Robert Nairac

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Captain Robert Laurence Nairac GC (31 August 1948–15 May 1977) was a British Army officer who was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and posthumously awarded the George Cross.

Contents

[edit] Early life and military career

Nairac was born in Mauritius. He attended Ampleforth College and then read history at Lincoln College, Oxford, before moving on to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. After passing out, he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards. He was a devout RomanCatholic.

[edit] Military career in Northern Ireland

As an officer with the Grenadier Guards, Nairac's first tour of duty in Northern Ireland was in Belfast from July to November 1973. Following completion of a training course run by the Special Air Service (SAS), he returned to Northern Ireland in 1974. Much confusion exists concerning his role at that time, but it appears that he was attached to 4 Field Survey Troop – a sub-unit of a Special Duties unit known as 14 Intelligence Company (14 Int).

Posted to South Armagh, 4 Field Survey Troop was officially tasked with surveillance duties.

According to the 2003 interim Barron report commissioned to investigate the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, by the government of the Republic of Ireland, Nairac seems to have acted as a liaison officer between his unit, the local Army brigade, and Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch. However, he also seems to have taken on tasks which were outside his jurisdiction as a liaison officer – working undercover, and grooming contacts within loyalist and republican paramilitary organizations. He was accused of promoting sectarian warfare, and even of participating in it on the loyalist side.

He apparently boasted of visiting pubs in republican strongholds and singing songs in Irish. Former SAS officer Ken Connor, who was involved in the creation of 14 Int, wrote of him in his book, Ghost Force, p.263;

"Had he been an SAS member, he would not have been allowed to operate in the way he did. Before his death we had been very concerned at the lack of checks on his activities. No one seemed to know who his boss was, and he appeared to have been allowed to get out of control, deciding himself what tasks he would do."

However, 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" [1] Yet, far from being transferred as a result of these associations, that were noted in 1975, Nairac was on his fourth tour of duty in 1977, before it was abruptly terminated.

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, that Nairac was also alleged to have participated in - see below.

[edit] Shooting by the PIRA

On the evening of 14 May 1977, Nairac visited a pub in Drumintee, South Armagh, alone. He is said to have told regulars of the pub that his name was Danny McErlaine, a member of the Official IRA from the republican Ardoyne area in north Belfast.[2] Witnesses say that he got up and sang a song with the band who were playing that night. At around 11.45 p.m., he was abducted outside the pub and killed. His body was never found.

[edit] Allegations of collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries

In relation to Nairac's activities in 1974, the interim Barron report states that evidence of Nairac's involvement with loyalist paramilitaries exists. This view is based on allegations made in a 1993 Yorkshire Television documentary about the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974 entitled Hidden Hand. The narrator of Hidden Hand states:

"We have evidence from police, military and loyalist sources which confirms the links between Nairac and the Portadown loyalist paramilitaries. And also that in May 1974, he was meeting with these paramilitaries, supplying them with arms and helping them plan acts of terrorism against republican targets. In particular, the three prime Dublin suspects, Robert McConnell, Harris Boyle and the man called 'The Jackal' [Robin Jackson, Ulster Volunteer Force [UVF] member from Portadown], were run before and after the Dublin bombings by Captain Nairac."

According to the documentary, support for this allegation was said to have come from various sources:

"They include officers from RUC Special Branch, CID and Special Patrol Group; officers from the Garda Special Branch; and key senior loyalists who were in charge of the County Armagh paramilitaries of the day...."

It was alleged by a former MI6 operative, Captain Fred Holroyd, that Nairac admitted involvement in the assassination of PIRA volunteer John Francis Green on 10 January 1975 to him. Holroyd claimed in a New Statesman article written by Duncan Campbell that Nairac had boasted about Green's death and showed him a colour Polaroid photograph of Green's corpse taken directly after his assassination.

Former RUC Special Patrol Group member, John Weir, who colluded with loyalist paramilitaries, supports Holroyd's allegation with regard to the killing of Green:

“The men who did that shooting were Robert McConnell, Robin Jackson and I would be almost certain, Harris Boyle who was killed in the Miami attack. What I am absolutely certain of is that Robert McConnell, Robert McConnell knew that area really, really well. Robin Jackson was with him. I was later told that Nairac was with them. I was told by… a UVF man, he was very close to Jackson and operated with him. Jackson told [him] that Nairac was with them.” [3]

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 killings - the implication being that this was Nairac.[4]

Nairac was mentioned in Justice Henry' Barron's inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

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 McCaughey, that is connected to those alleged to have carried out the bombings.

These "included, in 1975, three murders at Donnelly's bar in Silverbridge, the murders of two men at a fake UDR 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 Portadown. In 1976, they included the murders of three members of the Reavey family, and the attack on the Rock Bar in Tassagh."[5]

Fred Holroyd and John Weir linked Robert Nairac to the Green and Miami Showband killings.

Susan McKay summarised Barron on the ballistic history of the weapons involved:

"It was probable the guns were kept at a farm at Glenanne belonging to James Mitchell, an RUC reservist... from which a group of paramilitaries and members of the security forces... carried out the massacres at Dublin and Monaghan.... The chain was unbroken because the perpetrators of these attacks weren't caught, or investigations were haphazard, or charges were dropped, or light or suspended sentences were given. The same individuals turn up again and again, but the links weren't noted. Some of the perpetrators weren't prosecuted despite evidence against them.[6]

Nairac was consistently linked with Robin Jackson, who alleged to be involved in loyalist sectarian violence (the link between British intelligence and Jackson was noted contemporaneously in 1975 – see Colin Wallace).

” On 28 October 1973, Robin Jackson murdered Patrick Campbell, a 34-year-old Catholic from Banbridge. He shot him on the doorstep of his home. Campbell's wife picked Jackson out during a police identity parade. However, a murder charge brought against him was dropped after it was claimed Mrs Campbell knew Jackson - a claim she denies. Six months later, the loyalist was one of those who bombed Dublin and Monaghan. Barron notes that in 1976, the security forces came up with evidence, including Jackson's finger print on one of the guns in the chain above. … He was released. In 1977, he was named in court as the gunman who shot William Strathearn in Ahoghill, Co Antrim. Two RUC men, Billy McCaughey and John Weir were convicted. Jackson wasn't even questioned, for "operational reasons" which have never been detailed."[7]

[edit] George Cross award

On 13 February 1979, Nairac was posthumously awarded the George Cross.

Captain Nairac's Posthumous George Cross citation reads, in part:

"On his fourth tour Captain Nairac was a Liaison Officer at Headquarters 3 Infantry Brigade. His task was connected with surveillance operations."

"On the night of 14/15 May 1977 Captain Nairac was abducted from a village in South Armagh by at least seven men. Despite his fierce resistance he was overpowered and taken across the border into the nearby Republic of Ireland where he was subjected to a succession of exceptionally savage assaults in an attempt to extract information which would have put other lives and future operations at serious risk. These efforts to break Captain Nairac's will failed entirely. Weakened as he was in strength-though not in spirit-by the brutality, he yet made repeated and spirited attempts to escape, but on each occasion was eventually overpowered by the weight of the numbers against him. After several hours in the hands of his captors Captain Nairac was callously murdered by a gunman of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who had been summoned to the scene. His assassin subsequently said 'He never told us anything'."

"Captain Nairac's exceptional courage and acts of the greatest heroism in circumstances of extreme peril showed devotion to duty and personal courage second to none."

[edit] Events after Nairac's death

In November 1977, Liam Townson, a 24-year-old PIRA volunteer from the village of Meigh outside Newry was convicted of Nairac's murder. He is alleged to have been the local PIRA commander at the time. Townson was convicted in Dublin's Special Criminal Court of Nairac's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Townson served 13 years in prison and was released in 1990.

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 jointly 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 manslaughter and jailed for ten years. McCoy was jailed for five years and Rocks for two.

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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Report by Justice Henry Barron into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, Dublin, December 2003, p. 175-176
  2. ^ Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country. Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 302-303. ISBN 034071736X. 
  3. ^ Report by Justice Henry Barron into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, Dublin, December 2003, P. 206
  4. ^ Enigmatic SAS man linked to massacre, The News Letter, August 1 2005
  5. ^ Barron throws light on a little shock of horrors, by Susan McKay, Sunday Tribune, December 14 2003
  6. ^ Barron throws light on a little shock of horrors, by Susan McKay, Sunday Tribune, December 14 2003
  7. ^ in ibid. See also graphic on ballistic history, pages 110-115 of [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/docs/cassel061106.pdf Report of the Independent International Panel on Alleged Collusion in Sectarian Killings in Northern Ireland, Center for Civil and Human Rights Notre Dame Law School, October 2006

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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