Make History. Follow the Paper Trail.
The Paper Trail Pro podcast is written and hosted by author, Ciarán MacAirt, founder and manager of Paper Trail.
The Paper Trail Pro podcast examines legacy archives buried deep in public records and the real lives recorded in them.
The families of those killed and injured in McGurk’s Bar have been forced to begin legal proceedings against the Office of the Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland (OPONI). The Office of the Police Ombudsman is supposed to provide an “independent, impartial investigation of complaints about the police in Northern Ireland” (source OPONI website). That includes complaints […]
The McGurk’s Bar Bombing: Post-Script is our latest publication. The McGurk’s Bar Bombing: Post-Script features new evidence discovered by Paper Trail manager Ciaran MacAirt whose grandparents were two of the many victims of the atrocity. It is FREE to download. Post-Script features new evidence either missed or buried by historical investigations of the Office of […]
Archive Release: Secret British Ministry of Defence files records the failure of the Military Reaction Force to protect its Freds. Secret British Ministry of Defence (MoD) files discovered by the charity, Paper Trail, document the British state’s failure to protect its own soldiers and agents (or “Freds”) in its covert, extra-legal military unit, the Military […]
Join the discussion on the Shooters and Freds of Britain’s Military Reaction Force via Virtual Féile 2020. Tomorrow (Friday 31st July) at 1pm, Virtual Féile an Phobail 2020 is hosting author and Paper Trail project manager, Ciarán MacAirt, who will be releasing his latest British military archive discoveries relating to Britain’s Military Reaction Force, a […]
Paper Trail published proof from secret British archives that the MRF was guilty of a catalogue of murders and attempted murders of civilians in Belfast 1972. The report followed the failure of the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) Legacy Investigation Branch (LIB) to arrest or convict British Army soldiers in the killer gang, the […]
Paper Trail is releasing the earliest recorded shooting by Britain’s Military Reaction Force MRF. The MRF shooting is the earliest recorded that we have discovered – this, of course, does not mean that it was the first MRF shooting. It means that, at the moment, it is the earliest recorded shooting that researchers like ourselves […]
In May 1972, the British Minister of State for Northern Ireland requested a short note on the origins of the Black and Tans and the B Specials. Lord Windlesham requested the historical brief regarding the Black and Tans and B Specials “at a time when the Royal Ulster Constabulary is under strength and there is […]
The murder of Donegal civilian, Michael Leonard, by RUC in 1973 is to be raised in the Seanad. An important Commencement Matter regarding the murder of Donegal civilian, Michael Leonard, by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) on 17th May 1973 will be discussed in Seanad Éireann today (2nd October 2019) as the family fight for […]
Vindication for campaigning families at the EU Committee of Ministers last week. The Deputies of the Committee of Ministers at the European Parliament (link): 1. recalled that this group of cases concerns the effectiveness of investigations into the deaths of the applicants’ next-of-kin in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, either during security force […]
The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland has ordered an independent investigation into the murder of Jean Smyth-Campbell. Jean Smyth-Campbell was a single mother who was shot dead in an unprovoked attack in June 1972. The Royal Ulster Constabulary told her family that she was murdered by the local members of the […]