JOURNALIST Jack Holland of New York's Irish Echo and Susan Phoenix, widow of a top RUC man killed in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash arrive in Dublin this weekend to publicise a most unusual and controversial book. Phoenix - Policing the Shadows; the Secret War Against Terrorism in Northern Ireland was written by Holland with the co-operation of Mrs Phoenix. The two met several years ago when Ian Phoenix rented a cottage in Italy from the Hollands and, to his amazement, found it full of books on republicanism and terrorism. Back in the North, the Phoenixes sought out the Hollands and the couples became firm friends. Ian Phoenix told them he owned a hearing-aid shop.
Only when the details of the crash victims were publicised did the Hollands realise that their friend was in fact the head of the counter-surveillance unit in the RUC special branch. All those mysterious phone calls over dinner now made sense - he was actually running operations.