Robert Nairac
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| Robert Nairac | |
|---|---|
| 31 August 1948 – 15 May 1977 | |
| Place of birth | Mauritius |
| Place of death | Republic of Ireland |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1972 – 1977 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Grenadier Guards |
| Battles/wars | Operation Banner |
| Awards | George Cross |
Captain Robert Laurence Nairac GC (31 August 1948–15 May 1977) was a British Army officer who was abducted and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). He was posthumously awarded the George Cross.
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[edit] Background
Nairac was born in Mauritius to a father who was an eye surgeon who worked first in the North of England and then in Gloucester. He was the youngest of four children, with 2 sisters and a brother.[1]
Nairac, aged 10, attended prep school at Gilling Castle, a feeder school for the prestigious Roman Catholic public school Ampleforth College 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 Killanin and went to stay with the family in Dublin and Spiddal in County Galway.[2]
He read medieval and military history at Lincoln College, Oxford, and excelled in sport; he played for the Oxford rugby 2nd XV and revived the Oxford boxing club where he won 4 blues in bouts with Cambridge. During this time he was in a boxing competition which placed him against Martin Meehan, 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 Kes.[3]
He left Oxford in 1971 to enter Royal Military Academy Sandhurst under the sponsorship of the Grenadier Guards and was commissioned with them upon graduation.[4][5][6] After Sandhurst he undertook post-graduate studies at Dublin University, before joining his regiment.[7]
Nairac has been described by former army colleagues as "a committed Roman Catholic" [8]and as having "a strong Catholic belief".[9]
[edit] Military career in Northern Ireland
Nairac's first tour of duty in Northern Ireland was with No.1 Company, the Second Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. The Battalion was stationed in Belfast 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 Ardoyne 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 693lbs of explosive taken and 104 men jailed. The battalion took no casulties 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 Highlanders. The new battalion suffered a baptism of fire with Nairac narrowly avoiding death on their first patrol when a car bomb exploded on the Crumlin Road[10].
Rather than returning to his battalion, which was due for rotation to Hong Kong, Nairac volunteered for military intelligence duties in Northern Ireland. 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 Company (14 Int). Posted to South Armagh, 4 Field Survey Troop was officially tasked with surveillance duties. Nairac was the liaison officer among the unit, the local Army brigade, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary[11].
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 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. | ” |
Nairac finished his tour with 14th Int in the summer of 1975 and returned to his regiment in London. Nairac was promoted to captain on 4 September 1975.[12] Following a rise in violence culminating in the Kingsmill massacre, army troop levels were increased and Nairac accepted a post again as a liaison officer back in Northern Ireland.
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" [13] 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, that Nairac was also alleged to have participated in.
Nairac on his fourth tour was a liaison officer to the units based at Bessbrook mill. It was during this time that he was killed.
[edit] Shooting by the PIRA
On the evening of 14 May 1977, Nairac visited the The Three Steps 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.[14] He aroused suspicion by asking a girl at the bar about the best way to cross the border without being detected by the security forces. 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 following a struggle in the pub's car park and taken across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in Ravensdale, County Louth. Following a violent interrogation that lasted for over an hour, Nairac 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 obtain information through Nairac's confession. Nairac's last words were: 'Bless me Father, for I have sinned'. [15]
An edition of Spotlight (NI) broadcast on June 19th, 2007, claimed that his body was not destroyed in a meat grinder (as is widely believed). McCormick, who has been on the run in America 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. [16] 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' Remains
[edit] Events after Nairac's death
In November 1977, Liam Townson, a 24-year-old PIRA member from the village of Meigh outside Newry was convicted of Nairac's murder. Townson was the son of an Englishman who has married a local Meath girl. He confessed to killing Nairac and implicated other members of the gang involved. Townson made two admissible confessions to Gardaí 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 Dundalk 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.[17]
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.
Three other men, Terry McCormick, Pat Maguire and Kevin Crilly, wanted in connection with this incident remain on the run.[18]
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 [19][20]
[edit] Criminal case
On 20 May 2008, 57-year-old IRA veteran Kevin Crilly of Jonesborough, County Armagh was arrested at his home by officers of the Police Service of 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 Agreement. He was charged the following day with the murder of Nairac.[21]
[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:[22]
| “ | [...]
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] Allegations of collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries
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 Ireland and relations with loyalist paramilitaries.
[edit] Hidden Hand documentary
Allegations were made concerning Nairac 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 Gardaí Special Branch; and key senior loyalists who were in charge of the County Armagh paramilitaries of the day.... | ” |
[edit] Holroyd
It was alleged by a former MI6 operative, Captain Fred Holroyd, that Nairac admitted involvement in the assassination of PIRA member 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.
These claims given prominence when, in 1987, Ken Livingstone M.P told the House of Commons that Nairac was quite likely to have been the person who organised the killing of three Miami Showband musicians.
[edit] Barron report
Nairac was mentioned in Justice Henry' Barron's inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings when it examined the claims made by the Hidden Hand documentary and Holroyd.
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:[23]
| “ | 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. | ” |
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.[24]
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."[25]
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:[25]
| “ | 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. | ” |
[edit] References
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 2. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 2-6. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 7-9. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 45592, page 1581, 8 February 1972. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 45798, page 11912, 9 October 1972. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 45917, page 2678, 26 February 1973. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 12. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 39. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 168. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 21-31. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 32-66. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 46727, page 13884, 4 November 1975. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ Report by Justice Henry Barron into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, Dublin, December 2003, p. 175-176
- ^ Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country. Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 302-303. ISBN 034071736X.
- ^ Light shed on IRA murder of NairacThe Daily Telegraph
- ^ New Revelations in Nairac KillingBBC News
- ^ Parker, John (2004). Secret Hero. Metro, 226-229. ISBN 1843591000.
- ^ Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country. Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 309. ISBN 034071736X.
- ^ Nel Lister/Oonagh Flynn article
- ^ Sunday Mirror article on Nel Lister Jun 10, 2001
- ^ Pogatchnik, Shawn. "IRA veteran charged in 1977 killing of soldier". Associated Press, 21 May 2008
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 47769, page 1991, 12 February 1979. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ Report by Justice Henry Barron into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, Dublin, December 2003, P. 206
- ^ Enigmatic SAS man linked to massacre, The News Letter, August 1 2005
- ^ a b Barron throws light on a little shock of horrors, by Susan McKay, Sunday Tribune, December 14 2003
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- George Cross Database
- Death of a Hero (Amazon books)
- The killing of Frank Green
- History of SAS in Ireland by Seán Mac Mathúna
- Captain Fred Holroyd
- Sunday Mirror article on Nairac's death May 7, 2000
- 2003 Interim Barron Report into the Dublin & Monaghan Bombings
- Shadow man Article Esquire Magazine
