Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 48 minutes ago
On the evening of 14 May 1977, Nairac drove alone to The Three Steps pub in Dromintee, a village in South Armagh, on an undercover operation potentially to meet an informer. He is said to have told regulars of the pub that he was Danny McErlaine, a motor mechanic and member of the Official IRA from the nationalist Ardoyne area of North Belfast. The real McErlaine, on the run since 1974, was ultimately killed by the Provisional IRA in June 1978 after stealing arms from the organisation. Witnesses say that Nairac got up and sang a republican folk song, "The Broad Black Brimmer", with the band who were playing that night. At around 11.45 p.m. he was marched out of the pub by a number of republicans and hit on the back of the head with a wooden instrument by another man as soon as the group entered the car park. A party of British soldiers was hidden not more than 100 yards from the pub but Nairac was unable to contact them through the radio hidden on his person.After a ferocious struggle he was driven across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in the Ravensdale Woods in the north of County Louth, where a member of the IRA joined the abduction group.Following a violent interrogation, during which Nairac was allegedly punched, kicked, pistol-whipped and hit with a wooden post, he was shot dead at that place.He did not admit to his true identity. Terry McCormick, one of Nairac's abductors, posed as a priest in order to try to elicit information by way of Nairac's confession. Nairac's last words according to McCormick were: "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned"
On the evening of 14 May 1977, Nairac drove alone to The Three Steps pub in Dromintee, a village in South Armagh, on an undercover operation potentially to meet an informer. He is said to have told regulars of the pub that he was Danny McErlaine, a motor mechanic and member of the Official IRA from the nationalist Ardoyne area of North Belfast. The real McErlaine, on the run since 1974, was ultimately killed by the Provisional IRA in June 1978 after stealing arms from the organisation. Witnesses say that Nairac got up and sang a republican folk song, "The Broad Black Brimmer", with the band who were playing that night. At around 11.45 p.m. he was marched out of the pub by a number of republicans and hit on the back of the head with a wooden instrument by another man as soon as the group entered the car park. A party of British soldiers was hidden not more than 100 yards from the pub but Nairac was unable to contact them through the radio hidden on his person.After a ferocious struggle he was driven across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in the Ravensdale Woods in the north of County Louth, where a member of the IRA joined the abduction group.Following a violent interrogation, during which Nairac was allegedly punched, kicked, pistol-whipped and hit with a wooden post, he was shot dead at that place.He did not admit to his true identity. Terry McCormick, one of Nairac's abductors, posed as a priest in order to try to elicit information by way of Nairac's confession. Nairac's last words according to McCormick were: "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned"
