Shortly after midnight on the 15th May 1977, undercover British soldier Robert Nairac was abducted by a lynch-mob comprised of some Provisional IRA supporters and two PIRA members. He was interrogated under extreme torture and then shot dead in a remote rural area near Ravensdale Forest. He was twenty-eight years old, and his body has not yet been recovered.
A myriad questions remain: the circumstances of his death; the events leading up to it; and Nairac’s various relationships with the RUC, IRA, SAS, Irish communities and others during The Troubles in Northern Ireland are all mysterious.
The IRA subsequently have tried to justify Nairac’s murder. And certain soldiers and former soldiers – both officers and other ranks, especially some connected with the SAS – as well as people at the heart of British politics added their voices to the chorus of denunciation of Nairac. How and why did this come about?
Alistair Kerr has spent three years finding the answers to at least some of these questions, and in the process uncovered a complex web of secrets and lies.
A myriad questions remain: the circumstances of his death; the events leading up to it; and Nairac’s various relationships with the RUC, IRA, SAS, Irish communities and others during The Troubles in Northern Ireland are all mysterious.
The IRA subsequently have tried to justify Nairac’s murder. And certain soldiers and former soldiers – both officers and other ranks, especially some connected with the SAS – as well as people at the heart of British politics added their voices to the chorus of denunciation of Nairac. How and why did this come about?
Alistair Kerr has spent three years finding the answers to at least some of these questions, and in the process uncovered a complex web of secrets and lies.
