Wonderry plus subscribers can binge full seasons of the Spy Who early and add free on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

From Wondery, I'm Charlie Higson and this is The Spy Who.

Now, I have written many books, including several about James Bond.

And to do that, I immersed myself in the world of James Bond and Ian Fleming,

who obviously worked for British intelligence during the Second World War.

So the world of spies is something that I'm absolutely fascinated in,

and I think it's fair to say that James Bond works on a fairly sort of fantastical level.

And the fascinating thing about Willie Carlin is when we see the reality of what spying

is actually all about. Now, Willie Carlin was a man whose journey through the labyrinth of

Spycraft blurred the lines between loyalty and betrayal, identity and deception.

In the world of espionage, spies must often walk with a foot in both worlds,

where every step risks revealing their true allegiance.

For Willie Carlin, this journey took an unimaginable twist.

The people he was asked to spy on were not faceless foes across borders. They were his family, his friends, his own community. And Carlin's story unfolds not merely as a tale of espionage,

but as a profound exploration of identity. A journey where the lines between friend and foe blurred until they became indistinguishable.

In this bonus episode, we do our best to unravel the complexities of Carlin's dual existence,

as well as questioning what can be learned from the turbulent era known as the Troubles.

We also get a glimpse of what it was like to be in the company of the man himself

by speaking with someone who knew him personally, author, academic and security analyst, Aaron Edwards.

So, Aaron, hello, and thank you so much for joining us.

Hi, Charlie. Great to be here.

Now, you've spent an enormous amount of time studying, writing and teaching about the conflicts in Ireland.

...