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Sean O’Callaghan.
Sean O’Callaghan, the Tralee native who became an informer for the gardaí against the IRA, has died at the age of 62.
It’s understood Mr O’Callaghan passed away while a visiting a relative in Jamaica earlier this week.
He was rercruited at the age of 17 by the IRA and became commanding officer of the IRA’s Southern Command.
In 1985 O’Callaghan was elected as a Sinn Féin councillor for Tralee Urban District Council, and unsuccessfully contested a seat on Kerry County Council.
He was jailed for life in 1990 after walking into an English police station to confess to the murders of UDR Greenfinch Eva Martin and Special Branch detective Peter Flanagan in the 1970s. He was freed under a Royal Prerogative in 1996.
He wrote the best-selling book ‘The Informer’ and said be became an informer for the gardaí because he was disgusted by the paramilitaries’ violence.
He said it was his tip-off that led to the seizure of the IRA arms consignment from America on board the ship Marita Ann in 1984 which resulted Martin Ferris being jailed for his part in the operation.
O’Callaghan also claimed that he’d aborted a plan to kill Prince Charles and Princess Diana at a charity event they were attending in 1983. Republicans have branded him a fantasist.
