Ulster Espionage

摘要

Very occasionally, a book is published that leaves a real impact on the reader, and Thatcher's Spy is just such a phenomenon. It is unusual in several respects. First, there is the author himself, Willie Carlin, who was a British soldier and a Roman Catholic from Londonderry. A small, wiry individual, he was persuaded, like several other servicemen with similar backgrounds, to leave their regiment, go home, and hope to join one of the paramilitaries in the province. In a mirror-imaged operation, Brian Nelson left the Black Watch and returned to his native Belfast where he joined the Protestant paramilitaries, the Ulster Defense Association. In another example, Peter Keeley, a Roman Catholic originally from Newry, joined the Royal Irish Rangers at the age of 18, and in 1979 penetrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (PIRA) South Down brigade. He would be compromised in 1994, forcing him to flee to England and then Thailand. In 2008 he adopted the penname "Kevin Fulton" to write an account, Unsung Hew, of his clandestine role.