Kelly Murder Remains a Dark Stain On Policing and Justice Systems

Pat Fahy, solicitor for the family, writes in the Irish News about the murder of Councillor Patsy Kelly. The murder of Trillick, Co Tyrone councillor Patsy Kelly, in 1974 remains a dark stain on our policing and justice systems. This was an abduction and killing widely believed to have been carried out by members of the Ulster Defence Regiment in uniform. That […]

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Earliest Record of Operational MRF?

Archive Find, Blog, Research / By Ciarán MacAirt

Is this the earliest record of an operational Military Reaction Force (MRF)? A British Army 39 Brigade Commander’s Diary from October 1971 could have uncovered the earliest operational record of the clandestine Military Reaction Force. We have other records naming the main players like Captain Arthur Watchus and Sergeant Clive Graham Williams from the beginning

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Podcast 5: The Myth of the Orange Pimpernel

Podcast / By Ciarán MacAirt

In this Paper Trail Pro podcast, we examine the Myth of the Orange Pimpernel. Secret British archives prove that Gusty Spence did not escape from police custody when he was the most wanted Loyalist in the north of Ireland. The police simply released him and helped create the Myth of the Orange Pimpernel. Government Line

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Podcast 4: The Murder of Jean Smyth-Campbell

Podcast / By Ciarán MacAirt

In this Paper Trail Pro podcast, we examine the murder of Jean Smyth-Campbell and her family’s campaign for truth. Jean Smyth-Campbell was a 24-year-old mother of a young child who was murdered in west Belfast on June 8th 1972. The state’s police force told her family that she was killed by Republican paramilitaries but British

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The History Thieves of McGurk’s Bar

Archive Find, Blog, Media, Research / By Ciarán MacAirt

Investigative journalist and author, Ian Cobain, has led the way in uncovering the lengths to which the British state will go to bury evidence of its human rights abuses and dirty secrets in books such as Cruel Britannia and The History Thieves. Most recently in the Guardian, he informed us that the British Government admits

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Podcast 3: General Frank Kitson – War Hero or Director of Terrorism Pt 2

Podcast / By Ciarán MacAirt

In this Paper Trail Pro Podcast, author Ciarán MacAirt discusses the legacy of General Frank Kitson. This is the second part of a two-part podcast examining the legacy of General Frank Kitson in light of his development of the covert British Army unit, the Military Reaction Force, which was guilty of dozens of murders and attempted murders

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Shoot-To-Kill: Vol. Daniel McAreavey

Archive Find, Blog, Media, Research / By Ciarán MacAirt

British military archives discovered by the charity, Paper Trail, prove that IRA Volunteer, Daniel McAreavey, was killed in a planned ambush and not shot by an accidental British Army patrol. Vol. Daniel McAreavey was shot and killed by the British Army in disputed circumstances in the Lower Falls area on 6th October 1972 during an

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Make History. Follow the Paper Trail

Blog / By Ciarán MacAirt

A new charity and social enterprise which helps seekers of truth access information relating to conflict and social upheaval across Ireland and Great Britain over the last 50 years and more. Paper Trail offers specialized and targeted research of legacy archives to the legal profession, the media and academia. The records it targets can help build legal

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