Career
He subsequently directed MI6 operations in the Middle East, 1984-1988, and in Europe, 1988-1991. He was responsible for counter-terrorist operations from 1985-1988. By late 1974, despite the prohibition of any such contacts following the embarrassment of Whitelaw"s attempt to negotiate in 1972, he succeeded in establishing three secure lines of potential communication, the most promising of which was via a Derry catholic businessman, Brendan Duddy.
In a partnership lasting two decades the two men developed a secret back-channel link between the British Government and the Ireland Republican Army leadership which operated sporadically from 1973 until the 1990s.
Its first fruit was the Ireland Republican Army"s 1975/76 ceasefire. When this ended in response to the resumption of loyalist paramilitary killings the link continued in being without official sanction but was used in ending the first hunger strike at the Maze Prison in 1981.
Kept alive by the courage and dedication of Duddy it eventually led in February 1991 to a crucial meeting between Oatley and Sinn Féin"s Martin McGuiness, which in turn led to the resumption of dialogue and to the Northern Ireland peace process, opening the way to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Peter Taylor"s book Behind the Mask: The Ireland Republican Army and Sinn Fein, describes Oatley as the most important British agent to have worked in Northern Ireland.
