Spy revelations spark inquiry calls

Northern Ireland's pro-British unionist politicians have demanded a public inquiry into revelations that a senior member of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein was a British spy for more than 20 years.

Sinn Fein, political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), expelled party veteran Denis Donaldson, 55, on Friday after he admitted being a paid agent for British intelligence and the province's police Special Branch since the 1980s.

The admission, described as a "bizarre twist" by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, came just a week after Donaldson was cleared of spying for Sinn Fein, which seeks to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

The Democratic Unionist Party called on the British government to make a statement. The arrest of Donaldson and two others accused of being part of a Sinn Fein spy ring in 2002 led to the collapse of the province's Protestant-Catholic power-sharing assembly at Stormont in Belfast, an affair that came to be known locally as "Stormontgate".

Last week the Director of Public Prosecutions decided it was "no longer in the public interest" to pursue the case.

In his statement on Friday Donaldson said there had been no spy ring at Stormont and that Stormontgate was "a scam and a fiction created by Special Branch". The Northern Ireland Office has denied the Stormont raid was politically motivated, saying it had been purely to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering.