UDA West Belfast Brigade
Initially a battalion, the West Belfast Brigade emerged from the local "defence associations" active in the Shankill at the beginning of the Troubles and became the first section to be officially designated as a separate entity within the wider UDA structure.
The latter, formed by Charles Harding Smith, became the largest of a number of similar groups and was instrumental in the establishment of the UDA in September 1971, having begun military training of its members two months earlier.
[3] The battalion fell under the initial control of Davy Fogel, under whose leadership the group undertook a programme of erecting barricades between the Shankill and the neighbouring republican Falls and Springfield Roads.
When he returned in early 1973 Harding Smith ran Fogel out of the area and became commander of the battalion himself, whilst also becoming joint chairman of the UDA as a whole with Anderson.
[4] Harding Smith soon became embroiled in a feud with East Belfast leader Tommy Herron, whilst also facing a growing rival in his own area in the shape of Andy Tyrie, the commander of A Company.
Harding Smith publicly condemned the move, arguing that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a friend of the Provisional IRA, and in January 1975 he announced the secession of the West Belfast Brigade from the UDA.
[6] When Harding Smith left Northern Ireland in 1975 Tommy Lyttle was chosen as his replacement as Brigadier, following a brief interlude during which John McClatchey served as leader.
Kenny McClinton stopped a bus as part of a road blockade and entering the vehicle, shot and killed driver Harry Bradshaw, a Protestant.
[9] This, along with press revelations that the UDA had written a letter of apology to his widow in which they enclosed a ten-pound note, helped to further undermine the already unpopular strike.
Arrested in 1985 for racketeering, the case collapsed and he returned to the Shankill but was soon asked to leave because of his personal enrichment and he left to link up the John McMichael's South Belfast Brigade instead.
This murder however was an error as the actual target had been his older brother Declan, whose striking physical resemblance to Terence meant that C Company had received the wrong photograph from Nelson.
[15] The most notorious killing was that of solicitor Pat Finucane in February 1989, carried out by brigade member Ken Barrett using information provided by RUC Special Branch.
[18] The Stevens Inquiries led to a period of chaos within the West Belfast Brigade, with a rapid succession of brigadiers and a number of leading members spending time in prison.
[20] Barrett was quickly ousted by Lyttle's choice, his brother-in-law Billy Kennedy but in October 1990 Jim Spence, who had also been taken into prison as part of the Stevens Inquires, assumed overall control of the brigade.
One victim was Noel Cardwell, a mentally sub-normal glass collector at a C Company bar, the Diamond Jubilee, who was seen as a figure of fun by Adair and his cohorts.
In December 1993 Cardwell was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast after suffering a bad reaction when his drink was spiked with an ecstasy tablet by a member of C Company.
In order to send a message to informers, Adair had Cardwell abducted following his release from hospital and subjected to a long and brutal interrogation process.
[26] Adair and his close ally Dodds were targeted by the IRA in October 1993 when republican intelligence witnessed the two entering Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road to access West Belfast Brigade headquarters in the room above.
On 19 August 2000 the West Belfast Brigade hosted a "Loyalist Day of Culture" organised by Adair on the Lower Shankill with fellow brigadiers John Gregg, Billy McFarland, Jackie McDonald and Jimbo Simpson in attendance.
In response, Adair drove all UVF members and their families out of the Lower Shankill and in doing so began the feud that his fellow brigadiers had hoped to avoid.
[47] Further afield a group of Shankill men had relocated to areas of North Down such as Bangor and Newtownards and there had found that support amongst young loyalists for Adair was so strong that they established a new D Company for the West Belfast Brigade there.
Adair sought to restart the UVF feud and challenge his fellow brigadiers in September 2002, when East Belfast LVF member Stephen Warnock was killed by the Red Hand Commando.
[54][55] Adair's men then struck back on 1 February 2003, killing South East Antrim Brigade leader John Gregg and his friend Rab Carson as the two returned from watching Rangers F.C.
[56] Gregg's killing proved the final straw, in part because he enjoyed a stellar reputation amongst loyalists for a gun attack on Gerry Adams in the 1980s.
[58] Gregg retaliated with a bomb attack on Adair's house on 8 January, two days before the West Belfast Brigade chief was returned to jail.
They accepted McDonald's leadership and established a headquarters at the Shankill's Heather Street Social Club, where members of C Company were invited in order to defect back to the mainstream UDA.
In the immediate aftermath of Adair's removal, and with Thompson one of those to have been driven out of Northern Ireland, Mo Courtney was officially confirmed in the role of brigadier.
[64] He was acquitted by a Diplock court after the evidence was adjudged flawed,[65] although a retrial was later ordered and he was ultimately given an eight-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
[71] The north Belfast rebels subsequently named Robert Molyneaux, a convicted killer and former friend of Bunting's closest ally John Howcroft, as their preferred choice for Brigadier.
[72] Although the feud soon died down, a series of low level tit-for-tat incidents continued, culminating in Howcroft's partner's car being burnt out in August 2014.
