'I feel alive' Validation for families who lived with stigma

When Freddie Scappaticci's "nutting squad" murdered suspected IRA informers, the families of the dead men would enter a singular hell.

- Rory Carroll

To have a father, brother or son found dumped dead by a roadside, bound and hooded, with signs of torture and shot in the head, brought shock and grief.

But the killings also brought shame and fear because the victims were deemed to be traitors, Judases within Northern Ireland's republican community, and relatives were left to live with stigma and fear lest they too be labelled as "touts".

It is one of the Troubles' most macabre twists that Scappaticci was secretly working for British security services and that his handlers allowed him to act as executioner to preserve his cover.

The publication yesterday of the police investigation known as Operation Kenova exposed much of this secret history and offered the victims' families an opportunity to step out of the shadows.

"Now I feel alive and I'm not going to hide again," said Claire Dignam, whose husband, Johnny, an IRA member, was murdered by his comrades in 1992. She had been pregnant at the time and for years lived in fear, but no more, she said.

"The shame, the guilt, the trying to fit in. My husband was Johnny Dignam, and I don't care what anyone said about him in the past.