FBI informant used cozy Irish pub as spy hole
By Diarmaid Mac Dermott
Ireland International News Agency

FBI informant David Rupert used a country pub in Ireland as cover while he spied on the Real IRA and supplied information to the Garda, FBI and MI5.

Rupert -- a Chicago resident who was supposedly was taken under federal protective custody shortly before Easter -- leased the Drowes Inn in Tullaghan, Co. Leitrim, for 11 months in 1996. At the time he was insinuating himself into the ranks of the Real IRA and gaining the trust of the dissident terrorist group's leadership.

The Drowes Inn was destroyed by fire two years ago and the site is now being developed for housing.  One local said, "Nobody ever  expected anything like this of him. He used to come round the pubs and get a drink.

"He used to have pictures of the  IRA hunger strikers on the wall of the pub. Some people thought that he was raising funds for the IRA in America and that was the general view of him.

"He was the sort of fellow that you would meet and would not forget.  He was very quiet in company. He rarely drank.  He was accepted and no one had any reason to question him."

The 6-foot-plus American also worked for a short time as a doorman in a bar in the seaside resort of Bundoran in Co. Donegal.

But on the underside, Rupert was working for the FBI and for MI5, the British security service, when he began to infiltrate the Real IRA.

He used to attend meetings of the Irish Freedom Committee in Chicago around four years ago and was accepted as a bon fide member of the group, which had been expelled from the New York-based organization because of philosophical differences.

It is thought that Rupert, who was a trucker with no fixed address, may have had financial problems and this could have led to his decision to work for the FBI.

Sinn Fein would make no comment on Rupert's activities as an agent.  "We have nothing to say about this man," a spokesman said.

The alleged leader of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt, is currently in custody at Portlaoise prison in the Irish Republic facing charges of membership of an illegal organization and directing terrorism. Because he is in prison, he cannot be contacted for any comment on Rupert.

A senior Garda source who did not want to be identified said, "The operation against the Real IRA was conducted with the utmost secrecy  It was so secret that some of our people involved in investigating the Real IRA were unaware of what was going on.

"Everything will be revealed at McKevitt's trial. A lot of work was carried out by officers from the Crime and Security Branch and the Special Detective Unit in getting McKevitt to court," the officer said.

Rupert is expected to be a key prosecution witness when McKevitt goes on trial at the anti-terrorist Special Criminal Court later this year.

In mid-April, the Sunday Times said that Rupert posed as a wealthy benefactor of the Real IRA and attended rallies of the group's political wing in Ireland and supposedly was invited to meetings of its army council, helping its members install computers. According to reporter Maeve Sheehan, he was then introduced to the Real IRA's arms procurer in Boston.

The arms buyer reportedly is from Louth and has avoided republican circles in the States to maintain his anonymity. However, he was arrested last month by the FBI as a result of Rupert's evidence, but was released without charge. He returned to Ireland the Wednesday before Easter where he is being monitored by police, the Sunday Times reported.