Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn MI6 Spies

On This Day;
March 12, 1974
The Register
12 March 2005
The Times
Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, the alleged MI6 spies within the IRA, escaped from Mountjoy prison, Dublin. Keith was recaptured immediately, but the elder brother remained at large for nine months before being put back behind bars.
THE Littlejohn brothers both escaped from Mountjoy prison, Dublin, tonight. Keith, the younger brother, was quickly recaptured, but Kenneth was still at large late tonight. Police were checking vehicles all over the city, and airports and ports are being watched.

This is the second escape by prominent prisoners from the same jail in the past five months. A security inquiry led by Mr Justice Finlay was ordered by the Government after a helicopter picked up three Provisional IRA leaders, including Seamus Twomey, former chief of staff, from the exercise yard on November 1.

Police said the two brothers used planks to climb over the east wall into Glengariff Parade. Keith was recaptured a few hundred yards away in Dorset Street by a prison warder.

There were reports that Kenneth had an address and telephone number in Howth, a coastal suburb on the north side of the city.

The Littlejohns were sentenced for their part in the biggest bank robbery committed in the Republic of Ireland. The raid was at Grafton Street, Dublin, in October 1972.

Last August, Kenneth was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment and Keith to 15 years. At the time of sentence, the elder brother was aged 32 and Keith was aged 27.

Kenneth Littlejohn has consistently claimed that everything he did in Ireland was at the behest of the British Ministry of Defence, and that the Dublin bank was robbed at gunpoint to bring pressure on the authorities in the Republic to introduce stronger measures against the Provisional IRA. A month ago, Kenneth went on hunger strike in a demand for political status, and Keith said he would continue the protest if Kenneth should die.

Attempts to secure their release through both the High Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal have been unsuccessful.

The Littlejohn case caused a political furore last August. Public opinion in the Republic was ready to believe that British agents were behind the car bombings on the December night in 1972, on which the law against the IRA was strengthened by the Dail's amendment of the Offences against the State Act. Mr Lynch, leader of the Fianna Fail, opposition, demanded an inquiry, and the Government revealed that the former Prime Minister had been informed of contacts with the Littlejohns.