WILLIE Carlin enjoyed a typical Derry childhood.
Born into a devout Catholic family, he contemplated joining the priesthood as a teenager but was talked out of it.
After leaving school at the age of 15 he got his first job at the Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR) factory in Derry.
His family had links with the British armed forces, with his father Tommy having served in the army and worked in the Royal Navy base in the city.
In his book Thatcher’s Spy: My Life as an MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Féin, the 71-year-old tells how he and his brother Robert joined the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars in 1965.
After spending time in Germany he was stationed in England.
While still a serving soldier he married and later returned home to Derry in 1974, leaving the army and settling in the nationalist Gobnascale estate in the Waterside.
Read more:
- Stakeknife 'saved my life' says Willie Carlin
- IRA tip-off led to arrest of INLA man behind Droppin' Well bomb, former British agent claims
Before returning home he had been approached and asked to work for MI5 - a request he agreed to.
His role was to gather political intelligence and he eventually became involved with Sinn Féin, rising to key positions in Derry.
In 1980 he decided to end his links with MI5 after he lost trust in his handler.
A year later, after the IRA killed census worker Joanne Mathers, he attempted to recontact MI5 without success.
He then got in touch with British army intelligence officials in Derry and was subsequently recruited by the undercover Force Research Unit.
In 1985 his double life was exposed and he and his family left Derry for a new life in Britain.
Thatcher’s Spy: My Life as an MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Féin is in bookshops now, published by Merrion Press.
Read more:
- Willie Carlin was one of last people to see census collector Joanne Mathers alive
- 'Political pressure may have been placed on judge' in IRA supergrass case
- 'I saw Martin McGuinness leaving MI5 safe house'
