recommend you listen to the Daily Mail’s new podcast From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin first. But episode two of Stakeknife is an exceptional piece of audio documentary – riveting and sad – and it should be acknowledged.
Here, we join journalist Mark Horgan and Belfast man Séamus Kearney, who are visiting Kearney’s childhood home. Kearney is an ex-IRA volunteer,recruited in his teens. Gradually we hear of his younger brother, Michael, who, unlike Séamus, wasn’t bothered about politics: “He was more interested in going to the dances and he loved old cars,” says Séamus. Séamus was hugely surprised when Michael joined the IRA; Michael signed up because, in 1977, Séamus was sentenced to 14 years for conspiracy to murder and was part of the H block blanket protests. “It was the H block thing,” says Seamus, about Michael’s involvement. “I felt guilty, I’ll always feel guilty.”
In 1979, Michael is picked up and interrogated by the RUC. He’s physically abused for three days and gives them a tiny detail about where a small stash of waterlogged explosives are situated. When he’s freed he goes to his IRA commander and tells him everything. The information Michael’s handed over is useless, yet he’s taken by the IRA to a place near the Irish border and kept there for 17 days. His body is found on 12 July 1979. Deemed an informer, he’s been shot twice in the back of the head.
Séamus and Horgan visit the spot where Michael’s body was found, which Séamus has not previously visited. He prays at the site of his brother’s death. He cries. Earlier, he told Horgan that he’d actually met his brother’s killer: a gunman who had no idea who he was murdering, who was just “doing his job”. How did Séamus feel about this, wonders Horgan. There’s a pause.
“I worked within a context, so did he,” says Séamus. “It’s very hard to explain that. If you step out of the military context you may as well just hang yourself… You can’t live with it, there’s no point living.” His small speech is chilling, moving and incredibly upsetting, all at the same time.
Context, context. Within the so-called Troubles there’s always context. The person who ordered Michael’s death was Freddie Scappaticci, who at the time was the head of the IRA’s internal security unit, which was dedicated to rooting out “touts” (informers). While Michael was not an informer (the IRA acknowledged this in 2003), Scappaticci – known as Stakeknife – was. More than a mere informer, Scappaticci, who died last year, was an agent for British intelligence, simultaneously working at the highest level of the IRA and being paid to work for the Brits. It’s Stakeknife who is the subject of this investigative documentary. But within it there are other stories, of lives wrecked, families smashed. All bubbling to the surface years later.
The Daily Mail’s From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin is a good primer on the party that emerged as the political wing of the Provisional IRA. (The series is given topicality due to this week’s forthcoming elections in the Republic of Ireland. In the 2020 elections, Sinn Féin did unexpectedly well.) From Bomb to Ballot moves through catalytic events such as the civil rights movement in the 1960s and internment. It pulls its punches on Bloody Sunday though, when 26 unarmed Catholic civilians were shot by the British army, 14 of whom died. Possibly this is because the event is still being investigated, even now, with soldiers being prosecuted.
Anyway, we hear Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, then an independent nationalist MP, in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, but we also get a British general insisting that his men only shot at civilians after they themselves had been shot at, without anyone to explain that this did not happen. Still, the series is excellent on Thatcher and the hunger strikers. So yes, there’s your context.
On Tuesday morning, on her Radio 2 breakfast show, Zoe Ball announced that she will be leaving her post on 20 December. Shock! But, just minutes later she explained that Scott Mills will be taking over. A smooth transition, especially in comparison to the utter mess of Ken Bruce’s departure, and the BBC will be pleased.
Ball, who followed Chris Evans and Terry Wogan, had a tough time for her first few months at breakfast, but her delightful warmth has meant that she’s made the show her own. Mills, who’s been in Radio 2’s afternoon weekday slot for the past two years, has all the skills for his new job, though it remains to be seen if he has the fanbase. Will he be warm and cuddly enough for the cosy early morning Radio 2 audience? We shall see!
