The disappearance of Robert Nairac is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the Troubles
This week psychic Catherine Sweeney retraced the last steps of the decorated soldier who was murdered by the IRA nearly 50 years ago and said: “I felt Robert Nairac’s presence. In fact I had a number of conversations with him.”
And she drew a diagram of where she believed Nairac’s remains may be buried.
The disappearance of Nairac — one of 17 people murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries — is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the Troubles and his former colleagues in the SAS are determined that his body is finally returned to his family.
The visit of the psychic comes in the week a major BBC documentary about Nairac was broadcast, which included an interview with former IRA man Martin McAllister who has also devoted much of his life to trying to find Nairac’s remains.
Mother-of-five Catherine Sweeney is a medium with decades of experience behind her.
She has previously assisted police investigating the sectarian murder of a teenager in north Belfast.
Speaking this week to the Sunday World on the Hill of Faughart — a few hundred yards from the place where the first dig for Captain Nairac ended in October 2024 — she said: “Today we visited five different locations in south Armagh and at every one of them I felt Robert Nairac’s presence. In fact, I had a number of conversations with him.
“I was introduced to the former soldiers outside the Three Steps inn at Dromintee, which is where Captain Nairac was abducted all those years ago.
Captain Robert Nairac was abducted and murdered by the IRA while working undercover.
“They told me they wanted to find Robert and to see that he gets a Christian burial and his family can finally have a grave to visit.”
She added: “I believe Robert Nairac had gone to the pub that night to meet a female.”
The psychic also said she believes the soldier’s right arm was injured as a result of an attack prior to him being shot dead.
“When we visited Flurry Bridge, I could see Robert had been shot dead there. And I could see three men huddled together discussing where to bury his body.
“I could see Robert had been holding his right arm as if it had been injured and it was causing him pain.
“I was also picking up that Robert’s remains have been moved three times, but he is still nearby,” said Catherine.
“But I would need to visit this area a number of times before I could offer any advice on where Robert’s remains can be located for definite.”
However, she did a draw a diagram for the former SAS soldiers of where the body might be.
The 28-year-old Grenadier Guardsman was badly beaten and left in a semi-conscious state before being shot dead and secretly buried by members of the IRA near the Louth/Armagh border.
Reporter Hugh Jordon with psychic Kate Hurston in South Armagh to search for missing soldier Robert Nairac
And we can reveal that small group of ex-SAS men — who all served in south Armagh at the same time as Nairac — have vowed to do everything in their power to help find the missing soldier’s remains.
And we also learned the former SAS men have recently made around 10 trips to the border region in the hope of finding the breakthrough they need.
A representative of the retired soldiers who spoke to us this week was at pains to point out that their war with the IRA in south Armagh ended decades ago.
And he emphasised that it was his firm belief that a majority of people of south Armagh also want to see Captain Nairac’s remains returned to his family.
This week — after protracted negotiations — one of the former SAS men agreed to speak to us.
He declined to give his name or disclose details of his military service.
But he did reveal that they decided to make use of a psychic with experience in finding missing people.
He said: “We did our own research and discovered Catherine Sweeney had previously assisted the police in a sectarian murder investigation in north Belfast.
“So we invited Catherine to meet us at the place where Robert’s ordeal began on the night he died.
“Until this week she had never been in south Armagh before in her life.
Reporter Hugh Jordon with a former SAS soldier
“Everywhere we went was completely new to her and it was a revelation to observe her picking up things relating to Robert.
“We felt a gifted psychic might be able to unlock the breakthrough we need,” he said.
“South Armagh is really beautiful, but much of it is very rough terrain. We’ll need to spend more time here before we find him.”
The first dig for Captain Nairac since his disappearance ended in County Louth late last year with no sign of a body.
The major new BBC documentary — The Disappearance of Captain Nairac, broadcast earlier this week — explored the final hours, death and disappearance of the young military man who was viewed, even among his own colleagues, as a maverick but a gifted soldier. Captain Nairac was based at Bessbrook Mill, which had been commandeered by the security forces.
prestigious
He also operated as a liaison officer, co-ordinating intelligence between the SAS and the RUC Special Branch.
As a youngster, Nairac attended Ampleforth College, a prestigious Catholic public school in north Yorkshire, where he excelled in academic studies and sports, specialising in rugby and boxing.
At school, he made friends with Irish pupils and often visited their family homes in Dublin and Connemara.
It was there he developed a love of Ireland and its troubled history.
He even learned to sing a number of Irish rebels songs, which he later taught to his school friends in England.
After leaving Oxford University, Nairac signed up for a postgraduate course at Trinity College Dublin.
After graduating from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, he joined the Grenadier Guards as an officer.
At the height of the Troubles his regiment was posted to Belfast.
He served on the streets of the Shankill and Ardoyne, where he gave boxing instruction to local boys.
When his Guards regiment was posted overseas, Nairac volunteered as a liaison officer to the SAS and the RUC Special Branch, based at Bessbrook Mill.
laughable
He often travelled around the area alone and he insisted on speaking with an Irish accent, which his military colleagues described as laughable.
But on May 15, 1977, the undercover soldier was abducted from a pub near Dromintee where he had gone to meet a contact.
At the bar, Nairac — who called himself Danny Boy — ordered a pint and a packet of 20 Major cigarettes, which disappeared when he paid a visit to the toilet.
His cover story of being an Official IRA man from Ardoyne failed to convince locals, who suspected him of being an undercover squaddie.
Nairac even approached the band and asked to be allowed to sing a couple of songs, including the well-known IRA ballad The Broad Black Brimmer.
But shortly after 11pm, as he was ordered outside to the car park, Newry man Terry McCormick — an Irish champion boxer — knocked Nairac to the ground as he tried to retrieve his Browning automatic pistol from his Triumph car.
The dazed soldier was bundled into a car and, with McCormick seated next to him, he was transported at speed to the Flurry Bridge on the edge of Ravensdale Forrest.
In a field adjacent to the Flurry River, McCormick knocked Nairac to the ground.
In a semi-conscious state, he was advised by McCormick to make a confession.
A few minutes later McCormick pretended to be a priest who had been summoned to hear his last confession.
Without opening his eyes, the soldier said: “Bless me father for I have sinned…”
But he was incapable of completing the prayer.
At that, IRA man Liam Townson — who had arrived in a drunken state with a gun — stepped forward and shot the British officer dead.
McCormick later said the soldier told them “nothing absolutely nothing, not even his real name”.
McCormick fled to the States, never to return, but 20 years later BBC Spotlight reporter Darragh McIntyre tracked him down to Philadelphia.
McCormick told the BBC man he was ashamed of the role he had played on the night Captain Nairac was murdered.
And McCormick, who died four years ago in the States, also revealed he prayed for Captain Nairac every night before going to sleep.