John Newell, a County Down man … infiltrated the United Irishmen rebel group in 1796 and helped to imprison 200 members. Newell was paid £2,000 by the authorities and with remarkable hubris boasted about his exploits in a tell-all book. He ended up abducted, shot and secretly buried in County Antrim.

I hope he had time to spend his £2,000 first. Grisly secrets of the ‘disappeared’ of Anglo-Irish war uncovered by research