Great story in The Times today about Croydon council’s education chief, Maria Gatlan, who had to resign yesterday after she was outted by a member of the Communist Party of Britain, Peter Latham, for being a former member of the Provisional IRA.
Gatlan did one year with the Provos and on one occasion accompanied the terror group’s chief of staff, Dave O’Connell, on a botched mission to buy weapons in continental Europe. The trip ended in disaster for the IRA when the Czechoslovak-made bazookas, rocket launchers, grenades and rifles were seized by police.
Gatlan then escaped to England with the help of an Observer journalist and wrote a book, ‘To Take Arms: A Year with the Provisional IRA‘, whilst becoming a suburban Tory.
Latham says he outted her as part of his campaign against the Conservative-led council’s proposals for community schools. “The only reason I did it was to help our campaign. I was told she had been in the Provisional IRA and I assumed that her Tory grouping were aware of that,” Dr Latham said.
