An IRA informer, who has written two books about his experiences, is said to be fighting for his life in a British hospital after being shot. Martin McGartland had been resettled in the north of England with a new identity. Belfast-born Martin McGartland is believed to have been shot at least six times in the stomach in an attack just after half eight this morning. It is understood that a gunman jumped over a wall and shot him in the back garden of a house in the seaside town of Whitley Bay.
McGartland, who is in his late twenties, is the author of the book "Fifty Dead Men Walking", in which he claimed to have worked as a British secret agent within the ranks of IRA between 1988 and 1991, before he was uncovered and had to escape an IRA death squad. Two years ago, McGartland claimed he was put in danger when his cover in the North East of England was blown because Northumbria Police took him to court for speeding.
Following the death of another IRA informer, Eamon Collins, earlier this year, he claimed that he might be next on an IRA hit-list. However, local reports suggest that McGartland was shot by criminal elements and not by paramilitaries and police are keeping an open mind on today's events.
