Martin Lynch is a native of Belfast and reportedly a member of the Provisional IRA Army Council. Lynch is the adjutant-general, who has day-to-day control of the IRA [1]. He is a former driver of Adams and McGuinness and is considered an Adams loyalist.
In 1999 a car used by Lynch, which took Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to meetings with the IRA, was found to contain an MI5 bugging device [2]. Mo Mowlam had personally sanctioned the listening and tracking device found in the vehicle, as she later confirmed in a television interview. MI5 later briefed the Sunday Times that the twenty-thousand-pound device had also been intended to help locate IRA weaponry. The target of the surveillance was Martin Lynch, whose unsuspecting wife owned the car. Adams tacitly confirmed the vehicle’s status as IRA transport when he stated that it was used by both Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator, and himself when they travelled to meetings with the IRA. He accused the British of endangering the peace process, describing the affair as ‘an outrageous breach of faith which must be addressed at the highest levels’. His complaints were largely ignored.
References
- ^ De Chastelain extends stay to await IRA move by Liam Clarke, The Sunday Times, 24 July, 2005
- ^ MI5 boss admits bugging Adams By David Leppard, The Sunday Times, 16 January 16, 2005