For undercover operations, Nairac would assume a false identity, wear a moustache, long hair and patched jeans, playing a guitar and singing rebel songs. On that fateful night in 1977, he had placed a Browning pistol in a holster under his left arm, wore jeans and an anorak, before setting off in an unmarked car.

The destination was the �Three Steps� pub at Dromintee, where local republicans were understood to hang out. His intention was to meet an informer. However, the John Murphy Band from Crossmaglen was playing at the pub that night, and some of the crowd who had come with the band might have recognised the British officer, who had been on patrol there.

A witness later told the RUC: �We were informed that the fellow at the bar was a SAS man. He was going to be taken outside and given a good hiding. When Nairic went out through the front door, he was challenged to a fight. The door was blocked so that no one could get out. Some men scouted the roads to check if any Army patrols were in the area.�

When two men attacked the captain with fists and feet, his Browning pistol flew out and landed on the tarmac. One man grabbed the weapon, put it against Captain Nairic�s head and warned him: �Don�t move, you f�er, or I�ll shoot you.�

Nairic was pulled into a car which, followed by another car, sped across the border to a small bridge over the River Flurry. Two of the abductors then drove to Dundalk, where they picked up a leading republican, Liam Townson from Meigh, who was later sentenced to penal servitude for life. A court was told that, when Townson arrived at the scene, Nairac was propped up against the bridge, being questioned with the Browning pistol at his head.

In a statement to the Gardai, Townson said: �Nairac tried to break free. He was kicked, punched and beaten with the Browning pistol. I told him to get up, that we were heading north, and would not be coming back. He grabbed his gun from my hand and I shouted: `Come quick, he has the gun.` Pat lifted a paling post and hit him across the head. I shot the British captain. He never told us anything. He was a great soldier.�

An IRA statement said: �We arrested Nairac and executed him after interrogation, in which he admitted being an SAS man.� Of the nine men involved in the abduction and killing, only two were members of the IRA, including Townson. Five were convicted and receive jail sentences, with Townson being the last to be released in 1990. In 1979, Queen Elizabeth bestowed the posthumous George Cross on Captain Nairac, the highest honour for gallantry.

Finally, the late Eamon Collins reported that, while staying in a safe house at Dundalk, he was told that Nairac�s body had been put through the mincer at a meat factory. A number of IRA men were working at the plant, on a short-term basis. The corpse of the missing British officer had been taken into the plant, treated like any other carcase, turned into meat and bone-meal!

Meanwhile, 150 years ago, a young man from the Forkhill area, Francis Berry, was hanged for the attempted assassination of local landlord and magistrate, Meredyth Chambre. The murder bid was made as Chambre was travelling by coach from Forkhill Petty Sessions, where he had been presiding, to his residence, now Slieve Gullion Courtyard and Forest Park.

Nine men, believed to have been involved in the conspiracy, - Bernard O�Neill, Pat McNamara, Paul Hamill, Peter and Stephen Bennett, Michael Mulholland, Jim Finnegan and Francis Berry, - were charged, but only Berry was convicted.

A blunderbuss was used in the attack. And the court was told that ammunition from such a weapon had been found in Berry�s possession, and that a newspaper, used by defendant�s sister in bringing him food, had also been used to wrap the blunderbuss.

Controversy was aroused by the case, with claims that Chambre was an unjust landlord. It was reported that the victim had been brought home on a door, and that one onlooker had said: �The whore�s as dead as a door-nail.� But the Attorney-General for Ireland, Joseph Napier, told the House of Commons that �Meredyth Chambre had never dispossessed any tenant, and he has expended �600 a year on employment.�

Exactly 150 years ago, Francis Berry stood on the scaffold and was hanged. He was buried at Killeavy Old Graveyard, the funeral procession being stoned. Meanwhile, celebrations of Chambre�s survival were reported at Forkhill and Meigh, though �not a single Roman Catholic was to be seen, and no music of any kind.�

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