RTÉ says "no RUC collusion"; the Irish Times says "wrongful acts" obstructed the murder investigation

Robert Hamill, 25, a Catholic father of three, was beaten by loyalists on Market Street in Portadown in April 1997 and died 11 days later. The inquiry into whether RUC officers facilitated his death or obstructed the murder investigation was set up in 2004. It reported on Monday.

The report carries two findings, and the three reports we hold split on which one leads. The officers in a Land Rover near the attack were unaware of it, tried to restore order and "did not in any way condone or collude with attackers", the report says. It also finds "wrongful acts and omissions" by RUC officers that obstructed the murder investigation.

One headline does not match its own first sentence. The Irish Times headline says the wrongful acts obstructed the inquiry; its opening line says what was obstructed was the investigation.

Not settled. Whether anyone has been convicted of the killing. TheJournal.ie says no one ever has. The Irish Times records only Robert Cecil Atkinson's 2024 conviction for perverting the course of justice, and the family saying the killers "were never fully held accountable". The RTÉ text we hold does not address it. The panel itself could not agree on the consequences of the Land Rover officers failing to intervene, and no report we hold names an attacker.

This is about whether Northern Ireland's police failed a Catholic man killed by a loyalist crowd in 1997, and then failed his family.

How it got here

• The Troubles. From the late 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998, Northern Ireland lived through a conflict between mostly Catholic nationalists, who wanted a united Ireland, and mostly Protestant unionists and loyalists, who wanted to stay in the United Kingdom. The police force was the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Many nationalists distrusted it.
• Portadown, 1997. Portadown is a town in Co Armagh. In the late 1990s it was a flashpoint because of the dispute over the Orange Order's parade at Drumcree. Robert Hamill was attacked there in April 1997, a year before the peace deal.
• "Collusion." This is the allegation that members of the security forces helped loyalist paramilitaries or covered for them. It runs through many killings from the Troubles.
• 2001–2004. At Weston Park in 2001, the British and Irish governments agreed that a retired Canadian judge, Peter Cory, would review six killings where collusion was alleged. Hamill's was one of them. Cory recommended a public inquiry, and one was set up in 2004.
• The wait. The RUC was replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2001. The inquiry sat for years. Publication was held back while criminal proceedings ran. One of those ended in Robert Cecil Atkinson's 2024 conviction for perverting the course of justice.

Who is in it

• The Hamill family campaigned for the inquiry. Their solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, was killed by a loyalist car bomb in 1999.
• The UK government set up the inquiry and runs policing and justice for past cases.
• The Irish government co-signed Weston Park. That is one reason Irish outlets follow the case.

What is at stake

The report is a judgement on whether the police let a sectarian killing go unpunished. London and Dublin still disagree over how Troubles killings should be investigated.

Where it stands

The report was published on Monday 14 September 2026. The reports we hold disagree on whether anyone has ever been convicted of the killing.