Document also outlines how David Trimble told Government that people in both unionism and nationalism were too tolerant of criminality but the effect was ‘corrosive’
Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, to whom the south Armagh fuel-laundering plant was linked
Major gangster Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy was on the IRA Army Council in 2002, according to a previously secret Downing Street file — with both British and US officials repeatedly speaking of him by name.
Files opened at The National Archives in Kew show how Britain kept close watch on the makeup of the IRA’s key body, assessing not just who was in charge of the IRA, but also the outlook of those people and what it meant for the balance of power within the terror group.