Did Thatcher know about Stakeknife? asks sister of murdered man

The sister of a man secretly killed and buried by the agent Stakeknife’s IRA unit has queried how many people knew about him, and asked if it went as high as former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Eugene Simons was disappeared in 1981. His body was found by chance in a shallow grave in Co Louth.

His sister Moira Todd recalled her family walking the streets of Dublin and Dundalk for years trying to find him, all while she said the state authorities knew what had happened to him.

She said the word was put out that he was a “tout” (informer), and it had been an “internal IRA murder”, adding her family was “spat at”.

“They took him on January 1, they murdered him on January 11, so he had 11 days of probably unspeakable horror that the authorities knew about, and totally ignored it,” she said, speaking at a press conference organised by Belfast solicitor Kevin Winter of KRW Law in Belfast following the publication of the Kenova Report.

“They know he was dead. They didn’t tell us. My father hunted high and low, my brother walked the streets of Dundalk, of Dublin, hoping to bump into him, and all the while, the authorities knew that he wasn’t coming back, he was gone.”

She said there was only interest in his murder after the Operation Kenova investigation started, and he was connected with Army’s top agent in the IRA, Stakeknife.

“I just want someone to take me into a room and tell me the truth, if they want a non-disclosure agreement, I’ll sign it. I just want to know the truth,” she said.

“It’s 45 years ago, almost to the day since my brother was taken and tortured by Stakeknife. He was murdered after. The authorities had all the details.

“Forty-five years on, I’m sitting here, really none the wiser, and hearing about the truth being suppressed, and the government avoiding accountability, and it’s just totally frustrating.”

She added: “It’s what he did (we want to know), how he was allowed to do it, and how high up did it go?

“How far up the British Government? Did it go to Margaret Thatcher, did she approve anything? Those are the things we need to know.”

Claire Dignam, whose husband John was killed by the IRA in 1992, said she also believes the authorities knew he was dead.

“I hid for years because I believed my husband was an informer,” she said.

“I had a baby in my belly while he was lying in a grave. The shame, the guilt, the trying to fit in. Now I feel alive and I am not going to hide again.

“My husband was Johnny Dignam, and I don’t care what anyone said about him in the past. My husband was innocent.”

Paul Wilson, whose father Thomas Emmanuel Wilson was also killed by the IRA’s internal security unit in 1987, questioned the lack of the “key detail” of naming Stakeknife.

“You can’t investigate the agent known as Stakeknife, spend all the money, and then not find out who he is – that seems like a gaping own goal,” he said.

“Kenova are doing the investigation but it never feels like they’re in complete control of the investigation. It always feels like when they get so far, it’s no more, stop.”

However, he said he family have learned most of what they know about their father’s murder from Kenova, and paid tribute to the “first ever police who took us seriously”.

“That was great, but 90% just isn’t enough. It’s the last piece that we need for this to be settled and put to bed so we can finally move forward,” he said.

They were asked about comments by MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum offering sympathies “to the victims and families of those who were tortured or killed by the Provisional IRA’s internal security unit during the Troubles”.

Ms Todd said: “The ISU (IRA’s internal security unit) was run by one of their agents. They’re still covering up – where’s the truth?”

Mr Wilson said if they were really sorry, they would have helped Operation Kenova from the start.

“It was only meant to last a few years. It went to near 10 and that’s because of MI5,” he said.

Mr Winters said the apology would have “so much more substance if there was a departure from this ridiculous NCND … the apology is completely hollow and irrelevant, in my view.”