A Sordid Tale of British Psychological Operations

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Directed by Michael Oswald (2021)

Film Review

This documentary explores the interesting career of Colin Wallace, a Northern Irelander who worked in psychological operations for British intelligence for ten years. He was fired for blowing the whistle on MI5 involvement in a pedophile ring targeting boys in the Kincora Boys Home in Belfast. Shortly after his dismissal, the police, in collaboration with British intelligence, framed him on a manslaughter charge. Sentence to ten years in 1981, he served six prior to his release in 1981.

The film explains the nature of Wallace’s work for the Information Research Department (a British military intelligence department running psychological operations between 1948-77). His job included fabricating negative propaganda about the IRA and Northern Ireland Catholics to disseminate to the British and foreign press, writing fake readers’ letters and provoking conflict between IRA and Catholic leaders with disinformation. Examples of the fabricated news Wallace planted in the press included fake stories portraying Northern Ireland civil rights activists as terrorists, about the Soviet Union and Irish Americans smuggling arms to the IRA and about IRA involvement in witchcraft and Devil worship.

Following IRD’s withdrawal from Northern Ireland in 1973 (their “dirty tricks” activities were hurting image of British troops stationed in Northern Ireland), Wallace was redeployed to “Operation Clockwork Orange.” The latter launched a series of smear campaigns against mainland officials, including Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Following his dismissal from IRD, Wallace began contacting Wilson and other politicians the agency had smeared. This would lead to the agency’s closure in 1977, as well as decision (by police in collaboration with intelligence figures) to frame Wallace for manslaughter.

Wallace has been telling his story in chat shows and other media outlets ever since his release in 1987. He was awarded £30,000 pounds compensation after his conviction was reversed in 1996.

The British government still resists launching a full independent investigation into IRD and Clockwork Orange.

The “Troubles*” in Northern Ireland: The Whitewashed BBC Version

 

The Story of Ireland Part 5

BBC (2011)

Film Review

Caveat: I have serious problems with the BBC’s portrayal of the 30-year civil war in Northern Ireland as a battle of “religious identity.” This analysis conveniently whitewashes a longstanding pattern of social and economic discrimination against Northern Ireland’s Catholic underclass.

Part 5 of the Story of Ireland covers 1900 to the present – including the “Troubles*” in Northern Ireland from 1969 until the Good Friday Peace Accord negotiated under Tony Blair in 1998.

The filmmakers attribute the early 1900s rise in Irish nationalism to global nationalistic fervor that simultaneously gave rise to the African National Congress, the Chinese nationalist movement led by Sun Yat Sen (1911) and the Serbian nationalist movement that triggered World War I.

In 1913, the British parliament was preparing to grant home rule for Ireland, which was violently opposed by the protestant Ulster Volunteer Force. The latter feared losing their autonomy to a majority Catholic Ireland.

On Easter Sunday 1913 (Bloody Sunday), Irish revolutionaries seized the post office in Dublin and declared an Irish Republic. The brutal British reprisals radicalized many civilian nationalists into joining the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

After winning a sweeping majority in the 1918 elections, Sinn Fein** declared an independent Irish republic. In 1921 Sinn Fein leader Michael Collins negotiated a peace treaty with Prime Minister Lloyd George granting southern Ireland and the six protestant counties of Ulster the status of free states within the British union.

Because it stopped short of home rule for Ireland, the civil war continued until Ireland won full independence in 1923. Northern Ireland would remain part of Great Britain.

Although Sinn Fein remained committed to the reunification of the two Irelands, for 40 years Irish heads of state opted for peace and political stability over political union. During World War II, Ireland declined to join the allied forces and remained neutral. It also supported Red China’s application to join the UN in 1949.

Thanks to membership in the Common Market and European Union, Ireland was one of the richest countries in Europe by the late 90s. Yet according to the filmmakers the so-called Celtic Tiger was accompanies by skyrocketing inequality and massive political corruption.

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*”The Troubles” is a euphemism for the conflict between Northern Ireland Catholic paramilitaries fighting for greater civil rights and eventual reunification with southern Ireland, protestant paramilitaries and British troops deployed to suppress the Catholic insurgency.

**Sinn Fein is an Irish republican party formed in 1905 in support of Irish independence and unification.