In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.

But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA

was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,

who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.

Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

You're listening to Bad People.

The podcast about the bad things people do and why.

This episode contains strong language and discussions of domestic abuse and violence.

Okay, I'm hitting us straight away with one of my random questions to open things up.

Julia, have you ever felt vengeful towards an ex-partner?

Yes.

Oh, that was quick, categorical, definitely.

Care to expand or?

Yeah, I once had a partner who lied to me about everything, how it turned out.

And then actually my, this is like really random.

My mom was getting her nails done. And it turns out that he had a family that he didn't tell me about because he told me he was single.

Oh, my wow.

And his female partner got her nails in at the same place.

And so the nail technician.

Wait, this is how it came out.

Yeah.

...