The British spy was known to his interlocutors as "mountain climber"; his contact was a passionate Irish republican imbued with Christian pacifism. This unlikely pair established a secret channel between the IRA and the British government that started as long ago as 1973 and was crucial to settling Northern Ireland’s conflict. Michael Oatley, an MI6 officer (the “mountain climber”), and Brendan Duddy, a Derry businessman, were the joint custodians of this open line between two supposedly implacable foes.
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