IRA/Army collaboration
Please excuse my rusty history.
Why would Boyle collaborate with Captain Browning?
When Browning realises that Boyle is losing control, why would he expect Quinn to work with him?
I'm curious on this one too. I have read elsewhere that there were a lot of IRA informants working for the British, but what would they have to gain by this? The ability to rise quicker through the ranks with help from the Brits maybe?
http://helloyouitsme.com
From what I could understand Boyle was Official IRA and Quinn was the Provisional IRA. Boyle couldn't take out Quinn without escalating a feud so he needed the Army to do it
shareThat makes sense, but it still leaves the question of why Browning (the British intelligence officer) would expect Quinn (IRA) to suddenly switch sides and inform against his own people.
Or was it part of a longer game: make Quinn dependent on British help for his power in the IRA and then use that dependence to extort favours from him later?
There's a long history of double agents in the Troubles. Some very senior IRA/UDA/UVF men were on the payroll of the British Government. There is even talk that a certain high ranking Stormont Sinn Fein official was a British Agent. It was certainly a dirty war in so many respects
shareI remember a second hand story from the 90s that a new recruit to the SAS resigned because he was tasked with shooting British soldiers. This was presumably in order to keep the tensions up. All complete BS of course.
But I do remember that the army was kind of proud of the experience their men got in NI.