Breaking News: First search underway for the remains of British soldier Robert Nairac since he was murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in May 1977.

 

By Suzi Montgomery Duignan & Sheri Quinn

 

Captain Robert Laurence Nairac, a dashing 29-yr-old British army officer working undercover was abducted from the Three Steps pub in South County Armagh during the Troubles in 1977. Nairac is said to have told regulars of the pub that he was Danny McErlaine, a motor mechanic and member of the Official IRA. Witnesses say that Nairac got up and sang a republican folk song with the band playing that night. At around 11:45 p.m., he was abducted in the pub parking lot by suspicious patrons and taken across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in the Ravensdale Woods in the north of County Louth. Following a violent interrogation, during which Nairac was allegedly punched, kicked, pistol-whipped, and hit with a wooden post, he was shot dead by an IRA man who was called in to finish the job. Nairac never admitted to his true identity. Terry McCormick, one of Nairac's abductors, posed as a priest in an attempt to elicit information by way of Nairac's confession. According to McCormick, Nairac's last words were: "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”

 

Nairac’s high-profile disappearance sparked a large-scale search throughout Ireland but his body was never found. He joined 15 others who were ‘disappeared’ during the Troubles by the IRA. 

 

By the end of the Troubles in the 1990s, most families had given up hope of their relatives returning alive, but they still wanted to recover their bodies. A family member of one of the disappeared, Margaret McKinney is quoted saying “I could accept now that Brian was dead, but I could not accept not having a grave to go to.” For years she had refused to change the linen on her son’s childhood bed. I use to just get into his bed and wrap his clothes around me and see if I could just sleep and dream that I could see him.” The daughter of Jean McConville, Helen McKendry, whose mother was executed and secretly buried by the IRA, was quoted in the Irish Times in 1998 stating “The recovery of her mother's body and a civilized funeral would make an enormous difference’ to her. 'My life has been on hold from that day to this,’ she said.” Many of the families had the same chilling questions: Where had their loved ones been killed? Had they suffered before they died? Was she tortured? Was he dead before they put him in the hole? 

 

Nairac’s family has recently been notified by the Joint Commissioners of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) that they have sufficient credible information to warrant a search and have approved plans to conduct a search in the Faughart area of Co. Louth for the remains of Robert Nairac, starting August 26, 2024.

 

Since Brexit, the 6 counties in the north of Ireland occupied by  England have been in a state of violent outbursts and unrest, conjuring up issues never resolved during the Troubles. In our conversations, one with former IRA volunteer Martin McAllister whom we featured a few years ago in the three-act piece:  Ireland: A Revolving Story, says that a unified Ireland is inevitable, but this needs to happen tenderly as the Unionists in the North of Ireland have to get on board. This will take some time but repatriating the body of Robert Naraic to his family and country could be a monumental step in that direction.