A book published by Cambridge Academic and written by expert military writer Alistair Kerr was the focus of an article published in The Belfast Telegraph. The following is an excerpt from the article, which covers the claims made by Kerr in his best-selling book, Betrayal: The Murder of Robert Nairac GC.
Writes Suzanne Breen:
The remains of Captain Robert Nairac most likely lie in Ravensdale Forest, Co Louth, the author of a book on the undercover British soldier claims. Alistair Kerr says Nairac was buried within a 10-mile radius of the field in Ravensdale where he was shot dead by IRA members in May 1977.
This confirms assertions by republicans and the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains that his body wasn’t put through a meat processor.
The book raises the possibility that everyone who knew the precise location of the burial site may now be dead.
But it expresses hope that former IRA members gave Boston College researchers information on Nairac’s murder and secret burial, which will be disclosed when the oral history archives are eventually opened.
Mr Kerr, a retired British Foreign Office diplomat, says he set out to separate myths from facts in his book Betrayal: The Murder Of Robert Nairac.
He believes it’s important to “disentangle the reality of Nairac from the dense thicket of legend and published disinformation” surrounding him.
Mr Kerr says material given to him “exonerates” Nairac from allegations of involvement in murder, including that of IRA member John Francis Green, who was shot dead in Co Monaghan in 1975. “Two reliable sources have shown that he was in Londonderry on that night and that he had been based there for some time before Green’s murder,” Mr Kerr said.
Earlier this year the Green family said they believed Nairac was involved in the killing, although they bore him no ill will and called for the return of his body.
The book is heavily critical of Colonel Clive Fairweather, an SAS officer in the 1970s who went on to become Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons.
It claims he made fatal delays following Nairac’s abduction from the car park of the Three Steps Inn in Dromintee, where he had been posing as ‘Danny McErlean’ from Belfast as he drank with locals.
It is alleged that Colonel Fairweather had loathed Nairac, believing him to be a loose cannon who naively and recklessly went on unauthorised intelligence missions and put others’ lives in danger. Fairweather died five years ago, but his friends have strongly denied the claims made about him.
For the full article visit The Belfast Telegraph article here.
