Eamon Collins Eamon Collins ( 1954 - 27 January 1999 ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) paramilitary in the late 1970s and 1980s . He turned his back on the organisation in the late 1980s and later co - authored a book called " Killing Rage " telling of his experiences in the IRA . He was killed in 1999 , it is presumed by his former IRA colleagues , for testifying against Thomas ' Slab ' Murphy in a civil trial in Dublin . Early life . It was in Camlough , a small town in south Armagh , that Eamon Collins grew up . After finishing school , he worked for a time in the civil service in London before he started studying law at Queen ' s University . On Easter , 1974 , as Eamon Collins walked home to his parents ' home in south Armagh , he saw his father being beaten by British soldiers . He was himself badly beaten when he tried to stop them , and then they were both detained . However , he was contemptuous of the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s , seeing them as representing a simplistic Irish nationalist , militarist programme . Collins himself was attracted to Marxist politics . He never completed his degree . After working in a pub for a period , he joined the Customs Service of Northern Ireland . Around this time , Collins also got married . He and his wife were later to have four children together . At the same time he was also preparing to become a republican paramilitary . IRA career . He joined the IRA at the height of the blanket protest by H - block prisoners in the late 1970s , who wanted Special Category Status for republican prisoners . Collins became involved in street demonstrations at the time and was impressed by the left - wing politics of the new generation of republican leadership that had emerged in the late 1970s . Collins joined the South Down Brigade of the IRA , based around Newry . This was not one of the organisation ' s most active units , but it sometimes worked with the South Armagh Brigade , which was the most effective of the IRA ' s command areas . Collins says in his book " Killing Rage " that he never felt able to kill anyone himself , but instead became the South Down Brigade ' s " intelligence officer " . This involved gathering intelligence on intended assassination and bombing targets . His planning was directly responsible for at least five killings , including that of Ulster Defence Regiment Major Ivan Toombs . Many of the bombing targets of Collins ' unit were of limited significance . For example , they destroyed the public library in Newry and a pub where a police choir drank after practice . Collins became noted for his hard - line views on the continuance of armed struggle within the IRA and later becoming part of the nutting squad . On the promptings of the South Armagh Brigade , Collins became a member of Sinn Féin in Newry . The South Armagh IRA wanted a hard - line militarist in the party as they were opposed to the increasing emphasis of the republican leadership on the political over the military wing of the movement . Collins was not , however , selected as a Sinn Féin candidate for local government elections . In part , this was due to his suspicion of the IRA and Sinn Féin leadership , whom he suspected of running down ' the war ' . He had a public dispute with Gerry Adams at the funeral of an IRA man , killed in a failed bombing , where Collins was accused of calling Adams a ' Stick ' ( a derogatory name for Official IRA members , who were considered traitors by Provisional IRA supporters ) . In " Killing Rage " , however , Collins denies the claim , instead suggesting that he only accused Adams of taking actions likened to those of a ' Stick ' . Despite his militarist convictions , Collins found the emotional strain of the IRA campaign , along with the pressure from the security forces intolerable . On two occasions , he was arrested under anti - terrorism legislation and held in Castlereagh holding centre for seven days and subjected to 24 - hour interrogation . On the second of these occasions , in 1985 , the police were enraged by the killing , on the day of Collins ' arrest , of nine of their colleagues in an IRA mortar attack in Newry . Towards the end of his time in custody , Collins reportedly " broke " and said that he was prepared to co - operate with the police . In his book , Collins says that the strain of the interrogation exacerbated doubts that he had already had about the morality and direction the IRA campaign . He argues in his book that the republican leadership had already decided that the " war was over " by the mid - 1980s and was already manoeuvring Sinn Féin to participate in what later became the Northern Ireland peace process . " Supergrass " . Subsequent to his arrest , Collins became an IRA supergrass , on whose evidence the state could prosecute large numbers of IRA members . Collins was held with other paramilitary informers in the Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast . After an appeal from his wife , however , who remained a republican supporter , Collins retracted his evidence against former colleagues . In return , he was given a guarantee of safety by the IRA provided he de - briefed the organisation on his experience . Collins agreed to this . Collins was then transferred to the republican wing of the Crumlin Road prison . As a result of losing his status as a protected informer , Collins was then charged with several counts of murder and attempted murder . When tried , however , Collins was acquitted due to a lack of evidence other than his own confessions , which he had since retracted . He then spent three months being interrogated by the IRA and was eventually allowed to relocate to the Republic of Ireland , but was not allowed to travel north of Dundalk . Post - IRA life . Collins moved to Dublin and squatted in a deserted flat in the working class Ballymun area of the city . At the time , the area was experiencing an epidemic of heroin addiction and Collins volunteered to help a local priest , Peter McVerry , who ran programmes for local youths to keep them away from drugs . After several years in Dublin , Collins lived in Edinburgh in Scotland for a period , where he ran a youth centre . In 1995 , Collins eventually moved back to Newry . The IRA order exiling him from Northern Ireland had not been lifted but with an IRA ceasefire in operation , he judged it safe to move back in with his wife and children . Also in 1995 , Collins appeared on British television to tell the story of his life in the IRA . In 1997 , he co - authored ' Killing Rage ' , with journalist Mick McGovern , an exposé of the IRA and the Troubles . He also contributed to the book " Bandit Country " by Toby Harnden about the South Armagh IRA . In 1998 , Collins gave evidence against leading republican Thomas ' Slab ' Murphy in a libel case Murphy had brought against the " Sunday Times " over a 1985 article naming him as the IRA ' s Northern Commander . After his testimony , Collins was heard to shout , " No hard feelings Slab " . In the immediate aftermath of the trial , Collins ' home was attacked and daubed with graffiti calling him a " tout " ( slang for informer ) . In fact since he had returned to live in Newry his house had frequently been attacked , his family home in Camlough was burned to the ground and daubed in graffiti , threats were made against his children , who were bullied in school , and slander was painted on the walls of the streets in which the family lived . Death . Eamon Collins was murdered on 27 January 1999 while walking his dogs near Barcroft Park , his home in Newry . He was stabbed and beaten so badly that police initially thought he had been hit by a car . It is presumed that he was killed by the IRA in revenge for public testimony on the activities of the organisation and in particular for his court testimony against Thomas Murphy . The IRA denied involvement in the killing and Sinn Féin ' s local representative Brendan Curran denied the IRA was responsible and said that the killing was " senseless and needless " . Gerry Adams said that the killing was " regrettable " but added that Mr Collins had " many enemies in many , many , many places " .