Former IRA Leader Sean O'Callaghan Dies Aged 62

Former IRA leader turned informer, Sean O'Callaghan, has died aged 62.

It is understood the Co Kerry man drowned in a swimming pool while visiting his daughter in Jamaica.

Sean O'Callaghan joined the IRA in the mid-1970s, however he later acted as an informer for the Garda Síochána and later the Royal Ulster Constabulary's special branch.

O'Callaghan detailed the inner workings of the IRA in his best-selling book, The Informer, in 1999.

One of his revelations was the claim he thwarted a plot to murder the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana in the 1980s.

Writing on Facebook, historian and journalist Ruth Dudley Edwards, who was O'Callaghan's friend, said: "It's beginning to hit the news that Sean O'Callaghan, the IRA killer who became an unpaid spy for the gardaí, has died. He drowned yesterday while swimming in a pool in Jamaica, where he was visiting his daughter. He was a man of exceptional ability and courage and he spent most of his life finding ways of atoning for the crimes he had committed before, at 20, he realised he was fighting in a squalid sectarian war rather than a resistance movement.

"He and I were very close friends for more than 20 years. And, like all his friends, I loved him very much and owe him a great deal for his insights, his wise advice, the depth of his knowledge of politics, history and the human condition."

(LM)