The Kincora scandal shocked Northern Ireland when it received media coverage in 1980. Since then there have been six enquiries of various kinds into the systematic sexual abuse of boys in public care in Kincora and other institutions, but none of them has silenced public concern. At the heart of the Kincora affair is the intrigue that surrounds one of the convicted sex abusers, William McGrath. A prominent Orangeman on an evangelical mission, McGrath, though never elected to public office, nevertheless exerted a powerful influence on the development of Unionism in the 197Os and 198Os as the IRA campaign of violence escalated.

Using hitherto unpublished sources, The Kincora Scandal reveals that as an agent of the British intelligence service, MI5, McGrath unwittingly played a key role in the deliberate destabilisation of the Northern Ireland state, a policy that had the long-term aim of facilitating British withdrawal - the so-called 'doomsday' scenario. It also details how, because of this, McGrath's activities as a sex offender were covered up and two police investigations were obstructed by the British establishment.