IRA Outcast Is Beaten to Death

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The author of an unflinching expose of life inside the Irish Republican Army was found dead by a roadside Wednesday, the victim of a savage beating.

The body of Eamon Collins was found at dawn near the town of Newry, 40 miles south of Belfast, his face battered beyond recognition. Police forensics experts said he had been stabbed repeatedly.

Collins, the IRA’s intelligence officer in Newry from 1980 to 1985, had returned to the border town four years ago despite making lasting enemies in the outlawed group.

In 1995, IRA supporters torched his car. Last year, they hit him with a car. Two months ago, they torched his new home.

The IRA issued no statement about Collins’ death, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary declined to say whether it had any firm evidence to suggest whether the IRA or an individual was to blame.

Collins, 45, first offended his IRA associates by privately questioning the group’s right to kill people.

His second offense was to confess his crimes--and implicate other IRA members--during a police interrogation in 1985. He later retracted his confession.