Nairac, like T.  E. Lawrence, who was one of his heroes, was a complex man. He had a dark side, about which some of his family and friends are in denial. The Devil was a real person to Nairac, who claimed to have encountered him during a bad LSD trip at Oxford. Unknown to the Army, the Boys’ Own hero and boxing champion had frequented a decadent Oxford circle of LSD abusers that included the future author Duncan Fallowell and Alasdair McGaw, who was later Derek Jarman’s companion. 

 

Fallowell strongly suspected that Nairac was gay, like himself , and has said so in print, although there is little surviving evidence of what Nairac's sexual preferences really were. Then there was the visceral delight in violence, which went beyond the rugby field and boxing ring to include bare-knuckle fighting and brawls with local bad characters. On one occasion at Oxford Nairac put four skinheads, who had decided to mug a “college boy” late one evening, into Accident and Emergency.

 

Even after being commissioned in the Household Division, the elegant and charming Nairac was no stranger to pub brawls in Irish pubs in Kilburn and Cricklewood; he enjoyed them. The brawl in Drumintee that led to his death in May 1977 probably did not alarm him initially. A skilful boxer, exceptionally strong man and an excellent shot, Nairac would have reckoned that he could handle it.  

Robert Nairac’s early acquaintance with Ireland was with the Republic. He may have set foot in Northern Ireland before his Battalion, the Second Battalion  Grenadier Guards, was sent there in 1973, but this is not certain. He had however followed the Troubles, which broke out in 1969 while he was at Oxford, with close interest and concern. Once in Northern Ireland, he became emotionally involved, both as a lover of Ireland and as a Roman Catholic. He was successful in community outreach, giving boxing coaching to boys in a sports club in Ardoyne. The offspring of a happy Catholic-Protestant marriage, he found the deep-seated hatred that divided the communities in Northern Ireland repulsive. He began to think  that he could make a difference.

 

When his Battalion was rotated away from Ulster, he and three others volunteered to remain to assist the incoming Battalion, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In all, Nairac was to do four tours of duty in Northern Ireland; with each tour becoming more deeply involved in intelligence-gathering. He became indispensable to the Army, especially the SAS, and also to the RUC , because of his local expertise. At the time of his death he was operating undercover. He was kept in Northern Ireland for far too long; he became stressed and careless.

There is no consensus about Nairac. Depending on your viewpoint he was a maverick fool, with a death-wish; a cold-blooded and ruthless killer; a double or even triple agent; a saint, a martyr and a man in a million. He cannot have been all of these things. One thing on which there is agreement, even by the IRA, is his immense courage and integrity, shown above all in the way in which he faced his death in a field in Ireland in May 1977.