Editing Sean O'Callaghan (section)

{{Short description|Former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army}}
{{for|the Irish journalist and author of ''To Hell or Barbados''|Sean O'Callaghan (journalist)}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}

'''Sean O'Callaghan''' (10 October 1954 – 23 August 2017)<ref>{{cite news |date=2 September 2017 |title=Sean O'Callaghan: Former Provisional IRA commander and informer |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/sean-o-callaghan-former-provisional-ira-commander-and-informer-1.3205149 |access-date=4 February 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times}}</ref> was a member of the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA), who from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s worked against the organisation from within as a [[mole (espionage)|mole]] for the [[Government of Ireland|Irish Government]] with the [[Garda Síochána]]'s [[Special Detective Unit|Special Branch]].

In the mid-1980s he left the IRA and subsequently voluntarily surrendered to British prosecution for actions he had engaged in as an IRA gunman in the 1970s. Following his release from imprisonment, he published a memoir detailing his life in [[Irish Republican]] paramilitarism entitled ''The Informer: The True Life Story of One Man's War on Terrorism'' (1998).

Former Irish [[Taoiseach|Prime Minister]] [[Garret FitzGerald]] described O'Callaghan as one of the Irish Government's most important spies operating within the Provisional IRA during the late 20th century's [[The Troubles]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Sean O'Callaghan: Former Provisional IRA Commander & Informer (obituary) |work=Irish Times |date=2 September 2017 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/sean-o-callaghan-former-provisional-ira-commander-and-informer-1.3205149}}</ref>