Death of ‘Whitey’ Bradley

Former IRA Volunteer Gerry ‘Whitey’ Bradley has been found dead, just hours after the screening of a shocking documentary based on interviews with former IRA leader Brendan Hughes.

Mr Bradley was found in a car at Carrickfergus Marina in County Antrim on Wednesday and is believed to have taken his own life, according to reports.

It is unclear if the RTE documentary, Voices from the Graves, was connected to his death, which took place just hours later. The documentary centred on interviews by Boston College archivists by a senior IRA commander Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes and former loyalist paramilitary turned politician, David Ervine. It was a condition of the interviews that they not be revealed until after the men’s death, which took place in 2008 and 2007 respectively.

The documentary heard Mr Hughes’ fears that the Provisional IRA in Belfast was heavily compromised since the early 1980s, and apparent confirmation by former British military interrogators that that was indeed the case.

It also heard allegations that Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams had been a member of the IRA - allegations which Mr Adams has always denied.

Mr Bradley’s own account of his life in the Provisional IRA, authored while still a member of the organisation, caused significant controversy in Belfast when it was published last October.

Mr Bradley was forced to leave his flat in the republican New Lodge area of north Belfast last year after his book ‘Insider’ was published and he was accused of revealing IRA secrets.

Graffiti calling him a ‘tout’appeared on walls, and windows in his flat were broken in the staunchly republican New Lodge area following the release of his book, co-written by historian Brian Feeney.

Following the criticism from his own community, Mr Bradley defended the book. Last year he said he wanted to “put on record the truth of life in the IRA, before I die”.

“People have been saying you shouldn’t have said this and you shouldn’t have said that but I’m just telling my story,” he said.

“I knew when I wrote the book my life would neveragain be the same.

“Before, I could have gone to the gym like anyone else but all that has completely changed,” he said.

His book had been written without the knowledge of the IRA leadership and he had even kept it a secret from his own family until shortly before it hit the shelves.

Urgent Appeal