Tale of Espionage Marks a 'Bizarre' Turn in N. Ireland

"Every time you think you've got Northern Ireland figured out, something else happens," he said in a telephone interview.

Donaldson's statement Friday was the latest twist in a puzzling, three-year drama.

It began in October 2002, when police raided Sinn Fein's office at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly. They seized stolen government documents and arrested Donaldson, who ran the office, and two others and charged them with running a republican spy ring. Sinn Fein denied the allegations.

Ten days after Donaldson's arrest, Unionist representatives walked out of the assembly, saying the spy ring allegations proved that Sinn Fein could not be trusted. Sinn Fein officials said security forces were trying to discredit them. The assembly was suspended and has not been reinstated, a major stumbling block to restoring normal government to the province.

Last week, the spying charges against Donaldson and the others were suddenly dropped. Prosecutors said pursuing the case was "no longer in the public interest," offering no further explanation and sparking new questions about an already mysterious episode that had brought down Northern Ireland's elected local government.

Donaldson was embraced by Sinn Fein as a vindicated hero, appearing at a news conference alongside Adams, who supported him and blasted British officials for their handling of the case.

But that all changed Friday. In his televised statement, Donaldson said British agents had approached him Thursday night, which he said was his first contact with them since 2002. He did not say what they told him. But Adams, at a news conference Friday, said they told Donaldson his cover was about to be blown and his life was in danger. Adams said Donaldson then confessed to Sinn Fein officials, and he was expelled from the party.

"Obviously we did have a spy ring at Stormont, but it is now clear it was a British spy ring," McGuinness said.

Donaldson's statement was filled with contrition for being "a British agent." He said the alleged republican spy ring at Stormont in 2002 "was a scam and a fiction. It never existed." He said British security officials had "created it." He did not say why, but republicans are speculating that some elements in the British security forces do not support efforts to give legitimacy and political power to Sinn Fein.

The British government's Northern Ireland Office issued a statement Friday saying that the Stormont raid was not politically motivated and that it did turn up evidence of republican spying. "The fact remains that a huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police," the statement said.

In a 2001 interview with the Agence France-Presse news agency, Donaldson said he had traveled throughout Latin America and the Middle East for years, meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization and other revolutionary groups. In 1988, Sinn Fein sent him as an emissary to Lebanon to meet the head of Hezbollah to try to negotiate the release of an Irish teacher, Brian Keenan, who had been kidnapped.

Despite his extraordinary contacts, many who have met Donaldson said he is less than memorable.

"I spent a day at the Sinn Fein office in Stormont at one point, and he made no impression on me," said Coogan, the historian. "He was like the wallpaper."