Robert William McConnell ( c. 1944 – 5 April 1976 ) , was a Ulster loyalist paramilitary who allegedly carried out or was an accomplice to a number of sectarian attacks and killings , although he never faced any charges or convictions . McConnell served part-time as a corporal in the 2nd Battalion Ulster Defence Regiment ( UDR ) , and was a suspected member of the Ulster Volunteer Force ( UVF ) In 1993 , Yorkshire Television broadcast a programme '' The Hidden Hand : the Forgotten Massacre '' , and the narrator named McConnell as a member of one of the two UVF bomb teams that perpetrated three car bomb attacks in Dublin on 17 May 1974 , which killed 26 people . The programme also linked him to British military intelligence and Captain Robert Nairac , stating that McConnell and key figures from the bombing unit were controlled before and after the bombings by Nairac . RUC Special Patrol Group ( SPG ) officer John Weir alleged that McConnell had been part of the UVF unit that shot leading Provisional IRA man John Francis Green to death in January 1975 . Weir also alleged that McConnell had been one of the gunmen in the Reavey family shootings , as well as having had a key role in the bomb and gun attack against Donnelly 's Bar the previous month . These were part of a series of sectarian attacks and killings that were carried out by the group of loyalist extremists known as the Glenanne gang , of which McConnell was a member . This gang comprised rogue elements of the Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) , the SPG , Ulster Defence Regiment ( UDR ) , and the UVF 's Mid-Ulster Brigade , which from 1975 to the early 1990s was commanded by Robin " the Jackal " Jackson . Jackson was also implicated by the '' Hidden Hand '' in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings , and he was reportedly involved in the Green assassination
Reavey family shootings
Reavey and O'Dowd killings
Robert McConnell (loyalist)