Michael Oatley CMG, OBE (born 1935) is a former Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) officer, involved in the resolution of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
[1][2] Posted to Belfast in March 1973, notionally as Assistant Political Adviser to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, Oatley soon became convinced of the need to develop dialogue with the leadership of the Provisional IRA with a view to influencing it in the direction of political action.
[1] By late 1974, despite the prohibition of any such contacts following the embarrassment of Whitelaw's attempt to negotiate in 1972, he succeeded in establishing three secure lines of potential communication, the most promising of which was via a Catholic businessman from Derry, Brendan Duddy.
[1] In a partnership lasting two decades the two men developed a secret back-channel link between the British Government and the IRA leadership which operated sporadically from 1973 until the 1990s.
[4] Peter Taylor's book Behind the Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein, describes Oatley as the most important British agent to have worked in Northern Ireland.