35 Facts About Billy Hanna

Billy Hanna then joined the Territorial Army and later the Ulster Special Constabulary.

Billy Hanna held the rank of sergeant in C Company, 11th Battalion UDR and served as a permanent staff instructor.

Former British soldier and psychological warfare operative Colin Wallace suggested that Billy Hanna had been the principal organiser of the Dublin attacks.

Billy Hanna was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland in about 1929, and brought up as a Protestant.

Billy Hanna began his military career in the British Army, serving in the Royal Ulster Rifles where he held the rank of lance-corporal.

Billy Hanna was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry during the Korean War.

Billy Hanna was in 2 UDR's C Company before it became C Company 11th Battalion Ulster Defence Regiment in 1972.

Billy Hanna served as a permanent staff instructor, holding the rank of sergeant, although he was for a time weapons instructor at 2 UDR's base in Gough Barracks in Armagh.

Billy Hanna would have been fast tracked on a refresher course to sharpen up his military skills, and would have been part of the UDR's front line of experienced soldiers when the regiment began duties in 1970.

Billy Hanna was no exception as attacks waged by the Provisional IRA escalated in the early 1970s, and many Ulster loyalists in Northern Ireland, feeling that their status was being threatened and the state response insufficient, sought to retaliate with illegal violence by joining one of the two main loyalist paramilitary organisations, the legal UDA or the illegal UVF.

Up until his death in 1975, Billy Hanna was the leader of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF, having established the brigade and set up the first unit in his home town of Lurgan in 1972.

Billy Hanna, who held the rank of brigadier, appointed himself commander and his leadership was endorsed by the UVF's supreme commander Gusty Spence.

Billy Hanna was the depot's guard commander when the raid took place.

Tiernan alleged that Billy Hanna personally recruited and trained young men from the Lurgan and Portadown areas who were "prepared to defend Ulster at any cost".

Billy Hanna then began carrying out bank and post office robberies, and intimidated local businessmen into paying protection money to the Mid-Ulster UVF.

In November 1973, Billy Hanna was arrested after his home in Lurgan was searched by the RUC.

Billy Hanna was charged with the possession of a round of ammunition and two six-volt batteries wired together which were found during the search.

Former British soldier and Troubles' writer Ken Wharton suggested in his 2013 book Wasted Years, Wasted Lives, Volume 1 that the accusations against Billy Hanna having been involved in loyalist paramilitary activities were unsubstantiated.

Weir additionally alleged that Billy Hanna had been the main organiser of the attacks.

Billy Hanna's allegations were published in 2003 in the Barron Report, which was the findings of the official investigation into the bombings by Irish Supreme Court Justice Henry Barron.

The 1993 Yorkshire Television documentary, The Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre named Billy Hanna as having been part of the Dublin bombing unit.

Billy Hanna was allegedly put in charge of the operation and carefully chose the team of bombers who would assist him in the attacks.

Joe Tiernan claimed that Billy Hanna appointed William Fulton as quartermaster for the bombings, but he did not indicate his source for the information.

Billy Hanna invited regular soldiers to his house for "cups of tea".

Billy Hanna said two middle-ranking officers in plain clothes travelled down from Lisburn once a fortnight in a van to meet Billy and give him instructions on what they wanted done.

Former Military Intelligence officer Fred Holroyd claimed that Billy Hanna had contact with a Field Intelligence Non-Commissioned Officer who reported to Holroyd.

Colin Wallace stated that he was told in 1974 that Billy Hanna worked for British Army 3 Brigade.

Tiernan suggested that Billy Hanna had been paranoid that the Gardai would stop the cars at a checkpoint.

Billy Hanna therefore ordered the drivers to travel to Dublin by separate routes, and to make sure that there was no police presence on the roads.

Billy Hanna was shot dead after driving home to Lurgan from a function at the British Legion Club in Lurgan in the early hours of 27 July 1975.

Billy Hanna then fired a second shot into the back of Hanna's head as he lay on the ground.

Dillon claims that prior to his death Billy Hanna had been under surveillance by the RUC Special Branch.

Joe Tiernan maintained that the man who shot and killed Billy Hanna was Robin Jackson, who then assumed command of the Mid-Ulster UVF.

Investigative journalist Paul Larkin in his book A Very British Jihad: collusion, conspiracy, and cover-up in Northern Ireland said this, adding that Jackson shot Billy Hanna after learning that he had passed on information regarding the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

David McKittrick in Lost Lives alleged that Jackson had killed Billy Hanna to obtain a cache of weapons that Billy Hanna held.