16 Facts About Peter Cleary

Peter Cleary held the rank of Staff Officer and served as the unit's treasurer.

Peter Cleary was implicated by journalist and author Joe Tiernan in the killing of Ulster Defence Regiment corporal and alleged Ulster Volunteer Force member Robert McConnell.

Ten days after McConnell's killing, Cleary was shot dead by the Special Air Service after being arrested at the home of his girlfriend outside Forkhill.

Peter Cleary was the first person in Northern Ireland to be killed by the SAS, following the admission of their deployment there in January 1976.

Peter Cleary was born on 18 September 1950 in Northern Ireland, the second eldest of the 13 children of Hugh and Mary Peter Cleary.

Peter Cleary was brought up in the Roman Catholic religion, and according to author Tony Geraghty he was originally from Newry; although David McKittrick's book Lost Lives states he had lived in Magee Terrace, Belleeks, County Armagh.

At some stage after the Troubles broke out in 1968, Peter Cleary joined the 1st Battalion of the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA.

Peter Cleary served as the unit's treasurer and held the rank of Staff Officer.

Peter Cleary made his living as a scrap metal dealer.

Author and journalist Joe Tiernan claims that Peter Cleary was part of the three-man IRA unit that ambushed and killed part-time Ulster Defence Regiment corporal Robert McConnell in the garden of his home at Tullyvallen, near Newtownhamilton.

Peter Cleary alleged that McConnell had been set up by the Intelligence Corps who passed on confidential information about McConnell to the IRA, through Nairac, in an attempt to infiltrate the organisation.

Peter Cleary was on the run, living in the Republic of Ireland; however on 15 April 1976, he returned secretly to Northern Ireland where he was promptly arrested at the home of his pregnant girlfriend outside Forkhill.

Peter Cleary was seized by an SAS team who had been watching the house from observation positions as part of a week-long surveillance job and taken to a field to await transport by a military helicopter, as travelling by road was deemed too risky for British military personnel.

Author Mike Ryan claimed in his book Secret Operations of the SAS that Peter Cleary had actually managed to escape and was shot by the pursuing soldiers who had ordered him to stop as he tried to make his way to the Republic of Ireland border.

Peter Cleary was the first person killed by the SAS since they were deployed to Northern Ireland in full force in January 1976 by order of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the wake of the Kingsmill massacre; although there had been an SAS presence in the province prior to then, having had a proxy intelligence role through the 14th Intelligence Company, and their sub-unit 4 Field Survey Troop.

On 17 April 1976 the Cork Examiner described Peter Cleary's killing as "an act of utter folly".