CALLS ARE growing in Britain for a wide-ranging inquiry to establish the full extent of undercover police operations within protest movements, following the unmasking of a covert officer who had spent time with several campaigns in Ireland, including the Corrib Gas protest.
PC Mark Kennedy, a Metropolitan Police officer who infiltrated several environmental and anti-capitalist campaigns in Britain and several other European countries after he adopted the fake identity of Mark Stone in 2003, visited Ireland on several occasions.
His wife has lived with their two children in the village of Kilbrin in Co Cork since 2000. Local priest Fr Michael Campbell said he had met Mr Kennedy once in Kilbrin, but knew the family well.
According to Irish activists, Mr Kennedy spent several days in north Mayo in 2006, during which he participated in a workshop for the Shell to Sea campaign and visited the home of Willie Corduff, one of the so-called Rossport Five who were jailed in 2005.
He took part in the Dublin May Day protests in 2004 and demonstrations against the visit of then US president George W Bush to Clare the following month. He met campaigners opposed to US military use of Shannon airport in 2005.
Several activists who met Mr Kennedy in Ireland have said he encouraged more confrontational tactics.
Labour TD Michael D Higgins has raised concerns regarding Mr Kennedy’s activities in Ireland with the Department of Justice. Last week, a spokesman for the department told The Irish Times it had “no information on any alleged activities in this jurisdiction by the person in question”.
In Britain, Mike Schwarz, the lawyer whose request for information on the role played by Kennedy led to the collapse of the trial of six activists in Nottingham earlier this month, has called for a judge-led investigation to establish the full scale of police infiltration of campaign groups. He says he is not satisfied with the Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry being conducted into the case.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, has written to Sir Paul Stephenson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, about the matter.
Mr Vaz said he will closely examine the case for an inquiry. According to media reports yesterday, a separate inquiry may be launched by the chief inspectorate of constabulary this week.
In interviews published yesterday, Mr Kennedy said he was involved in five major protests, including the G8 summit in Scotland in 2005 when he passed on “invaluable” information to police about the movements of demonstrators.
Mr Kennedy said it was passed straight to then prime minister Tony Blair and that he was given a commendation for his role.