British intelligence ‘plotted attack on Catholic primary school’

Sean Murray directed a programme about the Glenanne Gang which operated in Co Armagh in the 1970s and has been blamed for a series of killings in collusion with rogue members of the security forces.

The story focused on a self-confessed member of the murder gang in the feature-length Unquiet Graves: The Story Of The Glenanne Gang.

Gunmen from the UVF ultimately refused to carry out the attack on the school in Belleeks in Co Armagh, the programme makers said.

Mr Murray said: “By far, the most chilling part of creating this documentary was speaking to John Weir in South Africa.

“As a former member of the RUC who admitted to being in the Glenanne gang, his claim that the British military intelligence tried to arrange for loyalist paramilitaries to attack a primary school is shocking.”

Mr Murray said Weir was a loyalist who was imprisoned for killing an innocent Catholic called William Strathearn.

He claimed two gunmen involved in the killing were police agents who did not serve a day in prison.

Weir described alleged plans for loyalist paramilitaries to attack a primary school in retaliation for the Kingsmills massacre of 10 Protestant workmen in Co Armagh by republicans.

He told the filmmaker the source of the plan was British military intelligence hoping to cause the situation in Northern Ireland to “spiral out of control”.