[5] During his teenage years he played in an association football team Star of the Sea alongside future Provisional IRA member and hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Two of McCord's other teammates, Terry Nicholl and Michael Acheson, would both later join the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and serve time in prison for offences related to their membership.
[7] Most of the Protestant players left after the outbreak of the Troubles, although McCord remained and played for the senior side in the Northern Amateur Football League, alongside Marty Quinn.
On 9 November 1997 the latter was believed to have been lured from home and taken to a disused quarry in Ballyduff, Newtownabbey where he was beaten to death with concrete blocks.
[18] The UDA South East Antrim Brigade issued a statement acknowledging the history it had with McCord but denied any involvement in his son's death.
McCord claims he met with UVF Chief of Staff John "Bunter" Graham and other leading members of the organisation in the Maze prison, where they were waiting to visit an inmate, soon after his son's killing and that they agreed to conduct the internal investigation that uncovered the information about Haddock.
Telling anyone who would listen to his claims McCord make a decisive breakthrough in 2002 when he met Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
[23] The investigation was named Operation Ballast, and focused on alleged collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the UVF.
Wearing his father's Orange Order sash at the event he denounced the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for ignoring evidence of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
[29] Sinn Féin previously in 2007 had organised a trip for McCord to attend the European Parliament in Strasbourg to address a meeting of MEP's regarding the issue of collusion in Northern Ireland.
[28] He was also an unsuccessful candidate for Belfast City Council in the concurrent local elections, running in the Court District Electoral Area.
[33] Brought to trial for the incident, Courtney was found guilty with issuing the death threat to McCord (although not Coulter).
Despite his Unionist beliefs, he said that he believed Mallon was best placed to serve all the people of North Belfast, and criticised the DUP and Sinn Féin's divisive approach to politics.
[2] McCord states that, whilst his father was a member of the Orange Order, the Apprentice Boys of Derry and the Royal Black Institution, he maintained close friendships with his Catholic neighbours in the New Lodge area and, before the advent of the Troubles, regularly drank in the pubs there.