CaptainThe army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery...
Robert Laurence Nairac GCThe George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
(31 August 1948 –15 May 1977) was a
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officer who was abducted from a pub in south
County Armagh-History:Ancient Armagh was the territory of the Ulaid before the fourth century AD. It was ruled by the Red Branch, whose capital was Emain Macha near Armagh. The site, and subsequently the city, were named after the goddess Macha...
during an undercover operation and killed by the
Provisional Irish Republican ArmyThe Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(PIRA) on his fourth tour of duty in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer. He was posthumously awarded the
George CrossThe George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
in 1979.
Whilst several men have been imprisoned for his murder, the whereabouts of his body remains unknown.
There have been persistent allegations that he was working in
collusionCollusion is an agreement between two or more persons, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage...
with
loyalistUlster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
paramilitaries. An Irish judicial inquiry found no evidence to support such allegations.
Background
Nairac was born in
MauritiusMauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
to English parents. His family – long settled in
GloucestershireGloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
– had ancestors from the south of
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. His family name originates from the
GirondeFor the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
area of
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. His father was an eye surgeon who worked first in the north of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and then in
GloucesterGloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
. He was the youngest of four children, with two sisters and a brother.
Nairac, aged 10, attended prep school at
Gilling CastleGilling Castle is a castle near Gilling East, North Yorkshire, England . The castle was originally the home of the Etton family, who appeared there at the end of the 12th century...
, a feeder school for the Roman Catholic
public schoolA public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
Ampleforth CollegeAmpleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...
which he attended a year later. He gained nine O levels and three A levels, was head of his house and played rugby for the school. He became friends with the sons of
Lord KillaninMichael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin, MBE, TD was an Irish journalist, author, sports official, the sixth president of the International Olympic Committee...
and went to stay with the family in
Dublin and
SpiddalSpiddal is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway in Ireland. It is west of Galway city on the R336 road. Spiddal is on the eastern side of the county's Gaeltacht near Connemara, and is a tourist centre with a scenic beach, harbour, and shore fishing.-The village:The Mac...
in
County GalwayCounty Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...
.
He read medieval and military history at
Lincoln College, OxfordLincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
, and excelled in sport; he played for the Oxford rugby 2nd XV and revived the Oxford boxing club where he won four blues in bouts with Cambridge. During this time he was in a boxing competition which placed him against
Martin MeehanMartin Meehan was a Sinn Féin politician and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army . Meehan was the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA, and he spent eighteen years in prison during the Troubles.-Background and IRA activity:Meehan was born in 1945...
, later a senior IRA commander, with whom he went three rounds. He was also a falconer, keeping a bird in his room which was used in the film
KesKes is a 1969 British film from director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. The film is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave, written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines in 1968...
.
He left Oxford in 1971 to enter
Royal Military Academy SandhurstThe Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
under the sponsorship of the
Grenadier GuardsThe Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...
and was commissioned with them upon graduation. After Sandhurst he undertook post-graduate studies at Dublin University, before joining his regiment.
Nairac has been described by former army colleagues as "a committed Roman Catholic" and as having "a strong Catholic belief".
Military career in Northern Ireland
Nairac's first tour of duty in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
was with No.1 Company, the Second Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. The Battalion was stationed in
BelfastBelfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
from 5 July 1973 to 31 October 1973. The Grenadiers were given responsibility first for the Protestant Shankill Road area and then the predominantly Catholic
ArdoyneArdoyne is an Irish nationalist, working class and mainly Catholic district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It gained notoriety due to the large number of incidents during "The Troubles". It is home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants...
area. This was a time of high tension and regular contacts with paramilitaries. The battalion's two main objectives were to search for weapons and to find paramilitaries. Nairac was frequently involved in such activity on the streets of Belfast. He was also a volunteer in community relations activities in the Ardoyne sports club. The battalion's tour was adjudged a success with 58 weapons, 9,000 rounds of ammunition and 693 lbs of explosive taken and 104 men jailed. The battalion took no casualties and had no occasion to shoot anyone. After his tour had ended he stayed on as liaison officer for the replacement battalion, the 1st Battalion of the
Argyll and Sutherland HighlandersThe Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland....
. The new battalion suffered a baptism of fire with Nairac narrowly avoiding death on their first patrol when a
car bombA car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
exploded on the
Crumlin RoadThe Crumlin Road is a main road in north-west Belfast, Northern Ireland. The road runs from north of Belfast City Centre for about four miles to the outskirts of the city. It also forms part of the longer A52 road.-Lower Crumlin Road:...
.
Rather than returning to his battalion, which was due for rotation to
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Nairac volunteered for military intelligence duties in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Following completion of several training courses, he returned to Northern Ireland in 1974 attached to 4 Field Survey Troop, Royal Engineers, one of the three sub-units of a Special Duties unit known as
14 Intelligence Company14 Field Security and Intelligence Company is alleged to have been an element of the British Army Intelligence Corps which operated in Northern Ireland from the 1970s onwards. The unit conducted undercover surveillance operations against suspected members of Irish republican and loyalist...
(14 Int). Posted to South Armagh, 4 Field Survey Troop was given the task of performing surveillance duties. Nairac was the liaison officer among the unit, the local Army brigade, and the
Royal Ulster ConstabularyThe Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
.
However, he also seems to have taken on tasks which were outside his jurisdiction as a liaison officer – working undercover, for example. He apparently claimed to have visited pubs in republican strongholds and sung Irish rebel songs and acquired the nickname "Danny boy". He was often driven to pubs by now-
ConservativeThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP
Patrick MercerPatrick John Mercer OBE is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, representing the constituency of Newark in Parliament. He is a frequent commentator on defence and security issues having served as infantry officer in the British Army and held the position of Shadow Minister for...
, who was then an Army officer. Former SAS Warrant officer Ken Connor, who was involved in the creation of 14 Int, wrote of him in his book, Ghost Force, p. 263:
Nairac finished his tour with 14th Int in mid-1975 and returned to his regiment in London. Nairac was promoted to captain on 4 September 1975. Following a rise in violence culminating in the
Kingsmill massacreThe Kingsmill massacre took place on 5 January 1976 near the village of Kingsmill in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Ten Protestant men were taken from a minibus and shot dead by a group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force...
, army troop levels were increased and Nairac accepted a post again as a liaison officer back in Northern Ireland.
Nairac on his fourth tour was a liaison officer to the units based at
BessbrookBessbrook is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about three miles northwest of Newry and close to the main Dublin–Belfast road and rail line...
mill. It was during this time that he was killed.
Shooting by the PIRA
On the evening of 14 May 1977, Nairac arrived at The Three Steps pub in
DruminteeDromintee or Drumintee is a small village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 364 people. It lies within the Newry and Mourne District Council area.- People :...
, South Armagh, by car, alone. He is said to have told regulars of the pub that his name was Danny McErlaine, a motor mechanic and member of the
Official IRAThe Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
from the republican
ArdoyneArdoyne is an Irish nationalist, working class and mainly Catholic district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It gained notoriety due to the large number of incidents during "The Troubles". It is home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants...
area in north Belfast. The real McErlaine, on the run since 1974, was killed by the IRA in June 1978, after stealing arms from the organisation. Witnesses say that he got up and sang a republican folk song "
The Broad Black BrimmerThe Broad Black Brimmer is an Irish Republican folk song written by Noel Nagle of the Wolfe Tones.The song narrates the story of a boy whose father died before he was born, fighting in the Irish Republican Army. The narrator is asked by his mother to try on his father's old uniform and as he does...
" with the band who were playing that night. At around 11.45 p.m., he was abducted following a struggle in the pub's car park and taken across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in the Ravensdale Woods in
County LouthCounty Louth is a county of Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Louth. Louth County Council is the local authority for the county...
. Following a violent interrogation during which Nairac was punched, kicked,
pistol-whippedPistol-whipping is the act of using a handgun as a blunt weapon, wielding it as if it were a club or blackjack. "Pistol-whipping" and "to pistol-whip" were reported as "new words" of American speech in 1955, with cited usages from 1940s...
and hit with a wooden post, he was shot dead. He did not admit to his true identity at any time. Terry McCormick, one of Nairac's abductors, posed as a priest in order to try to elicit information by way of Nairac's confession. Nairac's last words according to McCormick were: 'Bless me Father, for I have sinned'.
His disappearance sparked a huge search effort in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The hunt in Northern Ireland was led by Major
H. JonesLieutenant-Colonel Herbert Jones VC OBE, , known as H. Jones, was a British army officer and posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross...
, who as a colonel in the Parachute Regiment was to be awarded a posthumous
Victoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
in the
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
. Jones was brigade major at HQ 3rd Infantry Brigade. Nairac and Jones had become friends and would sometimes go to the Jones household for supper. After a four day search, the
Garda Síochána, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
confirmed to the
Royal Ulster ConstabularyThe Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
that they had reliable evidence of Nairac's killing.
An edition of
SpotlightSpotlight is the name given to a BBC Northern Ireland weekly current affairs programme.The programme is aired on BBC1 Northern Ireland at 10.35pm on Tuesday evenings, with a repeat on BBC2. It is available to UK viewers outside of Northern Ireland on BBC iPlayer for a week after the programme...
broadcast on 19 June 2007, claimed that his body was not destroyed in a meat grinder, as alleged by an unnamed IRA source. McCormick, who has been on the run in the United States for thirty years because of his involvement in the killing (including being the first to attack Nairac in the car park), was told by a senior IRA commander that it was buried on farmland, unearthed by animals, and reburied elsewhere. The location of the body's resting place remains a mystery. Nairac is one of nine IRA victims, whose graves have never been revealed and who are collectively known as 'The Disappeared'. The cases are under review by the
Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' RemainsThe Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains was established by treaty between the United Kingdom Government and the Government of Ireland, made on 27 April 1999 in connection with the affairs of Northern Ireland....
.
In May 2000 allegations were made claiming that Nairac had married, and fathered a child with a woman named Nel Lister, also known as Oonagh Flynn or Oonagh Lister. In 2001, DNA testing revealed the allegations to be a hoax.
Criminal prosecutions
In November 1977, Liam Townson, a 24-year-old PIRA member from the village of
MeighMeigh is a small village and townland near Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 444 people in the 2001 Census. It lies within the Newry and Mourne District Council area.-Geography:...
outside
NewryNewry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
, was convicted of Nairac's murder. Townson was the son of an Englishman who had married a Meath woman. He confessed to killing Nairac and implicated other members of the unit involved. Townson made two admissible confessions to Garda officers. The first was made around the time of his arrest, it started with "I shot the British captain. He never told us anything. He was a great soldier." The second statement was made at
DundalkDundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...
police station after Townson had consulted a solicitor. He had become hysterical and distressed and screamed a confession to the officer in charge of the investigation.
Townson was convicted in Dublin's
Special Criminal CourtThe Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in the Republic of Ireland which tries terrorist and organized crime cases. Article 38 of the Constitution of Ireland empowers the Dáil to establish "special courts" with wide-ranging powers when "the ordinary courts are inadequate to secure...
of Nairac's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Townson served 13 years in prison and was released in 1990. He was part of
Conor MurphyConor Terence Murphy is an Irish republican Sinn Féin politician.According to An Phoblacht, Murphy first became involved with the Irish Republican Army during the 1981 hunger strikes...
's 1998 election campaign team and as of 2000 he was living in St. Moninna Park, in Meigh.
In 1978, the RUC arrested five men from the South Armagh area. Three of them - Gerard Fearon, 21, Thomas Morgan, 18, and Daniel O'Rourke, 33 -were charged with Nairac's murder. Michael McCoy, 20, was charged with kidnapping, and Owen Rocks, 22, was accused of withholding information. Fearon and Morgan were convicted of Nairac's murder. O'Rourke was acquitted but found guilty of
manslaughterManslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
and jailed for ten years. McCoy was jailed for five years and Rocks for two. Morgan died in a road accident in 1987, a year after his release. O'Rourke became a prominent
Sinn FéinSinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
member in Drumintee.
Two other men, Terry McCormick and Pat Maguire, wanted in connection with this incident remain on the run. Maguire has been reported as living in
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in the US.
On 20 May 2008, 57-year-old IRA veteran Kevin Crilly of
Jonesborough, County ArmaghJonesborough, known before the Plantation of Ulster as Bollanclare , is a small village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, one kilometre from the border with County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in the Ring of Gullion. It is about 8 kilometres south of Newry. In the 2001 Census it had a...
was arrested at his home by officers of the
Police Service of Northern IrelandThe Police Service of Northern Ireland is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland....
. He had been on the run in the United States but had returned to Northern Ireland under an alias after the 1998
Belfast AgreementThe Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement , sometimes called the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process...
. He was charged the following day with the kidnapping and
false imprisonmentFalse imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
of Nairac. In November 2009, Crilly was also charged with the murder of Robert Nairac at
NewryNewry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
magistrates' court during a bail hearing on the two counts on which he had been charged in 2008. Crilly was cleared on all counts in April 2011 as the Judge considered that the prosectution failed to prove intention or prior knowledge on the part of Crilly.
Nairac's killing is one of those under investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's
Historical Enquiries TeamThe Historical Enquiries Team is a unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland set up in September 2005 to investigate the 3,269 unsolved murders committed during the Troubles ....
.
George Cross award
On 13 February 1979, Nairac was posthumously awarded the
George CrossThe George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
.
Captain Nairac's posthumous George Cross citation reads, in part:
Collusion allegations
Claims have been made abouts Nairac's conduct with regard to claims of involvement in the killing of an IRA member in the
Republic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
and relations with loyalist paramilitaries.
Hidden Hand documentary
Allegations were made concerning Nairac in a 1993
Yorkshire TelevisionYorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
documentary about the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974 entitled Hidden Hand. The narrator of Hidden Hand states:
According to the documentary, support for this allegation was said to have come from various sources:
Holroyd
It was alleged by a former MI6 operative, Captain Fred Holroyd, that Nairac admitted involvement in the assassination of PIRA member
John Francis GreenJohn Francis Green , was a leading member of the North Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, holding the rank of Staff Captain and Intelligence Officer. He was killed in a farmhouse outside Castleblayney, County Monaghan, by members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force...
on 10 January 1975 to him. Holroyd claimed in a
New StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
article written by
Duncan CampbellDuncan Campbell is a British freelance investigative journalist, author and television producer who, since 1975, has specialised in the subjects of intelligence and security services, defence, policing, civil liberties and, latterly, computer forensics. He was a staff writer at the New Statesman...
that Nairac had boasted about Green's death and showed him a colour
PolaroidInstant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...
photograph of Green's corpse taken directly after his assassination.
These claims were given prominence when, in 1987,
Ken LivingstoneKenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
M.PA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
told the House of Commons that Nairac was quite likely to have been the person who organised
the killing of three Miami Showband musiciansThe Miami Showband killings was a paramilitary attack at Buskhill, County Down, Northern Ireland, in the early morning of 31 July 1975. It left five people dead at the hands of Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen, including three members of The Miami Showband...
.
The Barron Report stated that: Also Holroyd's evidence was questioned by Barron in the following terms:
Barron report
Nairac was mentioned in Justice Henry' Barron's inquiry into the
Dublin and Monaghan bombingsThe Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. The attacks killed 33 civilians and wounded almost 300 – the highest number of casualties in any single day during the conflict known as The Troubles.A loyalist...
when it examined the claims made by the Hidden Hand documentary, Holroyd and
Colin WallaceJohn Colin Wallace is a former British soldier and psychological warfare operative who was one of the members of the 'Clockwork Orange' project, which is alleged to have been an attempt to smear a number of British politicians in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
Former RUC Special Patrol Group member, John Weir, who was a loyalist paramilitary, claimed he had received information from an informant that Nairac was involved in the killing of Green:
In addition, "Surviving Miami Showband members Steve Travers and Des McAlee testified in court that an Army officer with a crisp English accent oversaw the Miami attack" - see
Miami Showband killingsThe Miami Showband killings was a paramilitary attack at Buskhill, County Down, Northern Ireland, in the early morning of 31 July 1975. It left five people dead at the hands of Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen, including three members of The Miami Showband...
- the implication being that this was Nairac. Fred Holroyd and John Weir also linked Robert Nairac to the Green and Miami Showband killings.
Martin DillonMartin Dillon is an author and journalist from Northern Ireland. He worked for eighteen years at the BBC and has written a number of plays and novels, but he is best known for his non-fiction books about the Troubles....
, however, in his book The Dirty War maintained that Nairac was not involved in either attack.
Colin Wallace, in describing Nairac as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer (MILO) said "his duties did not involve agent handling". Nevertheless, Nairac "seems to have had close links with the Mid-Ulster UVF, including Robin Jackson and Harris Boyle". According to Wallace , "he could not have carried out this open association without official approval, because otherwise he would have been transferred immediately from Northern Ireland" Wallace wrote in 1975; Nairac was on his fourth tour of duty in 1977.
Robin Jackson was implicated in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974, and Harris Boyle was blown up by his own bomb during the Miami Showband massacre.
The Barron Inquiry found a chain of ballistic history linking weapons and killings under the control of a group of UVF and security force members, including RUC Special Patrol Group members John Weir and
Billy McCaugheyWilliam "Billy" McCaughey was a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Special Patrol Group and the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force in the 1970s. He was imprisoned for 16 years for murder from 1980 to 1996...
, that is connected to those alleged to have carried out the bombings. This group was known as the "
Glenanne gangThe Glenanne gang was a name given, since 2003, to a loose alliance of Northern Irish loyalist extremists who carried out sectarian killings and bomb attacks in the 1970s against the Irish Catholic and Irish nationalist community. Most of its attacks took place in the area of County Armagh and mid...
". Incidents they were responsible for "included, in 1975, three murders at Donnelly's bar in Silverbridge, the murders of two men at a fake
Ulster Defence RegimentThe Ulster Defence Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army which became operational in 1970, formed on similar lines to other British reserve forces but with the operational role of defence of life or property in Northern Ireland against armed attack or sabotage...
checkpoint, the murder of IRA man John Francis Green in the Republic, the murders of members of the Miami showband and the murder of Dorothy Trainor in PortadownIn 1976, they included the murders of three members of the Reavey family, and the attack on the Rock Bar in Tassagh."
The
Pat Finucane CentreThe Pat Finucane Centre is a human rights advocacy and lobbying entity in Northern Ireland. Named in honour of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, it operates advice centres in Derry and Newry, dealing mainly with complaints from nationalists and republicans...
stated when investigating allegations of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, that although Nairac has been linked to many attacks, "caution has to be taken when dealing with Nairac as attacks are sometimes attributed to him purely because of his reputation".
In fiction
Eoin McNameeEoin McNamee is an Irish writer.He has written two novellas, The Last of Deeds and Love in History , which was shortlisted for the 1989 Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award for Irish Literature; and the novels, Resurrection Man , which detailed the bloodletting of the UVF gang the Shankill Butchers ;...
's 2004 novel The Ultras offers a fictionalised but factually-based account of Nairac's life and career. McNamee has said that he had had "the idea of Nairac in my head for a long time, but I wasn't able to find a way into the whole subject. In the end I used him as a conduit to the covert and psychic infrastructure of the time, to the gripping physical and moral texture of what was going on."
Further reading
- Bradley, Anthony. Requiem for a Spy: The Killing of Robert Nairac. Cork: Mercier Pres, 1993. ISBN 1-8563-5020-7
External links