Martin McGartland was a small-time criminal in Belfast's Catholic ghetto when he was approached by agents of the Royal Ulster Constabulary's 'Special Branch' (roughly equivalent to our FBI) and turned into a double agent inside the IRA. While the story is gripping I found it hard to be especially sympathetic to McGartland, who basically sells out the IRA because he doesn't care for their anti-crime efforts!McGartland's bland story of his recruitment as a double agent doesn't quite ring true for me; undoubtedly the R.U.C. had plenty of criminal evidence against him. As he is now in a British witness protection program we may assume a certain degree of self-interest in his demonization of his one-time 'comrades'! Nevertheless the gritty depiction of life in Catholic Belfast and McGartland's escapades as a double agent (especially his arrest by the IRA) make absorbing reading.