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Nairac, Robert May 14 1977; Dromintee, County Armagh Ireland
Topic Started: Aug 4 2011, 07:26 AM (1,084 Views)
monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Man is charged with Nairac murder
Captain Nairac's body was never found
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A man has been charged with the murder of British Army officer Robert Nairac more than 32 years ago.

Kevin Crilly, 59, from Lower Foughill Road, Jonesborough, was charged with the murder and two counts of kidnapping and false imprisonment.

He was released on bail following the hearing at Newry Magistrates Court.

Captain Nairac, 29, originally from Gloucestershire, was abducted by the IRA from Dromintee, County Armagh, on 14 May 1977. His body was never found.

The accused spoke only to confirm he understood the charges against him.

A detective sergeant told the judge on Wednesday that he could connect Mr Crilly with the charges.

'Traces of blood'

He told the court Captain Nairac was abducted after a scuffle broke out at the Three Steps bar in Dromintee in south Armagh.


BACKGROUND

The kidnap and murder of British Army Captain Robert Nairac is one of the most mysterious cases of Northern Ireland's Troubles.

On the night of his disappearance on 14 May 1977, he was working undercover without backup in the republican heartland of south Armagh, attempting to gather intelligence on IRA operations.

Accounts of the final hours before his disappearance have the Catholic public school-educated officer in a bar singing Irish rebel songs in a fake local accent.

He was posthumously awarded the George Cross - the citation praises his resistance to his abductors and bravery under "a succession of exceptionally savage assaults".

Three men have previously been convicted of murdering Capt Nairac.

The court heard that the car used to drive Captain Nairac away was either owned or driven by Mr Crilly.

Two weeks later, a strand of hair consistent with a sample taken from Captain Nairac's hairbrush was found in the car.

It's believed he was driven across the border to Ravensdale forest in County Louth, where two fishermen later found traces of blood.

At the time Mr Crilly was interviewed by police about Captain Nairac's disappearance, but he was later released.

He spent 29 years in the United States, and the court was told he only returned to Northern Ireland after the break-up of a long-term relationship.

The court heard the police had spoken to the FBI about what he did in the intervening years in the US.

Police opposed an application for bail because of the severity of the murder charge.

A defence solicitor said that Mr Crilly had been granted bail in May 2008 after being charged with false imprisonment and kidnapping and had consistently met with all bail conditions.

After some legal argument, he was eventually released on bail.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/norther...and/8355648.stm
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightEuro...0&#entry8681254
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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Heroic undercover soldier Robert Nairac was savagely executed by the IRA. Will yesterday's arrest solve the mystery of his missing body?

By Tony Rennell
Last updated at 9:41 AM on 21st May 2008
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Fatal mission: Captain Robert Nairac in his uniform

He put down his Guinness and pushed his way through the throng to the stage in the packed, smoke-filled pub in remote Bandit Country, close to the border with the Irish Republic, as the band leader called out his name.

'Now Danny from Belfast wants to sing us a song.' It was just before 11.30pm in the Three Steps in the tiny village of Drumintee.

All eyes were on this tall, handsome stranger with his unkempt curly hair, black donkey jacket and grubby sweater.


And then, as he drunkenly belted out the fast and furious words of The Broad Black Brimmer, everyone joined in with its rousing anti-British verses:

'When men claim Ireland's freedom, The one who'll choose to lead them

Will wear the broad black brimmer of the IRA.'

They liked him so much that, when he'd finished, they roared for more.

In lawless South Armagh, Danny McAlevey was not just a hit, he was 'one of them', even if his accent seemed at times to stray: a bit of Connemara here, a hint of the Ardoyne there.

But among some of the tough men at the bar there was muttering about more than his accent. Who exactly was this stranger?

They were not fooled by the 'Up the IRA' performance they had just witnessed. They had heard whispers on the Provo gunmen's grapevine about this Danny.

'This guy is an SAS man and we're going to give him a beating!' one was heard saying to a group.

But it was more than a pasting they were to hand out over the next few hours. By the morning, 'Danny McAlevey' - alias 28-year- old Captain Robert Nairac of the Grenadier Guards, English public schoolboy and Oxford boxing Blue - was dead, murdered by the IRA he had just been singing about.

It was one of the most brutal killings of the 30-year Troubles that beset Northern Ireland in the second half of the last century.

It also remains one of its most mysterious. Six men were convicted of the killing, three for murder.

But the English captain's body has never been found, and even now, with peace between the sectarian communities in the Province, the Provisional IRA will not say where he was buried.

Yesterday, however, police investigating the Nairac's murder arrested another man for questioning. He was held after returning to Northern Ireland following years of living in the U.S. under an assumed name.

Kevin Crilly, 57, a woodcutter and carpenter, was asleep when heavily armed police burst into the house where he was staying in South Armagh. He'd been on the run since Nairac was murdered 31 years ago.

And it emerged yesterday that Nairac's body may have been buried on farmland in the so-called Bandit Country on the borders between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

It is understood the police have been told the body was initially dumped in a ditch, but subsequently buried on a farm, and that new searches may begin soon.

Nairac's death still divides the communities.

To the British and their supporters, he was a hero who, disregarding his own safety, took his undercover soldiering into a cauldron of danger and richly deserved the posthumous George Cross he was awarded.

To IRA sympathisers, he was a spy, pure and simple, who was caught in the act.

Nairac was not, in fact, a member of the SAS. He had trained with the elite Army outfit, but had not stayed long enough to be 'badged', as those in the Regiment call themselves.

By the exacting standards of that elite force, he was too much of a maverick.

But he was a liaison officer between the Army battalions in Northern Ireland and the various other covert organisations, including the SAS, also operating there. This gave him a part to play in the murky world of espionage and secret operations.

It seems he may have taken 'liaise' to mean 'actively involve myself'. In republican strongholds, he set himself the task of making contacts, acquiring information, following leads.

It was a risky road for a man who, as his singing showed, liked the limelight.

He would drink at known Republican haunts, not taking his place quietly in the corner, but leaning on the bar, orchestrating the conversation. No one could deny there was a cockiness about Robert Nairac.

But on that spring night in May 1977, at the Three Steps inn, his self-belief went a step too far.

He had arrived at the pub from the Army barracks at Bessbrook Mill, driving out into what he well knew was hostile country in a red Triumph Toledo. On the two-way radio hidden in the dashboard, he reported his arrival to his HQ and switched off.

He was armed, with a 9mm Browning pistol in a shoulder holster and two magazines of ammunition, but he left it all in the car. Perhaps he reasoned that he might be frisked inside the pub or the bulge might give him away.

And anyway, he had his boxer's fists - more than enough to see off a few punchy 'Micks', he would have told himself.

Inside the pub, he chatted and sang. One of the band remembered seeing him with two men.

There seemed to be some aggravation between them. Was a brawl about to break out?

As the evening ended and the band packed up, he suggested 'Danny' should leave with them. But the offer was declined.

Just before midnight, as the band drove away, they caught sight of five men trading punches at the other end of the car park.

It was not an unusual ending to a pub night, and they took no notice. But Nairac was fighting for his life.

The men he had run into were not IRA hard men.

They were low in the hierarchy, and just ' a bunch of amateurs' along with their mates, according to some accounts.

But, not getting satisfactory answers to their questions, they had set on him. If Nairac had simply taken his beating, he might just have got away with it, Army sources say. But he was not that sort of man.
robert nairac

Undercover: Robert Nairac strikes a pose in his undercover dress

He hit out and hit hard, then made a dash for his car to try to reach his pistol. He may even have got it briefly, but two of his attackers hauled him back by the ends of his scarf while others clubbed him from behind.

Unconscious, he was bundled into a waiting car and within ten
minutes was on the other side of the border, beyond any sort of British help.

Not that his superiors had any idea he was in trouble. It was not until the next morning, when he had failed to return to barracks, that he was posted as missing. By then he was dead.

In a field in the Republic, he was dragged out of the car and set upon by what was now a lynch mob, its numbers grown to nine.

They punched and kicked him, but still he fought back, grabbing his pistol back from one of the gang and getting off a shot which hit one of them in the leg before they leapt back on him again.

They had sent for Liam Townson, the local IRA commander, who arrived at around 2am after picking up the revolver that he kept hidden under a wall.

Nairac protested his innocence, insisting his name was Danny McAlevey and he was from the Ardoyne in the Roman Catholic sector of Belfast.

Was he telling the truth? Unsure, Townson marched the now bloody and savagely battered captive to one side to talk to him quietly, to find out the truth.

But Nairac wasn't going quietly. Though badly wounded, he swung round and grabbed the IRA man's gun, turned it on his captor and pulled the trigger - only for it to
jam.

In an instant, the mob were back on top of him, pounding him to the ground, where he lay, his face in the grass, as he slipped towards unconsciousness.

Townson tried one last time to wring the truth out of 'Danny'. One of the gang knelt beside him and said he was a Roman Catholic priest who would administer the last rites and hear his confession. But Nairac - a Catholic - stuck to his story.

His deception having failed, Townson put the gun to his victim's head and squeezed the trigger.

Just as it had when Nairac briefly had it in his hand, the pistol misfired. It clicked twice more to no effect before finally firing. Robert Nairac's struggle was over.

Two days later, the Provos announced their victim had confessed to being an SAS man, had divulged vital information and been 'executed'. But Nairac had never made any such admission, as Townson himself confirmed when he stood trial in Dublin for the abduction and murder.

'I shot the English captain. He never told us anything. He was a great soldier,' he told detectives.

To one of Nairac's fellow officers, he said: 'He was one of the bravest people I ever met.'

As for his remains, there are many theories but no certainties. One account says Provo leaders spirited the body away, afraid that if it was seen the evidence of the appalling torture inflicted on Nairac would rebound against them, and dumped it in a peat bog. Another version is that it was put through the grinders at a meatprocessing plant.

There have been many attempts to blacken Nairac's reputation. Republican circles cast him as a murderer, a secret, undercover killer of IRA activists in South Armagh, who got what he deserved. No evidence has ever been produced to support this.

He died a hero's death, though he was a strange sort of hero for an undercover war. He was always larger than life, not a Smiley figure content to stay in the shadows.

At Oxford, he kept a hawk and fed it with raw steak that he placed on his nose and waited for the bird to strike. Strong nerves were in his nature, but so was a sense of drama.

An SAS officer who worked alongside him and was one of the last of his comrades to see him alive said: 'He was a romantic and a loner - one of those guys who, in the late 1800s, you could imagine wandering about on his own on the North-West Frontier disguised as a native, gathering intelligence.

'He was desperate for success. He pushed himself hard, and pushed the boundaries of safety to the limit.'

Nairac's hero was Lawrence of Arabia, and he felt the same intense commitment to Ireland as Lawrence had to the desert. He had often stayed in Dublin and Galway in his youth and the place 'was instilled in his psyche with a kind of romantic intensity', said a school friend.

'He was captivated by the people, he was fascinated by the history and he knew all those lovely songs.'

But in the end, he immersed himself too deeply in the dark side of the country he loved. Colleagues felt he was on a personal mission to resolve the Troubles - naive, as it was, that was why he was in South Armagh.

His biographer, John Parker, says: 'Wanting to make a difference and fascinated by danger, he thought the risks were worth taking.' But they cost him in his life.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...ssing-body.html
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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PATRICK MERCER MP: I was with Robert Nairac the night before the IRA killed him... now justice must be done

By Patrick Mercer, Tory Mp For Newark

Last updated at 10:17 PM on 14th November 2009

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When I heard last week that a former member of the IRA had been charged with the murder of Captain Robert Nairac, it took me back more than 30 years.

Indeed, it seems only yesterday that I was a young lieutenant serving with the Sherwood Foresters in South Armagh when the alarm went up that he had gone missing on undercover operations.

Even as we were flown out by Puma helicopter from our base in Crossmaglen, I knew this would be a fruitless search, for Robert's life was only ever going to end either in brilliant success or heroic death.
Robert Nairac
Robert Nairac

Daring hero: Captain Robert Nairac in formal Army dress and as he went about undercover gathering intelligence in Ulster

The man was the very definition of charismatic. Not particularly tall, but athletically built with a smile and a manner that would charm the birds from the trees, Robert Nairac had been involved in undercover intelligence operations in Ulster several times before I met him.

In early 1977 my battalion deployed to South Armagh and attached to us was a squadron of 22 Special Air Service, of which Robert was the liaison officer.

The task was not a particularly well defined one and it led him into a murky world of operations - sometimes in plain clothes and unmarked cars, sometimes in uniform.

With hair down to his shoulders and a goatee beard, he hardly looked the part when out on patrol with troops like mine.

Nonetheless, his daring and style of operations were breathtaking. He had been around Crossmaglen for several months before we arrived and he got to know almost everyone in the village, his Irish background and charm allowing him to establish a relationship and an empathy with the people that was remarkable.

It seems hard to believe now but I would frequently escort him into the village and to one of the bars where he would leave his weapons and radio with me before going into the pub - in full uniform - buying drinks all round and then singing Republican songs along with half of the IRA sympathisers in South Armagh.

Yet, an hour later he would emerge not only sober but in one piece and with all sorts of titbits of intelligence gained. It was one hell of a way to do his job.

But I also had the chance to see him under fire. A patrol of mine to which he was attached was engaged by a gunman in Crossmaglen a couple of days before Robert disappeared. Luckily, the rounds missed their mark but it was as if a madly brave spirit had taken over Robert's body.

One minute he was chatting away to one of the local farmers; the next, before the echoes of the shots had died away, he was issuing orders to the troops and charging straight for where he believed the enemy firing point to be, with his automatic shotgun ready to deal with anyone who got in his way.
Patrick Mercer MP

Brother-in-arms: Patrick Mercer MP served with Robert Nairac

That in itself was remarkable but even more fascinating was the way the men followed him. Such a powerful influence had he over the soldiers that they followed not just instantly but willingly - they would not have allowed him to go forward by himself. That is a tremendous tribute to any officer, particularly one from another regiment.

I was a 20-year-old junior officer, yet he treated me and everybody else as if we were heroes.

I remember talking to him in the little canteen at the back of the RUC barracks in Crossmaglen. It seemed as if he had already lived a charmed and fascinating life - and as if he would be a distinguished and respected man in whatever path he chose to follow.

He told me he had won a boxing blue at Lincoln College, Oxford, before being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards - and I determined to try to do the same when I went up to Oxford the following year.

We talked about falconry, another of his passions. He was famous at Oxford for training and keeping a bird of prey in college outbuildings. It was somehow entirely characteristic that the undergraduate Nairac managed to convince film director Ken Loach to use his bird as the 'star' of one of the most famous British films ever - Kes.

I asked him if it was hard to train a bird of prey - to impose his will on a wild animal. He said he found it easy. But Nairac was so charismatic he could have found it easy to impose his will on most people. In truth there was something of the bird of prey about him.

I was with him the night before he was killed. I drove him to a rough cellar bar in Crossmaglen. He handed me his Wingmaster pump-action shotgun and radio and went inside, despite the fact the Army was banned from going there because it would have been seen as inflammatory.

I remember the band was playing Pearl's A Singer. The next thing I heard was the sound of Nairac singing Danny Boy - it was something of a signature song. He sang it so well that the locals even called him Danny Boy.

Unfortunately, his bravery over-reached itself. On May 14 he was by himself in a pub in Drumintee posing as a member of the Official IRA when some local provos smelt a rat.

We did not know this at the time but it emerged that when he was hustled outside by these thugs he put up a terrific fight. Having had his weapon taken away from him he felled a couple of his attackers with straight punches before being overpowered, taken to a nearby forest and brutally murdered.

In November 1977, 24-year-old Provisional IRA member Liam Townson was convicted of Nairac's murder and sentenced to life. He served 13 years. The following year, the RUC arrested five men from the Armagh area.

Gerard Fearon, 21, and Thomas Morgan, 18, were convicted of murder and given life. Daniel O'Rourke was sentenced to ten years for manslaughter and two other men were convicted of kidnapping. None of the five served more than ten years.
Kevin Crilly

Accused: Kevin Crilly arrives at Newry Magistrates Court before being charged with the 1977 murder

Kevin Crilly was questioned by police, but fled to America, then later returned to the UK and now, more than 30 years after the event, has been charged with Robert's murder.

This is going to be an interesting case. Should Crilly be found guilty, what can be done with him? He had been on the run but returned to Ulster under a false name after the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

In May 2008 he was charged with kidnapping Nairac and now has been charged with murder. Though the prosecution objected, Crilly was released on bail - an unusual move in the case of an alleged murderer.

Suppose Crilly is found guilty. Under the Good Friday Agreement will he be imprisoned, pardoned or will some other unique punishment be found?

It raises fascinating question, for Crilly belonged to the same organisation that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness did - and where are they now?

I will find it a difficult pill to swallow should Crilly be found guilty and not serve time for this brutality.

Robert was awarded a posthumous George Cross for gallantry. I quote from his commendation: '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 his will failed entirely.'

But let the last word go to one of his killers, Liam Townson. He said: 'I shot the British Captain. He never told us anything. He was a great soldier.' If Robert had to die young, this is the sort of epitaph he would have wanted.

But I believe a far better memorial would be for Crilly to stand trial and serve a proper sentence. Even in the new Northern Ireland, justice has to be seen to be done.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-...l#ixzz1U3xffKol
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-...stice-done.html
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Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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Nairac: An undercover hero or a maverick fool?

Sunday, 13 May 2007
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Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the murder by the IRA of undercover soldier Captain Robert Nairac. A former UDR officer who worked with Nairac tells Stephen Gordon of his disturbing memories of the SAS-trained soldier and how his cavalier ways alarmed him...

Ex-UDR officer 'Dan' will never forget his first meeting with Grenadier Guardsman Robert Nairac.

It was during that meeting in 1975 that Nairac asked the Co Armagh-based soldier if he knew any UDR men who wanted to "take on the IRA at their own game".

Their first journey into south Armagh followed an order by his operations officer to take a new 'MILO' (Military Intelligence Liaison Officer) on a 'familiarisation' tour of the Battalion area.

"I first saw Bob Nairac when he arrived at my home near Portadown, parked his car in the drive, walked up to the front door and introduced himself as Captain Charlie McDonald. He said he was based at Castledillon.

"He wanted me to take him around the area, point out known 'players', that sort of thing. But he insisted on using his car, not mine!"

Nairac was driving what the military referred to as a 'Q' car - or covert vehicle - that had a military radio fitted behind the ordinary radio and a microphone beneath the seat so the operator did not have to use a handset.

Dan said that from the outset it was obvious Nairac was well trained in counter-surveillance techniques.

"He knew the ropes. He was clearly no ordinary 'MILO'. He was much sharper than any others I had met. He asked very different questions. I soon realised this guy was not the 'rookie' he wanted me to think he was.

Nairac was particularly interested in loyalist paramilitaries like Robin 'The Jackal' Jackson from Lurgan.

Two weeks after their initial meeting Nairac contacted Dan and asked him and a second UDR NCO to meet at Castledillon military base.

"Nairac was based in a separate unit there. It had its own quarters, separate signals equipment, weapons, the lot. It even had its own guards inside the compound - I knew then this was some kind of specialist covert unit.

"He took us into a bar at the base. I remember the bar front had been painted like a deck of cards."

Later that night Nairac took Dan and his UDR colleague out in his car and headed towards the Armagh/Monaghan border.

"He again asked if we knew of any UDR soldiers who would be interested in 'helping him out," said Dan.

"He was particularly interested in UDR men living in or close to south Armagh. He said they could play a vital role in targeting IRA suspects."

Dan said they had been driving for some time along narrow border roads when he spotted a road sign.

"The bloody thing was in Irish. We were inside the Republic and each of us carrying military weapons."

Nairac was unfazed.

"He knew every inch of those roads. Don't forget, most of them had been blocked off by the Army at that time, but he knew exactly where he was."

Eventually Nairac drove into Monaghan and stopped outside a house on the Dublin Road.

"He got out of the car, told us to wait and went inside. We were in a cold sweat. Two UDR soldiers in Monaghan were dead meat at that time."

Nairac was in the house for about 10 minutes before he returned to the car.

"He got back in and said: 'That's a useful contact and I have to keep him sweet'. He then drove us back through the Irish Customs to Castledillon'.

Later that night Dan and his colleague agreed they wanted nothing more to do with the maverick Nairac.

"I told my ops officer Nairac was a loony and I wanted nothing more to do with him. I only saw him again a couple of times after that - once at a joint Army/RUC meeting in Mahon Camp, Portadown, the second time when he drove through a UDR checkpoint near Silverbridge."

Dan was on duty in the operations room the night Nairac went missing.

"We knew from the radio traffic something major had happened. There was a lot of activity over at brigade in the early hours. When the helicopters went up at first light we knew someone had either been shot or was missing.

It was only when a picture of the missing Grenadier Guardsman was circulated that he realised exactly who he had been working alongside.

It had been shortly before 9.30pm on Saturday May 14, 1977 that Nairac left Bessbrook military base in a red Triumph Toledo car.

Armed with a 9mm Browning pistol, he headed for the Three Steps Inn in Dromintee, south Armagh.

His mission was to gather information on the IRA.

Posing as Danny McErlaine (or a similar surname), a north Belfast 'Stickie', Nairac attempted to blend in with the pub's customers. He sang republican ballads including 'The Broad Black Brimmer'.

But as he left the bar at closing time Nairac was attacked by a gang of men.

Punches were thrown before the undercover soldier was bundled into a car and driven over the border.

Despite widespread searches Nairac was nowhere to be seen.

The IRA later issued a statement saying they had murdered him. To this day Nairac's body has never been recovered.

Thirty years on ex-UDR man Dan returned to Castledillon.

Although all the military fortifications have long since gone, he instantly pinpointed the area where Nairac's unit had been located.

Some military markings were still visible on the old outbuildings.

As he walked around the back of the buildings Dan spotted the location of the bar where Nairac had taken him during his first visit to Castledillon.

Inside, although covered in dust, pigeon droppings and debris, was the base bar complete with its bench seating and the deck of cards motif.

- A former SAS colonel has urged the IRA to reveal the burial site of Robert Nairac, described by one of his captors as "the bravest man I ever met" .

The Grenadier Guardsman, who had been seconded to the SAS, was kidnapped after a bloody struggle in the car park of the Three Steps Inn in May 1977.

He was driven to a forest just across the border and although bloodstains, teeth and hair were later discovered, no trace of his body was ever found.

Nairac's former SAS superior Clive Fairweather believes it's time the IRA gave up its grisly secret.

"Times in Ireland have changed very much for the better. With all the dramatic political developments and power-sharing, surely someone can now give some indication of how his body was disposed of," he said.

"They owe it to many other families whose relatives' bodies have never been recovered after abduction by the IRA."

Rumours have persisted about how the IRA disposed of Nairac's battered body. One theory is that a 'clean-up' team removed the corpse to a peat bog because they wanted to keep hidden the hours of torture the SAS man endured before being shot.

He was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1978.

The citation states: "Robert Nairac was subjected to a succession of very 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 his 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. "

In the cells after his Dublin trial, IRA commander Liam Towson, one of three men convicted of Nairac's murder, told Fairweather: "Nairac was the bravest man I ever met. He told us nothing".

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-l...l#ixzz1U3yEQi3W
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-l...l-13903699.html
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3972512.ece
Man held over death of Robert Nairac whose bravery was admitted by IRA
David Sharrock

Robert Nairac was a model British soldier when, at the age of 28, he was abducted, interrogated and murdered by the Provisional IRA. Thirty-one years on, a man was arrested yesterday in connection with the crime.

Captain Nairac's posthumously awarded George Cross was accompanied by a citation speaking of his “analytical brain, physical stamina and above all his courage and dedication”.

But what if the young Grenadier Guardsman, on secondment to 14 Intelligence Company (14 Int), a covert surveillance unit, had not taken a Triumph Toledo from Bessbrook Mill on the evening of May 14, 1977 and driven to his death? What if he hadn't chatted up a girl in the Three Steps bar in Drumintee, South Armagh, telling her that he was an IRA man from Belfast looking for a route across the border?

And what if he had managed to give the slip to the men who attacked him in the pub car park as he left that evening after singing rebel songs — the same men who beat him to a pulp, drove him across the border and shot him after failing to extract any useful information from their captive?
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* Profiting from the Troubles

The story of Captain Nairac still exercises a compelling hold on the mythology of the Troubles.

The arrest in South Armagh of a man, named locally as Kevin Crilly, 57, from Jonesboro, came more than a year after a television documentary interviewed one of the gang members, providing new details of his death.

Terry McCormick fled Ireland after the murder and has been living clandestinely in the US ever since. Mr McCormick said that he had thrown the first punch at Captain Nairac, who dropped his Army-issued Browning pistol.

An hour later, after the officer had been brutally interrogated to no avail, Mr McCormick pretended to be a priest, hoping that in his stupor Captain Nairac would give away useful security information. “Bless me father for I have sinned,” was all the officer, a practising Roman Catholic, said.

He was shot and buried secretly. His body has never been found and its location remains the subject of an investigation by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, which is hunting for those “disappeared” by the Provisional IRA.

According to Mr McCormick, the report that Captain Nairac's body was ground up and fed to pigs — first told by the repentant IRA intelligence officer Eamon Collins in his searing memoir Killing Rage (Collins was later beaten to death by South Armagh IRA members) — is not true.

The captain's body was buried in a shallow grave on land near where he was killed in Ravensdale, Co Louth, but when it was grubbed up by animals it was moved and “given a funeral” elsewhere — site unknown.

Two others involved in the killing fled with Mr McCormick. Six others were subsequently tried and convicted of murder and manslaughter, one of them in the Republic of Ireland.

Even the convicted men spoke of the bravery that Captain Nairac had shown as they finished him off. “I shot the British captain. He never told us anything. He was a great soldier,” said Liam Townson in his confession.

But had Captain Nairac not been murdered, how would his reputation have fared? Some of his colleagues have claimed that he was a loose cannon and should never have been operating without authorisation or orders in bars frequented by IRA men.

Allegations have been made that he ran a gang of Portadown-based loyalist terrorists who were behind massacres. It is possible that had he lived, Captain Nairac might today be the focus of inquiries into collusion between the security forces and paramilitary groups. What is certain is that his death was not deserved.

Mr McCormick says that he does not know where the body is. Now 65, he is full of remorse and, he says, “a completely different person ... It's something that will never ever leave my mind. There's not a day goes by that I don't say a prayer for Captain Nairac.”

Whether or not the police charge any suspects and apply for extradition warrants for those wanted for the crime living in the US, the family of Robert Nairac simply wish to mourn him with a proper burial site.


Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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