Stakeknife's Dirty War Audiobook By Richard O'Rawe cover art

Stakeknife's Dirty War

The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA's Nutting Squad and the British Spooks Who Ran the War

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Stakeknife's Dirty War

By: Richard O'Rawe
Narrated by: Alan Turkington
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.12

Buy for $18.12

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Freddie Scappaticci was born in 1946 and raised in a deeply nationalist area of Belfast. When the Troubles broke out in 1969, he joined the Provisional IRA, where he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming commander of Belfast in 1984.

From the outside, Scappaticci appeared to be a dedicated volunteer, but inwardly, he had become disenchanted with the IRA and, in 1977, he started working for British intelligence. At the same time, he took up a leading role in a newly formed IRA Internal Security Unit (ISU), aka ‘The Nutting Squad'. He personally executed two suspected informers and condemned at least thirty-seven more to death.

Was he the serial killer that history portrays him? Undoubtedly. But it's not that simple, because every time he passed the death penalty on an informer, he told his British intelligence handlers about the intended execution, giving them the opportunity to prevent the killing.

Did the tasking and co-ordinating group, the primary British intelligence organisation in Northern Ireland during the troubles, aid and abet the IRA in the mass-murder of British citizens? That is the question Richard O'Rawe poses in Stakeknife's Dirty War. But O'Rawe goes further: he lays out a very compelling case that points to the TCGs running the IRA's war from the mid-1980s to the 1994 ceasefire. Such was the British intelliegence penetration of the IRA, that Freddie Scappaticci, aka ‘Stakeknife', was in control of all IRA operations in the Belfast Brigade area. This book will shock listeners, and cause them to reevaluate everything they formerly held to be true about Stakeknife's dirty war in Ireland.

©2023 Richard O'Rawe (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd
Espionage Murder Organized Crime True Crime Crime War
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
Super detailed and interesting audiobook on the Troubles, the amount of detail in each chapter makes it an easy listen.

Read it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Always interesting how your own team will give you up for pennies or to stay out of jail. Real insight and potentially devastating to the British government. Actually allowed someone to commit murder in order to protect a highly placed source. Wow - so much for British justice .

Great story of the dirty war

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This was an interesting and seemingly unbiased analysis of the Stakeknife story. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who is interested in the topic of The Troubles.

Interesting story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you’re like me and had a romantic idea of the conflict in the North and people like Martin McGuinness, give this story a read. It made me even more infuriated with the Brits but also with the incompetence of Provo leadership. O’Rawe holds no punches. It’s a great read.

Some answers to my questions

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I found this book after listening to the BBC podcast "Stakeknife" and wanted to know more. This book is thorough, well-written, and damning.

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The book uses many quotes mostly from ira, and British intelligence sources (wonderfully voiced by Trurkington who switches from belfast to derry to west Mayo on a dime) to build the case Stakeknife, an informant in charge of killing informants, was not only helpful to MI5, but to the ascendant political arm of the IRA, which wanted to stop its militant members from turning a small terrorist operation into a ground war.

Spooks and Squirrels

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Insurgency is the most diabolical and backstabbing endeavor humans partake in. It makes regular organized crime pale in comparison to it brutality, paranoia, and supposed loyalty to cause. The British were culpable to the execution of their subjects, but ultimately played by the IRA and their overall success driven by Jerry Adams who is an evil genius, and I maybe to harsh in labeling him evil. As all wars take casualties, that have to be sacrificed for the greater goal. StakeKnife is also a good reference as well as Say Nothing, or Fisher of Men, among others, too see beyond the opaque story of the IRA/Sinn Finn, and the British.

More about the character StakeKnife

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Not an uplifting read. People trying to live normal lives, wanting their country and culture celebrated while watching two opposing gangs ripping the country and its people apart.
Informers and killers on both sides without any boundaries, consciences or consequences, making lives of families just trying to survive, a living hell.

Only losers in this ‘war’ were the Irish people

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Lots of facts, names, history - but no real compelling story.

I have only given up on a handful of audio books - this was one of them.

Couldn’t finish this one

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.