GARDAI have quizzed a well-known Dublin dissident about whether he handed over information which led to the murder of terror chief Alan Ryan.
The IRA member was once a trusted member of the dissident group and was a close personal friend of slain Alan Ryan.
However, he was also heavily involved in buying and selling drugs and supplied information about RIRA operations to criminal gangs.
The Dubliner – who is in his 30s – regularly met members of a northside gang and also took cash “on the side” from drug dealers.
Now the double-crossing dissident has fallen foul of his former colleagues in the so-called New IRA, who became aware of some of his activities. He has since been expelled.
A source said he has not been arrested, but was questioned by gardai as part of their investigation into Ryan’s murder.
He was asked if he supplied details of Ryan’s movements on the day he was murdered. It is believed he has denied all involvement in Ryan’s murder.
The Northern-based leadership have stepped up their drive to “clean up” the terror group in Dublin in recent weeks.
Another well-known dissident – who rarely left Alan Ryan’s side – was also booted out last month by the new leadership after he pocketed €20,000 for his wedding.
The IRA man had taken the cash from protection money extorted from a drugs gang.
Three ex-Provos from Dublin, who are in their 40s, have been placed in charge of the New IRA in the south. They were chosen because of their loyalty to their Northern masters and their low public profile. It is believed they ordered the punishment shootings of two of Ryan’s closest pals – ‘Fat’ Deccy Smith and Nathan Kinsella.
Last month, Ryan’s two brothers, Anthony and Dermot, were also kicked out of the movement.
Meanwhile, a veteran republican suspected of involvement in the murder of three British soldiers has lashed out at the leadership of the New IRA who have taken over operations in Dublin.
Dissident Roisin Kane, whose son, Ronan McLoughlin, was shot dead by gardai during a Real IRA raid in Wicklow in 1998, has accused the new leadership of being gangsters.
She said that under the new leadership the IRA is now “a gangster-ridden movement that only fosters fear into those who do not carry out their totally unjust orders”.
Kane, previously known as Roisin McLoughlin, was suspected of being one of two IRA women who lured four British soldiers to a flat in Belfast with the offer of sex in March 1973.
Having set the honey-trap, the two women left and two IRA gunmen burst in and shot three of the soldiers dead.
A number of dissidents made internet attacks against Kane over her statement.
