Donegal Daily
  • News
  • Sport
    • Football

      Victor Fisher elected Honorary President of Letterkenny…

      2 hours ago

      GAA

      GAA stars out in force to ‘Play…

      2 hours ago

      Athletics

      Countdown is on to ATU Donegal 5k…

      6 hours ago

      Sport

      Sheephaven Sub Aqua Club’s week of diving…

      7 hours ago

      Athletics

      Countdown is on to ATU Donegal 5k…

      6 hours ago

      Athletics

      Letterkenny AC’s Fit4Life programme – a chance…

      24 hours ago

      Athletics

      North West 10k proceeds to make a…

      3 days ago

      Athletics

      Splash and Dash event gives young athletes…

      5 days ago

      Boxing

      Boxing: Carndonagh BC to host North West…

      4 days ago

      Boxing

      Quigley’s home return to be a sell-out,…

      1 month ago

      Boxing

      McGinty to appear on Quigley’s National Stadium…

      1 month ago

      Boxing

      Quigley ‘can’t wait’ for big return to…

      1 month ago

      Football

      Victor Fisher elected Honorary President of Letterkenny…

      2 hours ago

      Football

      Rogers hopeful goals will now spur his…

      15 hours ago

      Football

      Cobh come from behind to deny Harps…

      16 hours ago

      Football

      Keane, Neville and Carragher to line out…

      2 days ago

      GAA

      GAA stars out in force to ‘Play…

      2 hours ago

      GAA

      Letterkenny Gaels hosting Easter hurling and camogie…

      22 hours ago

      GAA

      Country star Chelsea set to shine for…

      1 day ago

      GAA

      County Board hopeful Lacey will ‘reconsider’ his…

      1 day ago

      Golf

      Rosapenna again named among world’s best golf…

      1 day ago

      Golf

      Golf club to host fundraising quiz in…

      2 weeks ago

      Golf

      Donegal ETB Golf Society in full swing…

      3 weeks ago

      Golf

      Beachcomber Bar Golf Society enjoy first outing…

      4 weeks ago

      Hockey

      Hard-fought win sees Raphoe close in on…

      6 days ago

      Hockey

      Hockey: Raphoe top league after 3-1 win…

      1 month ago

      Hockey

      Hockey – Unconvincing win for new league…

      1 month ago

      Hockey

      Hockey – MacBeth hat trick sets Raphoe…

      2 months ago

      Hurling

      Donegal hurlers seal semi-final spot with narrow…

      6 days ago

      GAA

      Setanta duo presented with Ulster club All-Star…

      2 weeks ago

      Hurling

      Letterkenny Gaels to host hurling taster sessions

      4 weeks ago

      Hurling

      Watch: McCann focused on League as McGurk…

      2 months ago

      Rugby

      Sadhbh McGrath (18) to make senior Ireland…

      1 day ago

      Rugby

      Anne Scott receives IRFU Spirit of Rugby…

      4 days ago

      Rugby

      Free pizza! Six Nations fundraiser to float…

      4 weeks ago

      Rugby

      Monaghan Rugby Club donate €1,200 to Creeslough…

      2 months ago

  • Courts
  • Jobs
  • Travel
  • Features
  • Business
  • Property
  • Council News
  • Politics
  • More
    • Advertise with us
    • Haircare
    • Cooking
    • DD Pets
    • Hairdressing
    • Motors
Saturday 11°CSunday 8°C

Donegal Daily Donegal Daily

  • News
  • Sport
    • Football

      Victor Fisher elected Honorary President of Letterkenny…

      2 hours ago

      GAA

      GAA stars out in force to ‘Play…

      2 hours ago

      Athletics

      Countdown is on to ATU Donegal 5k…

      6 hours ago

      Sport

      Sheephaven Sub Aqua Club’s week of diving…

      7 hours ago

      Athletics

      Countdown is on to ATU Donegal 5k…

      6 hours ago

      Athletics

      Letterkenny AC’s Fit4Life programme – a chance…

      24 hours ago

      Athletics

      North West 10k proceeds to make a…

      3 days ago

      Athletics

      Splash and Dash event gives young athletes…

      5 days ago

      Boxing

      Boxing: Carndonagh BC to host North West…

      4 days ago

      Boxing

      Quigley’s home return to be a sell-out,…

      1 month ago

      Boxing

      McGinty to appear on Quigley’s National Stadium…

      1 month ago

      Boxing

      Quigley ‘can’t wait’ for big return to…

      1 month ago

      Football

      Victor Fisher elected Honorary President of Letterkenny…

      2 hours ago

      Football

      Rogers hopeful goals will now spur his…

      15 hours ago

      Football

      Cobh come from behind to deny Harps…

      16 hours ago

      Football

      Keane, Neville and Carragher to line out…

      2 days ago

      GAA

      GAA stars out in force to ‘Play…

      2 hours ago

      GAA

      Letterkenny Gaels hosting Easter hurling and camogie…

      22 hours ago

      GAA

      Country star Chelsea set to shine for…

      1 day ago

      GAA

      County Board hopeful Lacey will ‘reconsider’ his…

      1 day ago

      Golf

      Rosapenna again named among world’s best golf…

      1 day ago

      Golf

      Golf club to host fundraising quiz in…

      2 weeks ago

      Golf

      Donegal ETB Golf Society in full swing…

      3 weeks ago

      Golf

      Beachcomber Bar Golf Society enjoy first outing…

      4 weeks ago

      Hockey

      Hard-fought win sees Raphoe close in on…

      6 days ago

      Hockey

      Hockey: Raphoe top league after 3-1 win…

      1 month ago

      Hockey

      Hockey – Unconvincing win for new league…

      1 month ago

      Hockey

      Hockey – MacBeth hat trick sets Raphoe…

      2 months ago

      Hurling

      Donegal hurlers seal semi-final spot with narrow…

      6 days ago

      GAA

      Setanta duo presented with Ulster club All-Star…

      2 weeks ago

      Hurling

      Letterkenny Gaels to host hurling taster sessions

      4 weeks ago

      Hurling

      Watch: McCann focused on League as McGurk…

      2 months ago

      Rugby

      Sadhbh McGrath (18) to make senior Ireland…

      1 day ago

      Rugby

      Anne Scott receives IRFU Spirit of Rugby…

      4 days ago

      Rugby

      Free pizza! Six Nations fundraiser to float…

      4 weeks ago

      Rugby

      Monaghan Rugby Club donate €1,200 to Creeslough…

      2 months ago

  • Courts
  • Jobs
  • Travel
  • Features
  • Business
  • Property
  • Council News
  • Politics
  • More
    • Advertise with us
    • Haircare
    • Cooking
    • DD Pets
    • Hairdressing
    • Motors
FeaturesLead StoriesNews

Donegal-based spy foiled rocket attack in Derry, claims new book

written by Stephen Maguire January 26, 2019
FacebookTweetLinkedInPrint

A Donegal-based undercover FBI agent foiled a rocket attack in Derry on the day after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a new book claims.

David Rupert, a New Yorker who spent seven years spying for the FBI and MI5, insisted to his FBI handlers that Bundoran publican, Joe O’Neill, should be spared arrest, even though Rupert had implicated him in weapon importation and the attempted rocket attack in Derry.

The rocket launcher was hidden in a Donegal funeral home and was to be used to blow up a police Landrover as hundreds of journalists were gathered in Northern Ireland for the signing of the historic agreement.

Rupert argued with the FBI that O’Neill was old, had diabetes and ‘had no business being in prison’ when it came time for the gardai to PSNI to arrest people he implicated.

O’Neill had led Rupert into the Donegal republican scene – even finding him a pub to lease outside Bundoran. The two became very close friends and Rupert kept a desk at O’Neill’s real estate business in Ballyshannon.


Unknown to O’Neill, who was vice president of the dissident political party, Republican Sinn Fein, Rupert was working for the FBI as an undercover agent.

It was secretly the FBI who paid the $8,600 so that Rupert could take over the lease on the Drowes pub in Tullahane, Co Leitrim, just outside Bundoran.

There, Rupert got to know republicans and passed on the information every day to the FBI and, later, MI5.

The story of Rupert’s spying is recounted in a new book, The Accidental Spy, by journalist Sean O’Driscoll, who interviewed Rupert and many republicans, and reviewed over 2,000 emails sent between Rupert and his handlers in the FBI and MI5.

The book reveals that Rupert thought his cover had been blown after he was confronted by one Bundoran man who accused him of being a spy for the US government.

The man, a ballad singer in pubs in the town, read a newspaper account of a new book about Hillary Clinton, in which it was revealed that his first boyfriend was named David Rupert from upstate New York, who was close to the same age as the David Rupert in Bundoran.

He had a noisy confrontation with him before Rupert convinced him that it was a different David Rupert who dated Hillary Clinton.

Rupert, who had no Irish links, first began a life of spying after meeting a woman named Linda Vaughan in a Florida bar in 1992.

Vaughan was a Democratic party insider and also a lobbyist for the Irish American republican group, Noraid. She invited him to Sligo and Donegal, where he first met republicans Vincent Murray, in Murrays bar in Sligo, and Joe O’Neill, in O’Neill’s bar in Bundoran.

His frequent visits came to the attention of the garda special branch, who photographed Rupert meeting O’Neill and Murray and passed on the photos to the FBI, who was eager to investigate Irish republicans in America as the peace process progressed.

Agent Ed Buckley visited Rupert’s trucking business in Chicago several times, confronting him with the photos, but Rupert refused to talk. Eventually, he agreed to take FBI-funded trips to Ireland with his new girlfriend, Maureen, in exchange for small pieces of information.

He passed on information that O’Neill was planning a rocket launch in Derry on the day after the Good Friday Agreement was signed and had asked Rupert to send him some fireworks from American, to cover up a blotched bombing in Belfast in which a Continuity IRA man had blown three of his own fingers off.

Rupert recalls being in O’Neill’s bar in Bundoran. O’Neill was on stage singing when he was called away suddenly. He took a man named Gerard ‘Hucker’ Moyna had blown his fingers off in Belfast. He took him to a doctor in Bundoran who immediately referred him to Sligo general hospital.

O’Neill, who was arrested, was released the next morning and told Rupert to immediately get fireworks shipping from America so they could claim that Moyna lost his fingers setting off the fireworks on Bundoran beach.

Eventually, Rupert gave evidence in the Special Criminal Court against Real IRA leader, Mickey McKevitt, who was jailed for 20 years.

He is now living under FBI protection in the US and has never previously spoken about his experiences.

The Accidental Spy is published by Mirror Books and is available in bookshops across Ireland.

Donegal-based spy foiled rocket attack in Derry, claims new book was last modified: January 28th, 2019 by Stephen Maguire
FacebookTweetLinkedInPrint

Tags:
bookbundoranDavid RupertdonegalThe Accidental Spy
Stephen Maguire

Stephen Maguire is the co-founder of Donegal Daily. He has worked as a reporter for almost 30 years starting locally with the Donegal Peoples Press before moving to the Mirror Group. He continues to contribute daily to national media outlets including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Independent, Irish Sun, Irish Mirror, Irish Star, the Daily Mail and the Examiner.

LEAVE A COMMENT

You may also like

Funds run ‘dangerously low’ at Donegal Donkey...

22 mins ago

Freedom of Donegal honour proposed for Clannad

1 hour ago

Sister of missing Mary Boyle appeals for...

2 hours ago

GAA stars out in force to ‘Play...

2 hours ago

Over 100 Donegal students celebrate Engineers Week...

4 hours ago

Lifford and Strabane mourn passing of much-loved...

5 hours ago

Don’t Forget: Clocks go forward tonight

5 hours ago

Man and woman arrested in Kerry Babies...

5 hours ago

UPDATE: ‘Snoop’ dog reunited with owner

6 hours ago

Sheephaven Sub Aqua Club’s week of diving...

7 hours ago
Advertisement
Advertisement

MOST POPULAR

Donegal County Council
Advertisement

Sport Hub

  • Stay up to date with Donegal Sport Hub on Facebook

    1 year ago
  • Donegal links rank in Top 100 Golf Courses in the World

    1 year ago
  • Bundoran 10 Event set for March 2022

    1 year ago
See More

Donegal Woman

    See More

    Columnists

    Group Holidays - Travel Department

    Travel: 8 of the best things to do on a Dubrovnik holiday (plus an exclusive discount!)

    4 days ago

    Motoring - Brian McDaid

    Brian McDaid – Drowning sorrows, and the shamrock

    1 week ago

    Career Advice - Rory White

    Career Guidance: How to make your Leaving Cert subject choice a success

    1 month ago

    Healthy Living - Sorcha McElchar

    Burns overcomes challenge of Donegal man Erskine to become GAA President

    1 month ago

    Rethink Money - Sean McNulty

    DD Money: 15 Christmas spending tips: How to save money this holiday season

    3 months ago

    See All Columnists
    Advertisement
    Donegal Daily Jobs

    Read More

    • News
    • Sport
    • Courts
    • Jobs
    • Sales & Services
    • Obituaries
    • Features
    • Business
    • Politics
    • Council News

    Information

    • Contact Us
    • About
    • Advertise WIth Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
    • Terms & Conditions

    Our Sites

    Donegal Woman
    Donegal Woman
    Donegal Daily

    © 2023 Donegal Daily. All rights reserved.
    Website by owenod


    Back To Top.