John Weir

Early life and the RUC Weir was born in 1950 in the south-west of County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland to Church of Ireland parents. He was born on a country estate near the County Cavan village of Shercock; his father was employed by the Tenison family as a gamekeeper at Loughbawn House in Shantony townland in County Monaghan. Raised in County Monaghan, he was later educated at The King's Hospital, a Protestant private school in Dublin. Over six feet tall, powerfully built, with blond hair and blue eyes, he had an imposing physical presence, which made him stand out in a crowd.

Initially he had considered joining the Garda Síochána, the police force of the Republic of Ireland; His duties involved making early morning arrests, evacuation of civilians at the scenes of suspect bombs and responding to explosions and shootings, as well as riot control. He claimed the SPG officers were "very anti-republican, and sectarian attitudes were common". Weir and his colleagues routinely beat up Catholics suspected of harbouring Republican sentiments. The bombs which were used in the UVF's 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings were built and stored on the farm.

Weir later admitted to have been indirectly involved in the bombing and shooting attack at the nationalist Tully's Bar in Belleeks on 8 March 1976. According to his later account of events leading up to the attack, when he arrived at Mitchell's farm the designated evening, he saw between eight and ten men dressed in camouflage, parading in the farmyard. Inside the farmhouse he discussed the details of the attack with Mitchell and the others. Mitchell had shown him the floor plans of the pub's interior, highlighting the lack of escape routes for the pub's patrons. The plan was temporarily called off when it was discovered that the British Army's Parachute Regiment was on patrol in the area that evening. Weir returned to Belfast the following morning and that evening, 8 March, Weir heard the attack had gone ahead. There were no casualties, as Mitchell's floor plans were inaccurate. Once the shooting outside had commenced, the pub's customers fled into the living quarters for safety and the bomb only caused structural damage.

Although Weir's later affidavit confirmed he had already indirectly participated in UVF and Glenanne gang operations, and had visited Mitchell's farm, according to journalist Liam Clarke, Weir officially became part of the Glenanne gang on 23 June 1976. He was recruited by SPG colleagues at an RUC sporting event he had attended in East Belfast when he was stationed at Castlereagh RUC station. Weir had been deeply affected by the Kingsmill massacre five months earlier, when 10 Protestant workmen had been ordered out of their minibus and gunned down by a republican group, the South Armagh Republican Action Force (SARAF). It was this attack that had provoked him into becoming a full-fledged member of the group, as Weir and the SPG believed the SARAF was a cover name for the IRA and would carry out more attacks against Protestant civilians.

Weir took his first active role as a UVF paramilitary in the attempted bombing attack against Renaghan's Bar in Clontibret, County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland on 15 August 1976. The operation was aborted after Weir had driven to Clontibret on the morning of the planned attack to ascertain the roads were clear, only to discover the town had already been sealed off by the Irish Army and Gardaí. When Weir displayed his RUC warrant card to a Garda officer, he was told the Gardaí had received a tip-off from the Northern Ireland security forces that Clontibret was the target of a proposed bombing that evening. Weir returned to the Mitchell farmhouse and found it was under British Army observation. It transpired that the bomb plot had been revealed to the authorities following the earlier arrest of a UVF man from County Tyrone. The next night a UVF unit drove the bomb car, which had been meant for Clontibret, and parked it outside a Catholic owned pub and home in Keady, County Armagh; it exploded, killing a man and a woman. Two weeks later Weir was transferred to Omagh.

Sometime shortly after his promotion to the rank of sergeant and his subsequent transfer to Newry RUC station in October 1976, Weir, Jackson and another RUC officer, Gary Armstrong went on a reconnaissance in South Armagh seeking out the homes of known IRA men, with the intention of assassinating them. Jackson carried a knife and hammer; he boasted to Weir, that if they happened to "find a suitable person to kill, he [Jackson] knew how to do it with those weapons". They drove by the homes of two IRA men, however the plan to kill them was aborted and the three drove back to Lurgan. They were stopped at an RUC roadblock and after an exchange of courtesies were waved through, despite the presence of Jackson with two RUC officers.

While stationed at Newry, Weir visited Jackson's home outside Lurgan, where they discussed potential attacks against the IRA, at least four times. He began to supply the Mid-Ulster UVF with weapons he procured from a loyalist group in County Down called the "Down Orange Welfare" which comprised both former and serving members of the security forces, including Chief Inspector Harry Breen. These weapons were stored at Mitchell's farmhouse. Breen (who later held the rank of Chief Superintendent) and Superintendent Robert Buchanan were both shot dead on 20 March 1989 after being ambushed outside Jonesborough, County Armagh by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. The two RUC officers were travelling in an unmarked car after attending a cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers.

William Strathearn killing

William Strathearn, a Catholic, was killed at his home at 2:00 on 19 April 1977. Almost three years later, Weir and Constable William "Billy" McCaughey were arrested for their part in the killing and tried before a Diplock court. The story that emerged at the trial was that Weir and McCaughey had decided Strathearn should be killed as they erroneously believed him to be a member of the Provisional IRA. To carry the killing out, they recruited two other loyalists and drove them to Ahoghill where they knocked on the door of Strathearn's home, which was also the village's main shop and chemist, and asked him to open up as they urgently needed medicine for a sick child. When Strathearn opened the door he was immediately shot dead and the four escaped in Weir's RUC car.

It was claimed that the two had been drinking heavily in a pub in Armagh when McCaughey suggested they should carry out a killing as a reprisal for the killings of Constables Hugh McConnell and William Turbitt by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Weir was initially reluctant to get involved but was soon convinced and acquired what was described as a "clean Colt. 45" to carry out the shooting with. It was also stated during the trial that the two gunmen had been Robin Jackson and his associate Robert John Kerr, He suggested that the actual gunman Jackson was "untouchable because he was a Special Branch agent". Weir made an offer to testify against Jackson and Kerr but only on condition that the murder charge against him was withdrawn. This offer was refused by the assistant director of Public Prosecutions who saidKerr and Jackson have not been interviewed by the police because the police state they are virtually immune to interrogation and the common police consensus is that to arrest and interview either man is a waste of time. Both men are known to police to be very active and notorious UVF murderers. Nevertheless the police do not recommend consideration of withdrawal of charges against Weir. I agree with this view. Weir and McCaughey must be proceeded against. When proceedings against them are terminated the position may be reviewed in respect of Jackson and Kerr".

Weir declared: "I think it is important to make it clear that this collusion between loyalist paramilitaries such as Robin Jackson and my RUC colleagues and me was taking place with the full knowledge of my superiors". Two months prior to Weir and McCaughey's arrests, Jackson was arrested for possession of weapons, ammunition, and hoods. The three men were remanded in custody together in Crumlin Road Prison.

Weir pleaded not guilty but was convicted in June 1980 on the basis of admissions he had made during police interrogation. He attempted to repudiate the confessions, alleging that he had been mistreated by the RUC officers in Castlereagh holding cells whilst also claiming that the confinement of his cell made him feel like he was "cracking up". Weir's attempts to have the confessions vacated were unsuccessful. Although sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Strathearn, he was released on license on 1 February 1993. The SPG unit was stood down in 1980.

Weir's affidavit In January 1999, to assist journalist Sean McPhilemy, who was being sued for libel, Weir signed an affidavit containing 62 paragraphs in which he outlined in detail the instances of collusion between his RUC and SPG colleagues, members of the UDR, and loyalist paramilitaries such as Robin Jackson. He implicated them in a series of sectarian killings and bombings carried out by the Glenanne gang. The role of Jackson, who had died in 1998 of cancer, featured largely in Weir's statement.

Weir had received the information regarding the 1974 car bombings and the perpetrators from his associates in the Glenanne gang. The farm was also utilised for planning other sectarian attacks. Weir learned from both Mitchell and McClure about Hanna's central role in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, as Weir had never claimed to have personally met Hanna. As Hanna had died in July 1975, it was highly unlikely that he had done so.

Weir identified Jackson as the gunman in many shootings, including those of Strathern, PIRA volunteer John Francis Green, and three members of the O'Dowd family. Shortly before the killing of a Roman Catholic RUC sergeant, Jim Campbell, from County Donegal, in February 1977, Weir was at Jackson's home when he had been invited to accompany Jackson on a mission to kill a Catholic RUC officer which Jackson claimed had been arranged by Billy McCaughey and a Special Branch officer. Weir had turned down the offer, and Campbell was shot dead outside the Cushendall RUC station as he locked up. He also linked Jackson to the 1975 Kay's Tavern bombing in Dundalk. While in prison, Weir wrote a letter to a friend in which he suggested that Jackson had links to British Intelligence Corps and Captain Robert Nairac.

Weir claimed in his statement that shortly before he was sent to Newtownhamilton six months after the Strathearn killing, his association with loyalist paramilitaries became known to senior RUC officers, who encouraged it. They knew of his involvement in Strathearn's shooting death. He was summoned to a meeting with Chief Inspector Brian Fitzsimmons, head of the RUC Special Branch in Newry, who let Weir know he was aware of his UVF activities. Weir claimed "He told me he knew I had connections out there. That was why he wanted me to go out, make more connections, find out what was going on. He made it quite clear that the Special Branch was keeping an eye on me". Although Weir took this to have been an endorsement on the part of Fitzsimmons, journalist Liam Clarke felt it was "partly a warning, and partly a bid for control of his informant".

Aftermath Weir's allegations have been the subject of inquiries by both the RUC and Garda Síochána. The RUC's report concluded in part that "as Weir is a convicted murderer his credibility must be in doubt". The RUC made no attempt to interview Weir.

In 2004, the human rights group, the Pat Finucane Centre, asked Professor Douglass Cassel (formerly of Northwestern University School of Law) to convene an international panel of inquiry to investigate allegations of collusion in Northern Ireland by the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in a series of sectarian attacks committed in the 1970s against nationalists. This panel found Weir's evidence credible and agreed with the Garda Síochána and the Barron Inquiry that his allegations "must be regarded with the utmost seriousness".

In an interview with the RUC on 9 August 2000, James Mitchell staunchly denied Weir's allegations about him, and referred to Weir as a "damned liar and convicted murderer". Alleged Dublin bomber Davy Payne was also questioned about Weir's allegations and he also denied them, as did Stewart Young when asked about his purported role in the Monaghan bombing, According to journalist Kevin Dowling of the Sunday Mirror, Weir, who holds an Irish passport, was later deported from Nigeria.

The following statements by Weir appeared in the Irish current affairs magazine Politico in 2006:

I'm lucky to be above the ground. My family has suffered. There is no sense in my saying that I feel sorry for what I have done. But I do believe that it is important that each side looks at the other's point of view. A long-lasting peace will depend on one side showing that they know the other side has also been wronged.

Weir was a major contributor to the 2018 documentary film Unquiet Graves which discussed the Glenanne gang killings.