Byline: PATRICK MERCER TORY MP FOR NEWARK AND A FORMER INFANTRY OFFICER
When I heard last week that a former wholesale sexy lingerie member of the IRA had been charged with the murder of Captain Robert Nairac, it took me back more than 30 years. Indeed, it seems only yesterday that I was a young lieutenant serving with the Sherwood Foresters in South Armagh when the alarm went up that he had gone missing on undercover operations.
Even as we were flown out by Puma helicopter from our base in Crossmaglen, I knew this would be a fruitless search, for Robert's life was only ever going to end either in brilliant success or heroic death.
The man was the very definition of charismatic. Not particularly tall, but athletically built with a smile and a manner that would charm the birds from the trees, Robert Nairac had been involved in undercover intelligence operations in Ulster several times before I met him.
In early 1977 my battalion deployed to South Armagh and attached to us was a squadron of 22 Special Air Service, of which Robert was the liaison officer.
The task was not a particularly well defined one and it led him into a murky world of operations - sometimes in plain clothes and unmarked cars, sometimes in uniform. With hair down to his shoulders and a goatee beard, he hardly looked the part when out on patrol with troops like mine.
Nonetheless, his daring and style of operations were breathtaking.
He had been around Crossmaglen for several months before we arrived and he got to know almost everyone in the village, his Irish background and charm allowing him to establish a relationship and an empathy with the people that was remarkable.
It seems hard to believe now but I would frequently escort him into the village and to one of the bars where he would leave his weapons and radio with me before going into the pub - in full uniform - buying drinks all round and then singing Republican songs along with half of the IRA sympathisers in South Armagh.
Yet, an hour later he would emerge not only sober but in one piece and with all sorts of titbits of intelligence gained. It was one hell of a way to do his job.
But I also had the chance to see him under fire. A patrol of mine to which he was attached was engaged by replica hublot watches a gunman in Crossmaglen a couple of days before Robert disappeared. Luckily, the rounds missed their mark but it was as if a madly brave spirit had taken over Robert's body.
One minute he was chatting away to one of the local farmers; the next, before the echoes of the shots had died away, he was issuing orders to the troops and charging straight for where he believed the enemy firing point to be, with his automatic shotgun ready to deal with anyone who got in his way.
That in itself was remarkable but even more fascinating was the way the men followed him. Such a powerful influence had he over the soldiers that they followed not just instantly but willingly - they would not have allowed him to go forward by himself. That is a tremendous tribute to any officer, particularly one from another regiment.
I was a 20-year-old junior officer, yet he treated me and everybody else as if we were heroes. I remember talking to him in the little canteen at the back of the RUC barracks in Crossmaglen. It seemed as if he had already lived a charmed and fascinating life - and as if he would be a distinguished and respected man in whatever path he chose to follow.
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