Kristian Nairn has opened up about witnessing a murder in a gay nightclub in the 1990s. The actor, who played Hodor in Game of Thrones, was in Belfast's Parliament bar when Darren Bradshaw was shot and killed.
Darren, 24, was a policeman and was inside Parliament when a man in disguise entered and shot him. Parliament was Belfast's only LGBT venue at the time.
Nairn, who was 22 when the murder happened, was at the bar at the time and witnessed the murder take place. The 6ft 10ins tall acto spoke for the first time about witnessing the shooting on the BBC's Blood on the Dance Floor podcast.
He said: "We hadn't been there long, we'd probably had our first drink. We were sat down just having a bit of a laugh."
The 44-year-old then said a man entered wearing a poor disguise made up of a "weirdly drawn-on beard". Nairn said he was "nervous-looking" and "definitely looking for someone".
The man then approached Darren and shot him in the back three times.
"The music carried on for a second before it came down - I remember a girl stood at the bar covered in blood," Nairn said. "This guy just legged it out, sort of kicked the doors open.
"I made eye contact with him, I think we all made eye contact with him as he was coming out. It happened so fast. It was just like stunned silence, just like a bomb had gone off."
The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility for Darren's murder. However, no one has ever been convicted for the crime.
But the murder had other repercussions for many living in Belfast, as it forced many to reveal their sexuality. This was the case for Nairn.
"I went home and my mum knew I was gay and that was fine - my mum's always been amazing," he said. "I told my grandfather I'd been in a shooting and he was like 'I'm glad you're okay' and all that.
"But he was quite a gossipy man in his time and he was around telling his old farmer friends. One of them had obviously been watching the news and he was like 'that was a gay bar'. And that was how my grandfather found out I was gay, and he threw me out of the house."
Nairn has gone on to have a successful career as an actor and a DJ. As well as Game of Thrones, he has also recently appeared in HBO's comedy Our Flag Means Death.
