A senior Belfast republican said he is not surprised by shock revelations in a new book that members of the Official IRA identified mourners at an IRA funeral from pictures supplied by British intelligence.

The local republican was commenting on information published in The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, which has just been launched.

The book details events that took place following the killings of British army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes on March 19, 1988.

The British soldiers were killed after they drove into the funeral cortege of IRA volunteer Caoimhín Mac Bradaigh in Andersonstown. Mr Mac Bradaigh had been killed three days earlier by UDA gunman Michael Stone as he  defended mourners in Milltown Cemetery during the funerals of the Gibraltar Three.

Television images of the corporals’ car being surrounded by mourners and the two men being trailed from the vehicle were beamed around the world. They were beaten and later shot by the IRA at Penny Lane in Andersonstown.

Part of the new book details the hours after of the corporals’ deaths. 

The book states: “Tension over the OIRA's liaison with the RUC would boil over during a meeting of senior Belfast Group B members shortly after the March 1988 killing of the two British Army corporals who had driven into a Provisional funeral cortege. 

“Activists were shown photographs of the mob attack on the corporals' car and its aftermath by a senior Official accompanied by a leading Group B intelligence operative.”

The book states that photographs were shown to activists shortly after events on the Andersonstown Road.

“And they were photos from a helicopter, quite obvious they were from a helicopter. 

“Several of those present objected when asked if they could identify members of the mob that attacked the corporals’ car. The meeting broke up in disorder as several volunteers angrily criticised the leadership's contacts with the British security services.”

Speaking to the Andersonstown News, the senior republican said he wasn’t surprised by the revelation.

“I am glad to see that there are some people who seem to have acted with a degree of integrity on this matter,” he said.

“However, from my own experience, I am aware of members of that organisation [Official IRA] bragging in the past of their own participation in activities against people who were republican activists on behalf of the IRA.”