Nolan McNamara

Elder Nolan McNamara is the current elder of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel living at the Hidden Valley bunker in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background
A Brotherhood Paladin once, McNamara assumed control of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood after Father Elijah vanished during the disastrous NCR attack on Helios One. McNamara successfully broke through the NCR's lines and led the surviving members of the Brotherhood to the safety of the Hidden Valley bunker. This act earned him an enormous amount of respect and loyalty from the chapter members, who credit him with saving the chapter from total destruction.

Fearing that the NCR would continue to hunt down the Mojave chapter, McNamara put the Hidden Valley bunker on lockdown, not allowing anyone but small scouting parties to leave, and not allowing any of the BoS who were outside to enter. He still fears the NCR and believes they are still hunting the Brotherhood. However, the NCR is not actively looking for the Brotherhood, entangled in trying to secure the Mojave and prepare for the upcoming Legion assault on Hoover Dam to concern themselves with them. The extended lock down and resulting attrition of the Brotherhood's sphere of influence has caused some members of the Brotherhood to question the Elder's judgment, and Head Paladin Edgar Hardin is looking for a way to usurp him.

Quests

 * Still in the Dark: McNamara will ask the player to do various tasks for the Brotherhood, such as looking for Brotherhood patrols, getting reports from scouts, and helping repair the air filtration system by retrieving different parts from the Mojave's vaults. He can also be overthrown by Head Paladin Hardin with the help of the Courier in this quest.
 * Eyesight to the Blind: If not overthrown, McNamara will task the player in planting a bug in the radio equipment at Black Mountain and to deal with the super mutants there.
 * I Could Make You Care: Veronica wants to convince the Elder to change and get more recruits.

Effects of player actions

 * If Elder McNamara is overthrown, he will be demoted to Knight McNamara and can be found working in the Knight's workshop.

Inventory

 * ¹ Only if the player overthrows McNamara.

Appearances
Nolan McNamara appears only in Fallout: New Vegas and is mentioned in the add-on Dead Money.

Bugs

 * After Elder McNamara grants you full access of the bunker, heading for his chair, if the player sits in his chair he will stop his action and stand still forever. This can be fixed by going into the console, selecting Elder McNamara with your mouse or typing, then , then.
 * Note: If you can't find him, type and warp to where he's stuck contemplating a wall/air vent.
 * McNamara, the Rangemaster, Lars Taggart, and Scribe Ibsen both end their dialogue with Antony's distinctively voiced "Later." This appears to be a bug.
 * After completing Still in the Dark he will be unavailable for dialogue and will indefinitely respond to attempts to speak to him with a comment stating that he is busy with efforts ending the lockdown, thus preventing the character from finding peaceful resolutions during quests such as For the Republic, Part 2.
 * This is likely just a minor scripting bug. Once you reach this point, exit the entire bunker complex (so, breathe some fresh air), then re-enter the bunker and talk with McNamara again. Exiting and re-entering the bunker flips a trigger switch and allows McNamara to offer you the next quest in the BoS Chain (Eyesight to the Blind) that offers you the chance to become a member of the BoS, which then allows you to ask the BoS for their support in the upcoming battle.
 * NOTE: You may have to wait 3 days or so after exiting the bunker complex before re-entering will work. What's happening in the mean time is the Elder is lifting the lockdown. The 3 day wait corresponds to the universal refresh time that also affects vendor inventories and non-player character respawns. However, this may still not allow the courier to initiate conversation with the Elder.
 * If you have tried above solutions and still lack results, you can open the console and enter this command:
 * On Xbox 360, it seems this may be caused by applying the 1.2 update partway through the game. Clear the update from your Xbox system cache (see Fallout: New Vegas patches). This will fix the "lockdown bug." Go talk to McNamara, tell him about the NCR and ask him about joining the Brotherhood. You can then re-patch your game with the update after talking to him, he will remain fixed and you will be able to continue with both quests.