IRA gunman turned author found dead

Published Thursday, 28 October 2010
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A former top republican is believed to have taken his own life, a year after he wrote a no-holds-barred book about his life in the IRA - without being sanctioned by the leadership.

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Gerry 'Whitey' Bradley, from the New Lodge in north Belfast, was found dead in a car at Carrickfergus marina on Wednesday.

It is understood the 57-year-old had suffered from depression, having been ostracised by his former comrades over what they saw as a betrayal.

"If you wanted to write a book, they (the Provisional IRA leadership) would expect to be presented with a copy for them to censor before it goes to publication," former IRA prisoner Gerard Hodgins told UTV.

"Gerry Bradley's mistake was he wrote a book without going to them and asking their permission."

A key player in the IRA in the 1980s, Gerry Bradley had been an operations officer and quarter-master and then ran the paramilitary organisation's finance department.

He was jailed in 1994 for the attempted murder of a senior RUC officer.

But after the publication of his book, Insider, graffiti branding him an informer appeared on walls around his home and he was forced to leave the area.

"I understood he had been under considerable pressure - he'd been rejected by the Provisionals, he had been ostracised and whispering campaigns were put out about him being an informer and a tout," Mr Hodgins told UTV.

"So for a man to end up being treated like that by former comrades, a part of me is not surprised he took his own life.

"It has a massive effect - you're automatically cut off from every social structure that you once moved in or socialised in. People who you've known your whole life, either as friends or comrades, suddenly look upon you differently."

Gerry Bradley's death came just hours after operations he had been linked to were made the subject of a television programme featuring the last interview with former IRA man Brendan Hughes, who died two years ago.

Former IRA prisoner Richard O'Rawe told UTV he did not believe writing a book - particularly a personal account of someone's experiences - made them a traitor.

He too had been ostracised for a number of years after writing Blanket Men, his account of the H Block hunger strikes.

"You have to ask yourself - are they (the leadership) the only ones allowed to write books? Is history never to be recorded properly?" he said.

"It's no coincidence that Gerry felt compelled to write his book. And bear in mind, Gerry Bradley put no one in prison, Gerry Bradley's book resulted in no one doing a minute in jail - to my knowledge anyway.

"But it'd be difficult not to conclude that it was the start of the downward spiral for him."

© UTV News
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4 Comments
Gerry Bradley in Glasgow wrote (339 days ago):
Unbelievable,a man like Gerry who gave his Heart and Soul to a cause that he regarded as rightious to be turned on by colleagues is the lowest of the low,the man told the truth of his experiences in the I.R.A. That doesn`t make him a traitor against the Ra,it`s just an account of his life and the struggles he and others including his I.R.A. Colleagues went through,someone had a problem and it wasn`t Gerry. R.I.P. Mr Bradley. God Bless.
GRAHAM in belfast wrote (936 days ago):
"took his own life" ..yeah right...hope this is investigated fully..and an inquiry takes place...sounds very very suspicious.
Gerard in Belfast wrote (937 days ago):
It never ceases to amaze me that the leadership of an organisation which for years complained about British censorship and cover ups by the establishment are themselves guilty of censorship of the rank and file. The reasons for this are obvious. There are obvious totalatarian similarities between the PIRA and the communist parties of yesteryear. Thank God they never "won the war". Britain isn't perfect, but I think it is a more tolerant place than the Dictatoriship of the PIRA would have been had they succeeded.
Fitzy in New Lodge wrote (937 days ago):
Yet another person hounded to his death by sinn fein, IRA. Gerry adams can write book(s), gerry bradley and the like can not. The IRA has lost it's way, they will never recover, they are a joke. RIP Gerry Bradley
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