A BRITISH agent who infiltrated Sinn Fein to spy on Martin McGuinness has told how Margaret Thatcher helped smuggle him out of the North as an IRA assassination gang was closing in on him. And Derry man Willie Carlin even had a private audience with the Iron Lady in her draw-ing room in 10 Downing Street. It took place just days after he was spirited out of Derry by his MI5 handlers in Thatcher's ministerial jet - which she personally put at his disposal. Carlin was lucky to escape with his life because the security forces warned him that if he had stayed even an hour longer, he would have been scooped by an IRA killer squad. We have learned that even before Thatcher met the Derry man, she often sang the praises of MI5 agent 3007 - codenamed the Fox'. Shortly after he escaped with his life Carlin was pre-sented to the Tory PM at a late-night meeting inside 10 Downing Street.
She told the diminutive Derry man: "I have been looking at briefing notes outlining your work for years. Concerned "I only knew you by your agent number 3007 and your code name, but I can't thank you enough for all the work you have done for us over the years." And the PM added: "It's nice to put a face and real name to a number and a code name after all these years. And I now realise why they called you 'the Fox'." At that time Carlin had bright red hair. Thatcher also thanked Carlin's wife Mary - who only discovered her hus-band was a spy 48 hours earlier - and she even arranged for fish supper to be delivered to No.10 for the Canine' young daugh-ter Maria. As far as friends and neighbours back in Derry were concerned, Willie Carlin was just another Sinn Fein activist who lived with his family in Derry's Waterside. In reality he was a highly-placed British agent who had just completed a 12- year stint inside the Republican movement, where he operated as a member of Martin McGuinness's inner circle.
Speaking to the Sunday World this week, Carlin, now 64, recalled the night he was introduced to the Iron Lady and he revealed he will be attending -Thatcher's funeral in London next week, albeit in a private capacity. He said: "First of all Margaret Thatcher helped save my life by allowing me to escape in her jet. That's a good enough reason to be going to the funeral, but apart from that, I admired her toughness. "I know she was a woman, but she had more balls than any IRA man. Also, she never gave up. Martin McGuinness did give up. Martin McGuinness delivered the IRA - Maggie Thatcher delivered nothing! "I'll be happy to salute her at the funeral next week; she saved my life." The former soldier's nat-ural organisational ability and gift for facts and fig-ures meant he was ideally suited to Sinn Fein's plans of building a credible politi-cal machine.
He also became a close aide to McGuinness. Carlin's roll as an MI5 agent was to photocopy documents relating to any significant political devel-opments taking place inside Sinn Fein which he later delivered to his MI5 handlers. Exciting Down through the years Carlin also met his han-dlers at various locations around Derry. Last night the Sunday World asked Willie Carlin if he was asked to embark on such a dangerous undertaking again, would he do so? He said: "I would find out what time the next plane to Derry was. It was the best and most exciting thing I ever did in my life. I would do it again tomorrow!"
