Mystery shrouds slain spy -- was he double agent?: British may have lured IRA man with a woman, analysts say

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Denis Donaldson, the Sinn Fein insider andBritish spy whose killing rocked Northern Ireland's peace process,took many secrets to his grave, analysts and friends say.

"Why did he turn over to the Brits? And did he really, fully goover? Or did he remain a double agent for the British and the IRA? Wejust don't know," said Brian Feeney, author of a history of the SinnFein-IRA movement.

Donaldson, who was shot to death Tuesday at age 55, joined theProvisional IRA in 1970, the year the new group began its violentcampaign to wrest Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. Soon hewas convicted for a bomb plot. He shared a cell block with IRA iconBobby Sands, who led a 1981 hunger strike in which 10 inmates died.

"I'm sure nobody who joined the republican movement as a youngman, and was friends with Bobby Sands, could dream of ending up likethis," said Francie Brolly, a Sinn Fein councilman and one-timeDonaldson friend. "He might have dreamed of being a hero, of beingshot by the British army."

PLOTTED WITH GERRY ADAMS

Prison also meant brainstorming alongside future Sinn Fein leaderGerry Adams and other IRA activists.

Adams became president of Sinn Fein in 1983 and began steering themovement toward conventional politics. Donaldson's assignment outsideprison was to be a key intelligence officer abroad for both the IRAand Sinn Fein.

Around that time, Donaldson was recruited by agents from Britain'sMI5 spy agency and the Special Branch intelligence arm of theNorthern Ireland police. Donaldson subsequently said he did it "aftercompromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life."

Analysts suggest Donaldson may have been wooed, or coerced, intothe spying game because of his reputation as a womanizer -- adangerous appetite, because British intelligence agencies have usedfemale agents and informants to strike up relationships with IRA men.

ALARM BELLS SHOULD HAVE RUNG

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Donaldson traveled as a go-between for the IRA and its overseas friends: Irish Americanmilitants, Basque separatists, the PLO and other Mideastern terrorgroups.

Feeney said, in retrospect, it should have set off Sinn Fein-IRAalarm bells that Donaldson moved so freely despite his criminalrecord.

He said Donaldson's British handlers were trying to promotemoderation and politics in Sinn Fein-IRA circles, and appear to havefound a strategic asset in Donaldson.