Ex-IRSP leader: I wasn’t informer
A one-time leading member of the IRSP has denied he was a top-level informer at the time of the INLA murder of Portadown loyalist Billy Wright.
Kevin ‘Bap’ McQuillan parted ways with the organisation almost a decade ago.
Recently he has been acting as a spokesman for the newly formed group Republican Network for Unity.
Mr McQuillan denied allegations by the INLA that he worked as an informant around the time that LVF leader Wright was shot dead in the Maze prison in 1997.
“There are few things worse than a tout you can call any republican,” he said.
“I think there is a more sinister, conspiratory element at work here.
“The first I was even aware these allegations were being levelled at me was in July when [police] arrived at my door.”
Mr McQuillan said he would not leave his west Belfast home.
Last night a spokesman for the republican socialist movement said: “The INLA leadership of 1997 and indeed the current leadership are convinced Kevin McQuillan was working for British intelligence during the period of interest, namely during the period under scrutiny by the Billy Wright inquiry.
“We are now in a different place politically and so there is no threat to him.
“However, the INLA leadership have made it clear, had this information come to light a few years ago that would certainly not be the case.”
