William Matchett is an ex-RUC officer who spent years working in the secretive and murky world of informants and agents during his time in Special Branch while “the troubles” raged on.

William shares with us his motivations for joining the RUC during such dangerous times, the techniques they utilized to recruit informants, death threats he’s received over the years and his encounters with the notorious South Armagh unit of the IRA.

We discussed paramilitaries who have committed m*rders and terror attacks while simultaneously working as an RUC Special Branch agent, the subject of collusion between RUC and Loyalist paramilitaries as well as policing a post-Good Friday Agreement state. 

TIMESTAMPS 
00:00 Growing up, seeing Catholic family petrol-b*mbed out of their house 
08:20 JOINING THE RUC- policing in South Armagh 
22:50 Negative view of the RUC & Threats on William’s life
36:00 SPECIAL BRANCH 
52:30 Martin McGartland, Ken Barret, Mark Haddock, William Stobie 
1:16:00 MEETING WITH INFORMANTS 
1:27:05 THE NUTTING SQUAD
1:30:45 UVF/UDA 
1:35:55 RUC interrogation  
1:44:25 Post-GFA Northern Ireland 
1:52:40 What should the RUC done differently throughout the conflict 

PLEASE EMAIL ANY & ALL SUGGESTIONS FOR GUESTS & EPISODE TOPICS (if you're reading this and were involved in paramilitary activity please give me a shout if you would like to tell your story, even anonymously to [email protected])

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