WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR TIMED ON-LINE AUCTION 17 MAY TO 7 JUNE 2024

110 History 285 1983 (25 September) escape of prisoners fromMaze Prison, signed book. Out Of The Maze by Derek Dunne, paperback, 1988, signed by 16 esacapees to flyleaf and title page 8 by 5.50in. (20.3 by 14cm) Condition: Very good, some creasing and bumped corners. Estimate €500-€700 (approx £430-£600) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 285 286 1973. Leather purse made for his wife by Freddie Scappaticci (‘Stakeknife’) in Long Kesh Internment Camp. Inscribed ‘Long Kesh 1973 To: Sheila, From Freddie’. Scappatticci married Sheila Cunningham in 1966. A unique item from the alleged British spy. 4.25 by 3.50in. (10.8 by 8.9cm) Provenance: Sheila Scappaticci; By whom gifted to the family of the present owner in gratitude for having her to stay in their Dublin home as a respite holiday from the Troubles in Belfast. Condition: Fine. “Scap”, as he was known, was born to an Italian family which came to Belfast in the 1940s. He married Sheila Cunningham, to whom this purse is dedicated, in 1966. A bricklayer by trade, he was interned without trial between 1971 and 1974, as result of being involved in protests for civil rights and rioting. After his release in 1974 it is alleged that he became a paid spy for the British Army, reportedly crossing over after being beaten up by the IRA following a row with a senior member. By the 1980s he was operating at the heart of the IRA, within its internal security unit. His position gave him access to IRA secrets - his unit was known as the ‘Clapham Junction’ of the organisation, according to one former IRA member, because everything went through it. But it was not until 2003 that Mr Scappaticci was alleged by the media to be the agent codenamed Stakeknife. He then left Ireland for England where he died in March 2023, aged 77. His wife Sheila, with whom he had six children, predeceased him in 2019. A former British army commander in Northern Ireland, the late Gen John Wilsey, once described the agent known as Stakeknife, as the “golden egg”, “the jewel in the crown” of British military intelligence over several years of the Troubles. He denied it and left Northern Ireland a year later when a recording surfaced of him talking to journalists about senior republicans, including Martin McGuinness. Estimate €1,000-€1,500 (approx £850-£1,280) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 286