Operation Chiffon: The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland

On the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Peter Taylor tells  for the first time the gripping story of Operation Chiffon, the  top-secret intelligence operation that helped bring peace to Ireland.   ‘A gripping exploration of how MI5 and MI6 worked for a ceasefire with  the IRA – and how one meeting changed everything’ Telegraph 'An  extraordinary story . . . A true tale of espionage' The Times April  1998: the Good Friday Agreement is signed, ending decades of violence  and bloodshed in Northern Ireland. The process of getting the IRA to end  its so-called ‘armed struggle’ was always the prerequisite of the  search for peace. It was Operation Chiffon that finally helped make it  possible. Operation Chiffon takes us inside the top-secret intelligence  operation whose roots go back to the bloodiest years of the conflict in  the early 1970s, involving officers from MI6 and, later in the 1990s,  MI5. The remarkable story, which has remained hidden for forty years, is  now revealed by legendary BBC journalist Peter Taylor with unique  access to the officers involved. Drawing on exclusive interviews and  Taylor’s fifty years of covering the conflict, the book narrates in  first-hand detail how those involved risked their careers – and their  lives – to help secure the fragile peace that exists today. Taylor  vividly brings this covert operation to life and in the process  chronicles the history of Sinn Féin, rising from obscurity in the early  days of the Troubles to becoming the largest political party in Ireland  today. It is a story fraught with uncertainty and danger that, as Brexit  risks destabilising what was achieved in the Good Friday Agreement  twenty-five years ago, is more important than ever to remember.