Orla and Kevin Coyle tell the story of their father who was killed as an alleged informer by the IRA. The profound shadow cast by their father’s death has lasted almost 30 years.

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Brendan Hughes wants to question Joe Fenton and find the “main mover.” Is Stakeknife suspected? We meet the former IRA man who interviewed Hughes and whose hero was Scappaticci.

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Mark tells the story of a man called Joe Fenton and how he was connected to Stakeknife. We learn there was a hierarchy of agents, where some were saved and some were not.

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Mark meets two former members of the FRU, the secret army intelligence unit that ran the agent Stakeknife. How did they recruit people? How was Scappaticci recruited?

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

Mark speaks to the brother of one of the first people interrogated by Stakeknife. We follow Seamus’ journey as he retraces his brothers steps in the days before he was murdered.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

A man flees Northern Ireland when he’s named as Stakeknife. At a surprise press conference a few days later he denies the charges but a forgotten tape comes back to haunt him.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

In Northern Ireland from 1978 to 1994, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers; people accused of passing information to the police and the British Army. But the man who often found, tortured, and sometimes killed these men and women was himself an informer, a secret British Army Agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Using secret recordings, reporter Mark Horgan traces the astonishing double life of Freddie Scappaticci. Why was he protected? How did he walk the tightrope between the IRA and British Army intelligence for so long and when murders, often of entirely innocent people, were sometimes allowed to take place despite state security force surveillance, who gets to play God?

This series is about far more than just one man; it’s about the state structures that protected him. From the production team behind the international award-winning ‘Where Is George Gibney?’, Stakeknife tells the story of one of the most-contested and darkest episodes of the Troubles. When neither side wants the story of Stakeknife to come out, how does society try to reconcile the truth about what happened?

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

A message from Mark Horgan on a new investigative series launching next week from the production team behind ‘Where Is George Gibney?’

This new series will focus on another figure who lived a double life and was eventually forced to live under cover. And it’s a story, like the George Gibney one, that many would prefer was never told.

So from this point on, this feed will be renamed ‘Cover.’ Series 1 one of which was ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and series 2 is coming next week, first thing on Tuesday the 12th of November.

You can continue to contact our production team about either series via our new email [email protected] and rest assured, any significant future movements in the story of George Gibney will also be covered right here. Talk to you again next week.

Almost three years on from our last episode, there’s a significant update on the case of George Gibney. We also hear from contributors to the podcast series speaking publicly at an emotional event in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

As a police investigation into Gibney is confirmed, survivors around the world begin to talk. A significant voice in the story of George Gibney comes forward.

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Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan

Caroline’s letter is voiced by Clare Monnelly

Theme tune by Aaron Dessner

Executive Producer for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Where is George Gibney? is a Second Captains Production for BBC Sounds

This podcast refers to child sexual abuse and contains interviews that some listeners may find upsetting, as well as some occasional strong language.

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this series, please contact support organisations in your own country.

For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.