In the early 1970s, Colin Wallace tried to expose the horrific abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home. For doing so, he was driven from his posts as Senior Information Officer and Psychological Operations Officer in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.
His case has been raised in Westminster. The Calcutt Inquiry vindicated many of the issues surrounding it. Paul Foot wrote a book about the miscarriage of justice he suffered in the 1980s when he was framed for manslaughter. The Court of Appeal overturned that travesty of justice. A Home Office pathologist was exposed as a perjurer.
Over the decades, Wallace has written to one British prime minister after another to expose the full extent of MI5’s use of dirty tricks, political assassination and child trafficking in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. They have all washed their hands. Some have not even acknowledged his letters, let alone address the issues he raised.
Now the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, faces the same test. Wallace wrote to him on 24 July. He has yet to even acknowledge the letter.
Every indication is that Burnham will become yet another leader captive to the intelligence services — too afraid to confront them, too willing to let the truth stay buried.
Burnham has a choice: act on Wallace’s evidence, or become the latest in a long line of politicians who chose silence over justice for abused children.
Wallace is merely one of many ‘insiders’ who blew the whistle on the rape of children at Kincora.
William McGrath, the ‘housefather’ at Kincora, was a paedophile. He was also the commander of a Loyalist paramilitary group called Tara. McGrath was an MI5 and MI6 agent. He supplied boys to paedophiles and pederasts so MI5 and MI6 could blackmail them.
The document reproduced below was generated by MI5 in June of 1971, and shows that the Head of the RUC’s Special Branch, Assistant Chief Constable David Johnston and David Eastwood, MI5’s Director of Intelligence at British Army HQ, Lisburn, knew about McGrath and Tara.
Knowing about McGrath and Tara is one thing; establishing that the intelligence services were aware of the child abuse being perpetrated by McGrath is another thing altogether.
Are there documents which show that?
Yes.
The next document demonstrates that MI5 knew about the abuse perpetrated by William McGrath.
The quality of the document is poor but the crucial extract reads as follows:
‘3. It is reported that the former commanding officer of the Tara Brigade – McGRATH – had been accused of assaulting small boys and that he could not account for any cash that had been handed over to him over a period of a year.‘
The Hart report confirmed that MI5 knew that an MI5 agent called James Miller told MI5 that William McGrath was assaulting young boys at Kincora long before the scandal erupted into the public domain in 1980.
Judge Hart performed all sorts of contortions to downplay this fact in his egregious 2017 report.
In 1973, a one page document (reproduced above) was circulated by Colin Wallace to a select number of reporters to neutralise the threat posed by TARA and expose McGrath’s distasteful exploitation of children. One of those involved in the operation was Hugh Mooney, a Trinity College Dublin graduate and ex-Irish Times sub-editor, who worked for the Information Research Department (IRD), the UK’s black propaganda department which was based at Riverbank House in London.
Hugh Mooney’s handwriting appears on the 1973 document. According to Hugh Mooney, the document was written by Mike Cunningham. It was furnished to Wallace at the British Army’s HQ at Lisburn.
At this time Wallace and the British Army were not aware that MI5 and MI6 were running a vile blackmail operation involving the rape of children at Kincora. This would generate a lot of trouble for Wallace later on when Ian Cameron of MI5 would derail his career. Cameron did this because Wallace was persisting in his attempts to end the child rape at Kincora.
Mooney left HQ NI at the end of 1973, so the 1973 Tara information sheet must have been created before then.
Wallace was also acting on orders from General Peter Leng, Commander of Land Forces Northern Ireland, to circulate the 1973 one page document to journalists.
It links McGrath to sexual blackmail.
Wallace retained a copy of the 1973 document. It described how the ‘OC’ or Officer-in-Command of Tara was
‘William MCGRATH. He is a known homosexual who has conned many people into membership [of Tara] by threatening them with revealing homosexual activities which he himself initiated. He is a prominent figure in Unionist Party politics and in the Orange Order’.
Also that McGrath
‘uses a non-existent evangelical mission as a front for his homosexual activities and also runs a home for children on the 236 Upper Newtonards Road, Belfast (Tel: B’fast 657838)”.
This was the address and telephone number of Kincora.
When Wallace’s superior, Peter Broderick, was given the document in 1973, he scrawled the words ‘Clerks IP’ across the top. ‘IP’ stands for Information Policy, the unit Wallace worked for. In 1990, Broderick spoke frankly to the renowned journalist Paul Foot about the document. On 8 February of that year, Foot reported in The Daily Mirror that,
‘This week, for the first time, Peter Broderick, Wallace’s boss at the time – 1974 – confirmed to me that he saw the document (The TARA press brief used by Wallace to highlight McGrath’s homosexuality and his role in running a children’s home) and wrote on it. “That is certainly my writing”, he told me. “I saw the document and approved it’.”
Peter Broderick confirmed these facts to Barry Penrose of The Sunday Times on 11 February 1990.
The page also bears the handwriting of Lt Colonel Adrian Peck, who was head of PSYOPS at HQNI in 1973 and early 1974, i.e. GSO1 Information Policy.
A number of journalists have confirmed that they either saw the page or received a briefing from Wallace in 1973 about Tara based on the information that was contained in it.
Kevin Dowling of The Sunday Mirror was one of them. He gave the Hart Inquiry ‘a copy of a telex he had sent to his editor in 1973’ as a result of information furnished to him by Wallace. The telex stated that ‘according to Mr. Wallace the CO [i.e. Commanding Officer] of Tara was William McGrath and a homosexual’ and that ‘McGrath apparently uses a non-existent evangelical mission as a front to entice young Protestant men into homosexuality. Once in they are potential blackmail victims and soldiers of Tara’.
In 1982, Dowling provided the police with a statement outlining what he discovered about the scandal. It is reproduced below
Ian Paisley is mentioned in the document. On 13 March 1977, The Sunday Times published an article entitled: ‘The Army’s Secret War in Northern Ireland’ by David Blundy. It reported that at a British Army briefing in 1974
‘at which a Sunday Times reporter was present attempts were made to link Paisley with the Protestant para-military group called Tara, a small, obscure and ineffective group as Ulster’s para-military organisations go. The Sunday Times has a copy of an Army intelligence summary on Tara which contains accurate details about its organisation. .. One member, which the summary names, is called a “homosexual and has conned many people into membership by threatening them with revealing homosexual activities which he had initiated’”.
Another document confirms British Army knowledge of Tara:
The Kincora scandal did not enter the public domain until 1980.
MI5 did nothing to stop the abuse at Kincora for a number of reasons, one of which was that McGrath and others around him were MI5 agents. The next document is an MI5 telegram dated 29 April 4 1980, which shows that MI5 was running an agent inside Tara. At the time, McGrath was facing criminal charges. Although not mentioned, the agent was codenamed ‘ROYAL FLUSH’. He was a DUP member nominated to stand for election on its behalf in the 1970s. He later became a secondary school teacher.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ is still alive.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ and McGRATH were lovers.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ liked to dress as a woman.
The reference to ‘SNUFFBOX’ is to MI5’s telex address.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ is described as someone who:
… SOME CONSIDERABLE TIME AGO (1966) HAD A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH McGRATH WHO IS OF COURSE CURRENTLY ACCUSED OF HOMOSEXUAL RELATED CRIMES. ALTHOUGH THIS RELATIONSHIP (AND ONE OTHER WITH A THIRD UNNAMED PERSON WHICH WAS ADMITTED) WAS NOT SUCH THAT WOULD ATTRACT THE FULL ODIUM OF THE LAW IF. [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] IS TELLING THE TRUTH), CLEARLY [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] IS AWARE OF THE VULNERABILITY OF HIS POSITION. AT LEAST THE OTHER TWO WELL KNOWN POLITICIANS ARE AWARE OF THE [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH -] MCGRATH RELATIONSHIP SINCE McGRATH TOLD THEM. THE IMMINENT ARREST OF [REDACTED] (OUR TUR) WILL HEIGHTEN HIS AWARENESS WE FEEL
[REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] ALSO REVEALED SOME TIME AGO (?1976) TO MCGRATH THAT HE, [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] WAS IN CONTACT WITH THE QUOTE SECURITY FORCES UNQUOTE. THE REVELATION WAS MADE IN SUCH A WAY THAT MCGRATH WILL HAVE ASSUMED THE CONTACT NOT TO BE A TRANSIENT ONE. McGRATH NEVER REFERRED TO THIS ADMISSION BUT CLEARLY WE CANNOT BE SURE THAT HE HAS KEPT THE INFORMATION TO HIMSELF WE HAVE THEREFORE REVIEWED OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH].
Since ROYAL FLUSH was an MI5 agent and admitted as much to McGrath, he may have known or guessed that McGrath was one too. Hence, he felt safe in making the admission to McGrath.
Ian Cameron of MI5 was fully aware of McGrath and Tara. Note the content of this document, dated 22 April 1976:
Wallace was serving with the British Army as these events unfolded. He was acting on instructions from General Leng, to expose the scandal even though it was properly an RUC matter. Leng confirmed to a Sunday Times journalist that he had been aware of the scandal. A story to this effect was published in the first edition of the Sunday Times but pulled from later editions. The editor was Andrew Neil.
The Sunday Times article was written by Barrie Penrose. The picture below is a copy of the final edit that Penrose transmitted to his paper. A hard copy of the printed version is difficult to find, as it only appeared in the first print run.
The crucial passage stated that:
‘Leng says he urged police action as early as 1974. He recalled writing a memo saying, “this is police business, not ours” However, although serious criminal offences were taking place at the boys’ home home nothing was done until eight years later when prominent Loyalist para-military figures were jailed for their part in the abuse of 13 childrenbetween 1973-9.’
Another crucial passage reveals that yet another British Army official at Lisburn, Michael Taylor, revealed the Kincora files at Lisburn were
‘detailed enough (in 1973-4) to name the boys and name the people who were committing the offences.’
Sadly, Mike Taylor passed away in July 2026.
The British Army was not involved in the Kincora scandal. MI5, however, was central to it. Ian Cameron of MI5 was monitoring the efforts of Wallace to expose McGrath and Tara on behalf of General Leng with alarm. MI5’s response was to destroy Wallace’s career. A book length analysis of this is available on this website starting with this link: Operation Clockwork Orange Vol 1 [WebBook.]
Brian Gemmell was yet another British military intelligence officer who blew the whistle on Kincora. While serving in Northern Ireland, he passed information to Ian Cameron of MI5. Gemmell was ‘Royal Flush’s’ handler. Gemmell was aware that McGrath, (Royal Flush’s former lover) was an MI5 agent too.
Captain Fred Holroyd served as a Special Military Intelligence Unit (SMIU) officer in Northern Ireland. His notes reveal that Ian Paisley knew about Kincora.
Roy Garland, the former deputy commander of Tara, reported the scandal to the RUC. The Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland has confirmed that this is so.
All of this information and more was – and remains – available to 10 Downing Street. So far, Burnham has shown no interest. He has not even acknowledged Wallace’s letter.
There is yet more evidence about MI5 and MI6’s exploitation of Kincora in addition to that disclosed by Wallace, Leng, Peck, Broderick, Mooney, Taylor, Gemmell, Holroyd and Garland. Interested readers can explore the issue further by opening the following link: https://coverthistory.ie/category/kincora/
Wallace also exposed the practice of collusion in murder by the UK state. See: Dublin-Monaghan bombings. [WebBook]
In addition, he exposed the vilification of a range of Labour politicians in the 1970s, as well as offormer Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
Parliament has been misled over these issues.
Thus far, Burnham has displayed no concern about the rot at the centre of Britain’s ‘Deep State’. He should be wary. Peter Mandelson was a politician who moved in all the right circles, including the Bilderberg Conference network. He knew the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein very well.
The British Labour Party suffered enormous political damage due to the Mandelson-Epstein affair after Prime Minister Keir Starmer ignored Mandelson’s links to Epstein. That choice led to a dramatic loss of confidence in Starmer’s leadership and was a key factor in his downfall.
Burnham should use his premiership to eradicate the influence of the Deep State. It is, unfortunately, a virtual certainty that he will let the cancer spread instead. His first test will be his response to Wallace.
The letter dated 24 July 2026, from Wallace to Burnham, is reproduced below:
Kier Starmer did not respond to this letter:
Wallace wrote to Simon Case, Britain’s Cabinet Secretary in 2022. He is still awaiting an acknowledgement.
Mrs Thatcher received the following letter in 1990:
David Burke is the author of four books published by Mercier Press.
