This is I Spy, a show from foreign policy, where spies tell their stories.

The boss said to me, oh he asked for the ring to be cleared, and he said to me, look,

your cover has been blown, and the R information as you'll be dead by the morning.

We need to get you out of here tonight.

I've everything arranged.

That's what happened, and that's why I was taken out of Derry and Andrew in my sister's

office, having been brought over on her plane.

From foreign policy, welcome back to I Spy.

On each episode, we get one former intelligence operative to tell the story of one operation.

I'm Margot Martin D'Ele.

For decades, the Irish Republican Army and Northern Ireland fought for independence from

Great Britain.

During a period known as the Troubles, starting in the 1960s, the group carried out scores

of bombing and shooting attacks.

In response, British intelligence agencies thoroughly penetrated the IRA, and its political

wing, Shindfain, with agents.

One of those agents was Willie Carlin, a soldier in the British Army, originally from

Derry in Northern Ireland.

He was recruited by the British intelligence agency, MI5 in 1974, and spent 11 years undercover.

Carlin grew particularly close to one key IRA man, Martin McGinnis, who would go on to

become a political leader in Northern Ireland.

Here's Carlin's story.

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