An American businessman, Mr David Rupert, told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday that he agreed to work for the FBI and supply information on Irish republicans because it was "morally acceptable" and because the FBI agreed to pay his expenses for his trips to Ireland.
Mr Rupert (51), who worked at various times for the FBI, the British Security Service (MI5) and the Garda, took the stand yesterday amid unprecedented security to testify against the alleged leader of the "Real IRA", Mr Michael McKevitt.
Mr Rupert, who is the chief prosecution witness, said he was approached in his Chicago office in the summer of 1994 by an FBI agent, Mr Patrick Edward Buckley, who asked him about Mr Vincent Murray and Mr Joe O'Neill. Mr Rupert told Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that he had been introduced to the two men in Ireland as Irish republicans.
"Mr Buckley asked me would I be interested in working for the FBI in supplying information on these particular individuals and relationships that they had to the US on my future trips. At the time I told him I was busy and probably not," he said. "He went away and I went back to work."
Later he thought about Mr Buckley's proposal. "I thought about the situation and what I had learned about the situation here. From my moral teachings I found it morally acceptable to do. I like to come here, and he was offering to expense me for my trips, so I agreed to take him up on the issue."
Mr Rupert added: "Up to this point I liked to come here because it was relaxing. I would come here and unwind from the stress of the job I was doing. It was like going back 40 years and going home."
It was the third day of the trial of Mr McKevitt (53), Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth, who has pleaded not guilty to two charges of membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, between August 29th, 1999 and March 28th, 2001; and to directing the activities of the same organisation between March 29th, 1999 and October 23rd, 2000.
The court has heard that Mr McKevitt was arrested by gardaí at his home after gardaí had examined a 40-page statement from Mr Rupert and e-mails from him concerning the activities of Mr McKevitt.
Mr Rupert told the court that he was born in New York and worked in the construction and logging business and as an insurance agent until he began his own trucking business in Florida. Asked if he was now married, he told the court: "It's my fourth marriage". He said his formal schooling ended at 16.
Mr Rupert entered the courtroom surrounded by officers from the Emergency Response Unit and took his seat in the witness box just before midday.
He said that on December 27th, 1992, he was in the Silver Swan hotel in Sligo when one of his trucks was involved in an accident in Hendersonville in Kentucky. He said the lawsuits started to come in following the accident.
His first visit to Ireland was in April 1992. After returning to the US he found the trucking business extremely stressful. He was in an Irish pub in Florida and met Ms Linda Vaughan and started dating her. She was a lobbyist for the Florida State Senate and lobbied for Noraid and had won the Seán MacBride Prize for getting states to implement the MacBride Principles, which call for anti-discrimination measures in the North.
He came to Ireland in August 1992, and Ms Vaughan joined him. She wanted to go to Sligo and Bundoran, where she had friends.
Ms Vaughan spoke at a hunger-strikers' commemoration in Bundoran and, through her, Mr Rupert met Mr Vincent Murray in Sligo and Mr Joe O'Neill in Bundoran, who both owned pubs.
"I also knew them both to be Irish republicans," he said.
Mr Rupert said he always met them separately, although he knew they knew each other well and, before 1986, had shared the same political persuasion.
He returned to Ireland in July 1993 with his new wife. They came back to Ireland at Christmas 1993 and stayed in Ashford Castle for the New Year.
In April 1994 his marriage was not working out so he came to Ireland and rented a house that Mr O'Neill obtained for him beside a caravan park in Bundoran.
"Joe O'Neill is a prolific teacher of his version of Irish republicanism. He had a willing listener because I was always interested in politics. He became the teacher and I became the pupil," he said.
When he went back to Chicago, Mr Buckley visited Mr Rupert at his office.
"My immediate reaction was it didn't occur to me it was about Irish republicanism," he added.
Earlier, lawyers for Mr McKevitt informed the court that they had made an application for discovery to the Court of Illinois of documents relating to a proposed book by Mr Rupert and two US journalists.
Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, for the defence, asked the court if it would indicate to the Court of Illinois that it would be desirable for this to happen. The defence also sought to have three categories of Garda witnesses, including those who took statements from Mr Rupert, excluded from the court during the trial.
Mr Justice Johnson said the court proposed to make no comment on proceedings in any other jurisdiction. The court also said it was prepared to make an order excluding the second category of witnesses - gardaí who claimed to have witnessed Mr Rupert in the company of Mr McKevitt - after Mr Rupert was sworn in.
The prosecution has claimed that Mr Rupert, who was paid $1.25 million to infiltrate dissident republican organisations, will give evidence of having met Mr McKevitt more than 20 times.
Mr Rupert will give evidence that Mr McKevitt spoke of the activities of the "Real IRA" and of his role as a former quartermaster for the Provisional IRA. He will also give evidence that Mr McKevitt gave him a "shopping list" to acquire material in the US for use in a terrorist campaign.
Mr McKevitt also allegedly told Mr Rupert that he wanted his campaign to "exact a huge financial toll" in London and that his preferred targets were "hits" outside Ireland. He also allegedly spoke about "cyber terrorism" and a possible feud with the Provisional IRA.
The trial continues today.