David Cleary is the real name of Soldier F. He is the former lance corporal responsible for leading the cold-blooded and calculated murder spree committed by the EFGH unit of Support Company of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday.
Maj. General Patrick MacLellan helped me when I was writing ‘Kitson’s Irish War‘.
MacLellan passed away in 2024. He was the brigadier in charge of Derry on Bloody Sunday. He confirmed to me that General Robert Ford and MI5 withheld crucial intelligence from him. An MI5 military intelligence operative in the Bogside relayed it to them. The spy passed the information in the week before Bloody Sunday. Without a doubt, he should have been told. The operative was a liar called Jimmy Miller. I firmly believe Miller’s lies were a crucial factor in triggering Bloody Sunday.
Three former British soldiers were fully aware – from firsthand knowledge – of what I believe really happened on Bloody Sunday until recently. They were Brigadier Frank Kitson, Derek Wilford and David Cleary. Only Cleary is now alive.
Ron Cook, also known as Soldier G, knew too, but he died in South Africa in the 1980s. See: Soldier G.
Wilford passed away in 2023 at age 90. During his lifetime, he made a series of de facto admissions about what really happened on Bloody Sunday.
Kitson died in 2024 at age 97. His last book (of many) was published the following year, in which he made no confessions of the war crimes he had committed. See, however: Learning to kill
Cleary is the last living person who participated in Bloody Sunday – of whom I am aware – who knows what happened on Bloody Sunday from firsthand knowledge; most particularly the orders Col Wilford issued to him and Ron Cook shortly before the murder spree. They were given while Cleary and Cook were waiting to go into action at a churchyard within striking distance of the Bogside. I set out my views about this in ‘Kitson’s Irish War‘ and in a more truncated fashion in an article on this website: The Bloody Sunday Plot.
David Cleary’s name took decades to emerge. While Cleary was running amok in Derry on Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972, murdering people in cold blood, one of his colleagues shouted out his Christian name, ‘Dave’.
His identity wasn’t exposed at the Widgery tribunal in 1972.
Lord Saville wanted to name him, but the Court of Appeal in London overruled him. Hence, he remained ‘Soldier F ‘ for the Saville Inquiry.
The Northern Ireland courts then confirmed his entitlement to anonymity.
The jurisdiction of the UK courts does not apply to the Republic of Ireland, the home of this magazine, or to Village, to whom I contribute on this issue.
After murder charges against Cleary were initially dropped in July 2021, his full name appeared on at least two notices which were hung in Guildhall Square in Derry. They first appeared on Saturday 3 July.
Photographs of the notice were circulated on social media.
PSNI officers removed them and initiated inquiries to establish who was responsible for their erection.
The photograph below is of one of the notices.
The justification for concealing Cleary’s name was out of a purported concern that his life might be endangered. This was fanciful, as his name has been known in Derry and beyond for decades. Indeed, so too are the names of many of his colleagues who participated in the Bloody Sunday massacre.
I suspect MI5 and other elements of Britain’s Deep State are determined to keep the media away from Cleary. If so, the tactic has worked a treat. No editor contemplated asking him any questions – now or then.
He was named to the House of Commons by Colum Eastwood MP of the SDLP, and to Dáil Éireann by Peadar Tóibín TD of Aontú.
The mainstream media reported that Soldier F had been named but did not publish the name.
I published Cleary’s name in Village magazine in Dublin.
The passage of time since Cleary was named confirms that Cleary’s life was never in danger.
The criminal charges against Cleary were later reinstated. He was tried but acquitted.
Clearly, he must know that the world believes he is an evil, psychopathic murderer. He was most certainly a killer and a torturer. Still, I firmly believe he was acting on ironhearted orders from Col Wilford (with General Ford and Kitson plotting in the shadows) on Bloody Sunday. He does not have long to set the record straight. If he doesn’t, the black propaganda departments of Whitehall will vilify him when he passes. The purpose will be to confirm the lamentable and erroneous findings of Lord Saville, who portrayed his 1 Para EFGH unit as having run amok. He will probably be blamed for all sorts of racist and sexual violence and ‘gunge-type’ activities too. That paratroopers engaged in such misbehaviour is not in question. It will be easy to portray Cleary as a general miscreant who was a part of this kind of behaviour. See: Kitson’s Private Army.
The factual material in my article about his mobile torture chamber could also be exploited. See: Mobile torture chamber.
It is up to Cleary how he wants to be remembered: either as a depraved, degenerate and violent psychopath, or an utterly ruthless soldier who followed Wilford’s ruthless orders.
Not a single editor in Britain has the courage to interview him. They could do so and simply refer to him as Soldier F.
Maj. General Patrick MacLellan set the record straight. His name will never be associated with the secret operation that descended into the Bloody Sunday massacre. If Ford, Kitson, Wilford, Cleary, Cook, MI5, Military Intelligence and their associates had not gone behind MacLellan’s back, fourteen people would not have died; the Provisional IRA would not have received a gargantuan boost in support, and Britain’s name would not have flashed around the world in such a staggering and deplorable fashion.
David Burke is the author of four books published by Mercier Press.
These books can be purchased here:
o