Many thanks to Jacobite.
‘The Trigger Men’ by Martin Dillon (published 2003)
This is not the first time that I’ve heard of children being trafficked from Northern Ireland to Brighton and London. It clearly demonstrates the weakness of regional inquiries.
theneedleblog 
ps among tredagar’s various activities he was chamberlain to two popes (two possibly dodgy popes but still popes),which makes mckeague’s admiration for him a little unusual.
confusing mixtures of people and overt loyalties seem central to this part of the lattice.
mckeague was a very nasty man who definitely did a lot of very nasty things and had a lot of very nasty things done.
his involvement in the horrible murder of the unfortunate wee brian is plausible but unproven.
even mckeague’s “friends” found him very scarey and somewhat unpredictable, as well as being committed to political/ethnic “terrorism” he was capable of extreme violence against his own community and comrades often on mistaken and irrational pretexts.
when he was shot dead it was probably a great relief to many folk from many backgrounds.
whoever pulled the trigger (“inla” probably)and whoever organized the hit(there are several possibilities ) did the world a favour .
mc keague was horrible by any standards and although he may have been seen as a perfect asset for the tactics of gangs and countergangs within the strategy of tension it is likely he had a covert role before the troubles.
he became a liability as he knew too much (about many things both high and low), by nature he was very arrogant and psychopathic this caused him to become both too visible and unmanageable .
it seems very plausible it was decided to terminate his command before he became a catastrophic embarrassment.
a quick search of the pdf of the dust has never settled for “mckeague”got 37 results and links him to a surprisingly wide range of people.
for instance he knew and admired evan tredagar which although it might add weight to some of the more lurid rumours it does demonstrate that mckeague was in contact with some very well connected and powerful people when he was quite young .
other sources confirm some of those links and provide further links to a variety of spiders and flies.
he was far more than a back street terrorist.
thanks Paul
the full chapter from trigger men
https://www.scribd.com/doc/257453827/Kincora-Chapter-From-Book-on-Ulster-terrorists
‘The troubles’ were aptly named from the point of view of the State.
It is often assumed, incorrectly, that ‘The Brits’ and the Unionists/Loyalists were on the same side, after all the clue is in the name (Unionist/Loyalist) isn’t it?
Things are rarely what they appear to be and the Ulster crisis wasn’t an exception to that.
The UVF was formed before WW1 to resist the imposition of Home Rule by the British Government, The Loyalists knew that the British Government would drop them at the first opportunity and despite huge losses by Ulstermen fighting for Britain at the Somme they considered that they were abandoned and betrayed.
British troops were sent to Ulster in ’69 not to prop up Unionism but to hold the line between The Nationalists (That HMG would have loved to accede to but couldn’t) and the Unionists/Loyalists (That HMG would have loved to dump but couldn’t) the scene was set for decades of turmoil until the day that everyone was destined to reach an interim agreement with a near future Nationalist majority in sight at which point HMG can was its hands of the whole mess in the light of the inevitable democratic decision to unite with the South. In the meantime the impatient Republicans and the recalcitrant Unionists/Loyalists had to be held to an engineered stalemate.
Infiltration of all factions was a prerequisite, blackmail of influential individuals is an obvious tactic, protection of assets on both sides while setting up the troublesome elements to be taken out by either the security forces, the opposite faction or even their own factions believing them to be traitors.
British troops were initially sent to NI to protect the Catholics from Loyalist mobs. But HMG decided not to suspend the Unionist government in Stormont. Gradually it dawned on Catholics that the British army was indeed propping up Unionism, especially after the Tories came into government in mid 1970. This was the origin of the Provisional IRA campaign. If HMG had suspended Stormont in late 1969 or early 1970 there would probably have been no support for an armed IRA campaign
Totally disagree, the Government of the Republic of Ireland feared a bloodbath in the North and knew that it had insufficient police and military forces to step in should the hated ‘Brits’ leave or push the Loyalist hardliners too far.
McGrath was mentioned by Richard Kerr in February 2015 when he returned to NI to support a fellow survivor with a judicial review application:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/kincora-children-trafficked-throughout-uk-claims-former-resident-richard-kerr-30997734.html
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/kincora-victim-richard-kerr-in-explosive-new-claims-as-he-returns-to-horror-house-30-years-on-31007009.html
Dpack,
Interesting points, but I’d be a bit wary of assuming the Masons and Orange Lodges were/are synonymous. The Masons are avowedly anti-sectarian, allowing membership to all races and religions (although, granted, in Ireland historically the majority of members were probably Protestant, or at least proportionally more likely to be such as compared to the general population). The Orange Lodge prohibits membership to Catholics (in fact, to anyone but male Protestants). My impression has always been that the Masons in Ireland would be quite embarassed at the escapades the Orange Lodge has become embroiled in (e.g., the siege of Drumcree in 1996 and similar ) Granted, possibly, back in the 1970s, things were different.
http://www.freewebs.com/district46/lol781scarborough.htm
circumstantial evidence but food for thought.
ps for some reason the north east coasts seem closer than expected.
pps there are all sisters as well as all brothers lodges which surprised me.
i found that a while ago while looking for an answer to a” was dickie a mason/lodge man” via a bit of google chi .
i was more surprised by the united irish lodges which play host to folk who would and could not be seen together in a street or church.
perhaps considering the positions achieved by some members of the old money, anglo-irish catholic(and protestant)families,especially those working for the “palace” in various capacities, it seems the “united irish” seem to have an influence far greater than their numbers or public image might suggest .
the descendants of those who gained during the plantations and those who backed (or were backed by)billy have often “done well” both sides of the border and water.
i came across this reference to the “south of england “a while back and although single source it does seem to correspond with other tales about visits to and from other places .
the “top hats and royalty ” and the references to “rich friends” and “mc grath” and the intelligence community gave me the impression that an obvious link could be the lodges .
by lodges i include the orange(and other unionist ones),the united irish ones(which contain catholics and protestants of irish heritage from both sides of the waters and borders) ,the mainstream masonic ones (uk and international)and perhaps some i have never heard of .
as an outsider to such matters research is a little difficult but from a few things i have read i think it is likely that dickie was the senior figure in uk and irish matters(perhaps in europe),that heniker 8 was a senior figure in the anglo irish /united irish lodges and that both would therefore have been senior to any members of the unionist lodges,mcgrath was a very junior figure(in the degrees) and got expelled from at least one lodge.
iirc robin bryans is one of the sources for some of this data which he dots around in his writings(especially dust)to hide it in plain view but i think there have read a few other nuggets from a variety of sources
ps i think that phil took over as most senior when dickie became unavailable .
pps the lodge network is only one of several potential links between the “good, the bad and the cant quite decide about you” characters in this tangled web but it does seem to be a simple explanation of how a set of players from very different backgrounds appear to be working together on several projects.
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