Dear r/askhistorians

According to varies sources (including the book The Trigger Men by Martin Dillon) Mckeague was involved in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal.

The narrative goes that the help of William McGrath, John McKeague took part in the abuse and rape of young boys at the Kincora home throughout the 1970’s, and the reason why he was never convicted was that he was a government agent employed by MI5.

Later on in his life in January 1982, McKeague was interviewed by detectives investigating Kincora about his involvement in the sexual abuse. Fearful of returning to prison, McKeague told friends that in order to avoid a sentence, he was prepared to name others involved in the paedophile ring. However, on 29 January 1982, McKeague was shot dead in his shop on Albertbridge Road in east Belfast, reportedly by the INLA. It has been argued that following McKeague's threats to go public about all of those involved in Kincora his killing had been ordered by the Intelligence Corps, for many of those who could have named were also agents (often more effective than McKeague, who by that time was highly peripheral in paramilitary circles). To support this suggestion, it has been stated by Jack Holland and Henry McDonald that of the two gunmen who shot McKeague one was a known Special Branch agent and the other was rumoured to have military intelligence links.

However I am sceptical of Mckeague involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal and found multiple sources that question this narrative.

The first one is the 2016 Kincora report. I have two links to two different parts of the report. The first link is Chapter 8, Module 15 of the report. In this part of the report the only things said about McKeague were

1. That MI5 knew McKeague was a homosexual

2. MI5 didn’t have any damming evidence that McKeague was a homosexual

3. That MI5 tried to use his homosexual tendencies to blackmail him into becoming a government agent but it failed

4. That McKeague attempted to join MI5 but failed

5. That General Sir Peter Leng had a vague memory of McKeague name

6. That the murder that McKeague (that of BRIAN McDERMOTT) had nothing to with witchcraft or have a sexual nature to it

7. That McKeague was suspected of the murder of BRIAN McDERMOTT

8. That it was suspected that McKeague was protected from prosecution

9. That there was very little evidence connecting McKeague to the murder of BRIAN McDERMOTT

10. McKeague was connected to the phase two investigation of Kincora but it never went through because he was dead before a proper investigation took place

Chapter 28 - Module 15 - Kincora Boys’ Home (Part 2).pdf (hiainquiry.org): https://www.hiainquiry.org/sites/hiainquiry/files/media-files/Chapter%2028%20-%20Module%2015%20-%20Kincora%20Boys%E2%80%99%20Home%20%28Part%202%29.pdf

This source not only doesn’t connect McKeague to Kincora at all, but it also explicitly says that McKeague wasn’t a government agent and that there is very little evidence connecting him to the murder of BRIAN McDERMOTT .

The next source is from the same report talking about witness testimony. In this source it says that

1. Brian McDERMOTT murder was first linked to Kincora by the journalist, Ed MOLONEY

2. On 30/01/1982, COULTER told MOLONEY that she knew that John McKEAGUE frequented William MCGRATH’s home at Greenwood Avenue in the 1970s. This conversation between COULTER and MOLONEY linked McKEAGUE to MCGRATH, and therefore, by default Kincora

3. It was this tenuous connection which was used by MOLONEY to link Kincora to the murder of Brian McDERMOTT

4. D/Superintendent CASKEY subsequently investigated this alleged link and concluded in his covering report for the Phase 2 file

5. The murder was further linked to Kincora by a number of other journalists in 1982

6. The only other link between John McKEAGUE and Kincora was that McKEAGUE had been involved in a homosexual ‘relationship’ with a former Kincora resident that is referted to as HIA 534/R4.

7. HIA 534/R4 admitted to the RUC in his statement of 03/04/1980 that he had been involved in consensual homosexual activity with McKEAGUE and also claimed that he had lived rent free, in a house owned by McKEAGUE for a period in 1977/ 1978 when was aged 28/ 29 years and had not been a resident in Kincora for approximately 11 years.

8. From the material held by PSNI, these are the only links between John McKEAGUE and Kincora

9. That Collin Wallace states that the only link between McDERMOTT’s murder and homosexuality is via John McKEAGUE

10. WALLACE told police in 2004 that he had made this link with the McDERMOTT murder and John McKEAGUE “not based on any evidence … only supposition on my [WALLACE’s] part based on intelligence at hand being evaluated and linked”. WALLACE also acknowledged that he “had no knowledge that would have linked anyone from the Kincora investigation to the murder of Brian McDERMOTT murder”

Additional Witness statement of D-Chief Superintendent George Clarke dated 17.06.16 (hiainquiry.org) : https://www.hiainquiry.org/sites/hiainquiry/files/media-files/4-Additional-Witness-Statement-D-Chief-Superintendent-George-Clarke-17-June-2016-RO%20%282%29.pdf

This source also doesn’t connect McKeague to the Kincora abuse but also says that the only connection he has to Kincora is by him having a consensual homosexual relationship with HIA 534/R4 who was 28/29 and had left it 11 years ago.

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