The disappearance of British army officer in 1977 has long been the subject of speculation
A SEARCH has begun in Co. Louth for the body of British intelligence officer Captain Robert Nairac, a soldier in the Grenadier Guards, abducted and killed by the IRA in the 1970s
Captain Robert Nairac (aged 29) who was born in Mauritius, was abducted and shot by the IRA after being confronted outside a pub near the village of Dromintee (sometimes spelled Drumintee), in south Armagh in May 1977. He was reportedly there to gather intelligence, but his exact mission has long been a matter for speculation.
Captain Robert Nairac was one of the most controversial and mysterious figures in the history of The Troubles. The BBC reports that “he was a maverick in life, an enigma in death”.
On his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland he was seized outside a pub, the Three Steps just outside Dromintee in south Armagh. This was, and remains, a strongly nationalist area, and there have always been questions as to what he was doing in such a republican stronghold.
He was driven to nearby Jonesborough where he was killed at a place called Flurry Bridge
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) moved machinery into a field in Faughart, close to the border with Northern Ireland.
The precise location has not been disclosed publicly at the request of the owner of the land. The ICLVR has stressed that the search is not on foot of any information provided by the landowner.
It is the first time there has been a search for Captain Nairac, one of the so-called Disappeared, a group of 17 people who were kidnapped and murdered by republicans during the Troubles and whose bodies were buried in secret.
Thirteen of the bodies have now been recovered.
The search is being conducted by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR).
The precise location of the new search site has not been made public because it is on private land and the landowner has asked that the address not be revealed.
Over the years there have allegations that Captain Nairac was linked to both republican and loyalist attacks along the border in the mid-70s. There were some of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles, including the Miami Showband killings.
Posthumous claims have been made about Nairac’s involvement in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, the killing of an IRA member in the Republic of Ireland and his relationship with Ulster loyalist paramilitaries. However there was never any evidence put forward to add substance to these claims, and Geoff Knupfer, the former lead investigator of the ICLVR who served with Greater Manchester Police for 30 years, said there was no evidence of Captain Nairac’s involvement in collusion.
Earlier this year Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland, t a special Mass for the Disappeared, reiterated his call for those with any information to help the families of Captain Nairac and three other men whose remains have yet to be found.
The three other men whose remains are yet to be found are Joe Lynskey, Columba McVeigh and Seamus Maguire.