Blog

In this Paper Trail Pro podcast, we out Britain’s Man in Maynooth. We examine the rather cosy relationship between a highly influential Irish Monsignor at Maynooth College and a British covert spy and propaganda unit. At first glance, the file I found was a brief, quite nondescript information report from one British civil servant in the Dublin […]

In this podcast, we examine the early career of British soldier and Loyalist paramilitary, Brian Nelson. When the murky history of the Troubles is written, Brian Nelson’s name is assured of a place. His name has become synonymous with the word “collusion” as he was a double agent run by British military intelligence at the […]

Below is a summary of Paper Trail’s response to the consultation, Addressing the Legacy of the Past in Northern Ireland. Paper Trail’s project manager worked with the families of the Time for Truth Campaign which gathered nearly 15K responses to the consultation, Addressing the Legacy of the Past. Below is a summary of Paper Trail’s […]

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 […]

The consultation for Addressing the Legacy of the Past is closing on 5th October 2018 so record your views now. The consultation regards the proposed legislation and mechanisms for dealing with the legacy of the conflict. It follows the signing of the Stormont House Agreement in 2014 and the absence of action since then. The consultation […]

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 […]

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 […]

Our Archive of the Week uncovers a Spy in the Sacristy during a critical period of the first Hunger Strike in 1980. Archive of the Week: Spy in the Sacristy – the Pope’s Apostolic Delegate, Bruno Heim, was Britain’s spy who divulged significant information at a crucial juncture of the first Hunger Strike in 1980 […]

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 […]