Former IRA supergrass Raymond Gilmour bringing out updated book to ‘DEAD GROUND’

A secret agent who infiltrated the IRA is republishing his blockbuster book to make further claims against deputy first ministr Martin McGuinness.

Raymond Gilmour will reveal in his new book entitled ‘What Price Truth?’ that McGuinness trained him in anti-interrogation techniques while head of the IRA in Derry.

And when asked how well he knew McGuinness, Gilmour – who was codenamed ‘Agent Romeo’ by his handlers – replied: “I know him better than myself!’’

Gilmour has spent over 30 years living under a new identity in the UK after brining the IRA and INLA in Derry “to their knees’’ during the infamous ‘supergrass’ trials in the 1980s.

For the past number of years the 53-year-old has waged a battle against his MI5 handlers.

He wants the British Security Service to stump up the £500,000 he claims it once offered him in compensation for putting his life on the line as agent for the Bristish Government.

Now 15 years after his book explosive Dead Ground book was published on his life as a covert RUC Special Branch agent insidie the INLA/IRA, the former supergrass has decided to put pen to paper and update his manscript.

The book is due to published in three months time.

Belfast Daily understands a former RUC officer – who worked undercover in Northern Ireland for over 20 years – is publishing the book with legal assistance from a Belfast firm of solicitors.

Speaking from his hideway address in the south east of England, Gilmour told Belfast Daily: “I have been thinking about doing this work for some time now.

“A lot has happened in the past 15 years since Dead Ground was published.

“There are things that I never put in it which I will make public for the first time in the new book, What Price Truth?

“I was approached by a former British intelligence officer who convinced now was the time to tell all.’’

Gilmour has little love for his former IRA commander in Derry.

“Martin McGuinness is now the deputy first minister in Northern Ireland but he appears to have forgotten all about his past in Derry.

“I mean, he was the man who taught me and republicans in Derry anti-interrogation techniques to prepare us for our arrest by the RUC and British Army.

“To look at him now he thinks he is a statesman but his hands are dripping in the blood of many, many people. People shouldn’t forget that.’’

McGuinness has two previous convictions for IRA membership in the Republic.

However, he has never been charged in a Northern Ireland court despite the security forces believing he was head of the IRA’s Northern Command and also Chief of Staff at one stage.

Gilmour says he was never asked to provide any information on McGuinness when it came to his supergrass trial in the early 1980s.

“It just never came up with my handlers. It is alright being wise after the event, but it does pose the question was he working for the Brits after all. Somebody was protecting him, I believe.

“He was the top Provo in Derry and the police didn’t want to put him away at the supergrass trials.’’

Gilmour was the only witness in the supergrass trial of 35 INLA and IRA suspects but it collapsed in 1984.

The then Lord Chief Justice Lord Lowry dismissed Gilmour’s evidence as being “unworthy of belief”.

However, Gilmour, who was essentially a ‘wheel man’ for the IRA during attacks in Derry, says Lord Lowry was wrong.

“I knew I was telling the truth, I was told there were deals struck by RUC men behind the scenes that decisions had to be made that wouldn’t be palatable for me, so I was going to be the fall guy,” he says.

Creggan-born Gilmour first joined the INLA when he was 17 working as a covert agent for RUC Special Branch.

After a fallout, he left the INLA and later joined the IRA in 1980, passing back information on Provo players and operations.

However, two years later his cover was blown when police used information he supplied to recover a machine gun.

“I brought the INLA to their knees in Derry, I brought the IRA to their knees in Derry and I saved countless lives,” he says proudly.

• What Price Truth? By Raymond Gilmour will be published on Wednesday, April 2 this year on Amazon Kindle.