The findings of an inquiry into the activities of a loyalist gang alleged to have been responsible for more then 120 murders, including the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, will be published later today.
Operation Denton was launched in March 2020 after a judge ruled that there should be an independent review into the activities of a group referred to as 'the Glenanne Gang' and allegations of collusion.
A final report into the activities of the British army's most senior agent within the IRA, codenamed Stakeknife, will also be published.
It is expected to contain more details about the agent, including how he was recruited and managed, but will not officially name the man linked with 14 murders.
The so-called Glenanne Gang is said to have consisted of members of the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, and members of the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment.
In addition to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, in which 34 people were killed, it has also been implicated in the Miami Showband massacre in 1975, as well as bomb attacks in Belturbet, Dundalk, Castleblayney and at Dublin Airport.
Group linked to over 120 murders in 1970s and 1980s
The group has been linked to 127 sectarian murders in the 1970s and 1980s.
While most of its attacks took place in counties Armagh and Tyrone, there were several in the Republic.
The most high profile were no-warning bomb attacks in Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May 1974, in which 34 people were killed and more than 250 injured.
The death toll was the largest to occur in a single day during the Troubles.
The bombings were viewed as a warning to the Irish government that political interference in Northern Ireland would come at a heavy price.
No one has ever been charged or convicted in connection with the attacks despite the identities of some of those involved being known to the RUC and gardaí shortly after the explosions.
There have been persistent allegations of collusion between the killers and the British security and intelligence services.
Operation Denton examined those allegations as well as claims of collusion in other attacks by members of the group.
'No doubt' of collusion in Dublin and Monaghan attacks
In an interview for RTÉ Prime Time last year the head of the inquiry, Iain Livingstone, said he had no doubt there was collusion in the Dublin and Monaghan attacks.
But an inquiry by Mr Justice Henry Barron commissioned by the Irish government reported in 2003 that while it was likely that members of the UDR and RUC knew of preparations for the attacks, there was no evidence of collusion.
The Barron report said the bombings had been carried out by two sets of loyalists – one based in Belfast, the other in the Portadown/Lurgan area.
The judge said it was likely a farm belonging to a then-RUC officer, James Mitchell, in the Glenanne area of Co Armagh played a significant part in preparations.
The report was also highly critical of the garda investigation into the bombings.
The second and final Operation Kenova report into the activities of the British army’s most senior agent within the IRA, codenamed Stakeknife, will also be published.
But while the agent is widely known to have been former west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, he will not be named because of a British government policy to Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) that someone was an informer.
Stakeknife was a senior member of the IRA’s internal security unit which was responsible for identifying, abducting, torturing and murdering people accused of being IRA informers.
An interim report published in March last year linked the agent to 14 murders and 15 abductions.
It said lives had been sacrificed to protect him and that it is likely more lives were lost as a result of his activities than were saved.
When the interim report was published Jon Boutcher, the current Chief Constable of the PSNI and the former head of Operation Kenova, said he hoped the agent would be officially named in the final report.
Freddie Scappaticci was first named as Stakeknife in the media in August 1999 and fled Northern Ireland in 2003 to live in England under an assumed name.
He is believed to have been resettled by the British security service MI5 and lived in a house valued at around £1 million in Surrey.
Mr Livingstone revealed last year that MI5 had failed to disclose all the material it held about the agent before the interim report was published.
He said hundreds of pages of new material contained some significant new information "which appears to point to new investigative leads that were not previously known."
Scappaticci died in England in March 2023 aged 77, without being charged or convicted of any Troubles related offences.
No one has been charged with an offence as a result of the eight-year Kenova investigation which cost an estimated £40 million.
Failure to identify Stakeknife would be 'huge disappointment'
Kevin Winters, a Belfast based solicitor who represents a number of Stakeknife’s victims, said a failure to officially identify him would be a huge disappointment.
"This is almost tantamount to two steps forward, three backwards given that the latest indication, it’s been formally communicated, that in fact the Kenova report is not going to confirm the identity of the agent known as Stakeknife," he told RTÉ News.
"That comes as a major, major blow to all of these families who let’s face it have invested an awful lot of time and energy, and emotional energy, into this process, this investigation.
"So for them to be told at the very last day of this Kenova investigation, on the final report, that they are not in a position to name the agent Stakeknife, that’s a bitter pill for them to swallow."
