Donal: ‘My secret life as a spy’

April 1998

A BRAY author and journalist this week speaks for the first time of his secret life as an East German spy.

The revelation will stun friends, colleagues and acquaintances of Donal O’Donoval, who served as assistant editor of the Irish Times throughout the 1960s.

In his newspaper role he regularly rubbed shoulders with prominent politicians, media representatives, and members of the international diplomatic corps.

But for almost two years of this same period, he was also secretly working for the Stasi, the notorious secret police of the East German Communist state.

His involvement with the world of espionage began during a press trip to East Germany at the height of the Cold War in 1963, during which he was recruited by the Stasi in the belief that his position in the world of politics and journalism would make him an excellent agent for their cause. They even hoped he would have access to NATO.

Over the following 18 months, he made half a dozen trips to East Berlin to debrief his Stasi spy-masters, returning to the West with smuggled cash received in payment for his services concealed in the soles of his shoes. Ironically, he was paid in West German Marks because the eastern equivalent had little value on the international exchange. Looking back from a distance of over 30 years, Donal O’Donovan does not believe he gave away anything of value in the written reports he regularly dispatched to his handlers in Berlin. He would mostly take diplomats from Dublin-based embassies to lunch in the hope of picking up useful information. He eventually gave up his intelligence activities after nearly being caught on a number of occasions.