The attack is commemorated in the song South East Antrim Brigade by loyalist singer Rab C, many of whose compositions were about the brigade and its leading members. The killing of Mr Horner, gunned down in front of his three-year-old son Oscar in the Bangor carpark of Sainsbury supermarket, was linked at the time to the South East Antrim UDA feud which claimed the life of his friend, Carrickfergus loyalist Geordie Gilmore, two months earlier. T he breakaway South East Antrim has issued a warning that it will get tough with Carrick dealers . The south Belfast, south-east Antrim and east Belfast brigadiers . I know some comes in from Europe. Now, the UDA has imploded to such an extent that its west Belfast brigade, run by the re-imprisoned renegade Adair, is accused of murdering south-east Antrim brigadier, John "Grug" Gregg, while . Brawls between the two had been frequent and tensions had been growing between the UDA and UVF, leading to a drink-fuelled pitched battle between the two groups at the train station. The gang is a standalone faction of the UDA. A UDA/UFF South-East Antrim Brigade mural in Newtownabbey On 6 January 2010, the UDA announced that it had put its weapons "verifiably beyond use". Saturday, 28 January 2023 ePaper Widely known as a man with a fearsome reputation, Gregg was considered a "hawk" in some loyalist circles. Charlie Strain, Hugh Cameron, Tommy Hollran and Mark Gourley, who is missing presumed murdered. Such was the ferocity of the attack the victim urinated himself while pleading for his life. Greggs movements were known to C Company member Alan McCullough who, receiving instruction from Adair (then in HMP Maghaberry), arranged for a hit team to kill Gregg and his associate as the taxi took them from the port of Belfast. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud. As a result of the attack, three Woodvale UDA members went to Gregg and complained about the attack. Gary Fisher became brigadier following the murder in 2003 of his predecessor John 'Grug' Gregg, but he is known to be looking for a way out of the organisation. He moved from the SEA power base in the Rathcoole estate to the sleepy backwater of Greenisland as his grip on SEA weakened. He sought to portray Gregg as unstable and thuggish and spread a rumour that he was about to be replaced as brigadier. A mural in support of the group lists its areas of activity as being Rathcoole (the mural's location), Rathfern, Monkstown, Glengormley . UDA feud erupts. The secretive mobster has seen his one-time iron-clad grip on the UDA crime gang loosen in recent months, leaving him Brigadier in name only. [62], On 8 May 2020 a number of journalists working for the Sunday Life and Sunday World newspapers were warned by the PSNI about imminent attacks against journalists by the South East Antrim UDA. [18] English would soon re-emerge as part of the Ulster Democratic Party. He is currently recovering at his mother's home in the Rathcoole estate after last week's beating. The UDA structure was divided into six geographical areas during the late 1980s (Londonderry, South-East Antrim, North Belfast, East Belfast, West Belfast and South Belfast). Senior members of South East Antrim UDA want to take out the UVF man who they believe gave up their drug dealers. The views and opinions expressed in this documentary/ies and page are soley intended to educate and provide background information to those interested in the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Killing Rage The life and death of Eamon Collins. Senior members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Loyalist Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando also attended. Cloughfern Young Conquerors, a flute band attached to the brigade, had been to Derry for the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry march through the city centre when at the train station they met members of the Shankill Protestant Boys, a UVF-affiliated band. To the rest of us, an attack on a UDA brigadier is an attack on the whole organisation. [52], On 29 May 2017 Colin Horner, a friend of Gilmore and former UDA member, was fatally shot in front of his three-year-old son at a busy shopping centre in Bangor, County Down. [10] He called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to establish an auxiliary police "clinic" on the estate, which had no permanent police building, so that locals concerned about crime could have somewhere to go. A failure by the paramilitary group's south-east Antrim faction to back the move resulted in a . Close pal Clifford 'Trigger' Irons is currently out on bail awaiting trial on drugs charges. [5], Gregg was sentenced to 18 years in prison; however, he only served nine years before he was released in 1993. His cheeks appeared hollow, he has shaved his head and those who have seen him describe him as 'haunted'. And until he was deposed, he was known for "telling tales" to the UVF's South East Antrim brigadier Den Elliott who was stood down last year for allegedly running unsanctioned rackets. He told them they had to pay money - ranging from 5,000 right up to 20,000 - to be allowed to stay in the area and avoid a UVF punishment attack. Under Gregg, the South East Antrim Brigade was linked to the killing of UVF member Mark Quail during Adair's feud with the UVF in 2000[25][26] although according to the BBC the killing was not directly connected to Adair's issues with the UVF but rather stemmed from a pub dispute in north Belfast between members of the two paramilitary groups. Scuba Certification; Private Scuba Lessons; Scuba Refresher for Certified Divers; Try Scuba Diving; Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) [30] A bomb attack on Adair's house on 8 January 2003 was blamed on Gregg by White, although Adair himself was returned to prison two days later after a dossier detailing his drug-dealing and racketeering activities was shown to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy. Members of the loyalist flute band, Cloughfern Young Conquerors dressed in uniform accompanied the coffin. [34] A bomb attack on Adair's house on 8 January 2003 was blamed on Gregg by John White. Gregg, at the time the head of the UDA commando in Rathcoole, was in charge of a three-man hit team that pulled up alongside Adams car near Belfast City Hall and opened fire injuring Adams and his three fellow passengers, who nonetheless escaped to seek treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "It was very tragic, on the day of the funeral, to have a large police presence around the church," he said. [66], In July 2021, Doug Beattie, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, told the BBC that the South East Antrim UDA had threatened to kill him twice. Despite the continuing activity of his brigade, and his own earlier maiming, Gregg shared the reluctance of other brigadiers about what he saw as a coming war between the UVF and West Belfast brigadier Johnny Adair. [33] This was followed by two pipe bombs being thrown at Gregg's house and shots being fired at that of his friend Tommy Kirkham. [45] As of 2014 Fisher was still identified by the Irish Independent as Brigadier, with the brigade reported as being in the process of rearming. [21] Gregg, who was noted for his sectarian beliefs, insisted that such attacks were necessary in order to prevent the "greening" of places such as Carrickfergus and Antrim, a process he claimed had already happened in Glengormley where the Catholic population had experienced significant growth. Fisher is no longer the main man in South East Antrim, he has seen his close circle of trusted sidekicks dissolve. The organisation is now in the grip of a committee of . South East Antrim UDA crime boss Gary Fisher is facing an internal revolt with even his closest lieutenants saying his time is up. [41], In 2009, the brigade claimed to have decommissioned a substantial quantity of guns and explosives in a single day in the presence of the chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). 25.03753 121.56381. He has since told pals that he has no intention of leaving Rathcoole, where he grew up, but loyalist insiders say that he will have no option but to go. [38], Gregg was married with one son and two stepdaughters. The South East Antrim UDA's tally of violence spanning two decades includes a roll call of unsolved murders. Gregg joined the Ulster Young Militants (UYM), the youth wing of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) at the age of 14. [1], On 14 March 1984, he severely wounded Sinn Fin president Gerry Adams in an attack supposedly ordered as a response to the earlier killings of Ulster Unionist Party politicians Robert Bradford and Edgar Graham. He spent six months in jail for rioting in 1977. "Some had to take out loans to buy their safety from this thug and then it turns out he's touting on the UDA's dealers to the cops at the same time.". Gregg, seated in the backseat, was hit at close range and died instantly. The same year, Geordie Gilmore was also shot dead in broad daylight. It used the name Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) to claim responsibility for attacks and, because the two claimed to be separate organisations, the UDA was able to . [37], Following the conclusion of the feud with Adair the UDA reconstituted its ceasefire in what they christened the "Gregg initiative". Fisher associates subjected Simms to a punishment shooting after he was found with his hands in the till. It's believed he fears sparking a new intra-loyalist feud, piling even more pressure on the faction which has been facing a police crackdown. The coffin was draped in the Ulster flag and the flag of the UFF. As the band prepared to take the train home that evening they met members of the Shankill Protestant Boys, another band in town for the parade that was affiliated to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). [15] A senior police source once described him as a man driven by "pure and absolute bigotry". In May cops arrested and charged four men in connection with a kilo of cocaine seized back in 2020. 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Greggs killing proved to be the undoing of Adair. The UVF were seen to be trying to exploit the friction within the UDA and even erected new billboards of UVF gunmen and both groups flooded the estate with their own paramilitary flags in the run-up to the Twelfth. That same night Jackie McDonald's men raided the lower Shankill and ran those members of C Company that had remained loyal to Adair, who was still in prison, out of the city. Members of this brigade were believed to be behind the killings of Catholic postman Danny McColgan, Protestant teenager Gavin Brett and Trevor Lowry (the latter kicked to death in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic), and a spate of pipe bomb attacks on the homes of Catholics. Intense police pressure is forcing South East Antrim UDA mob boss Gary Fisher to gradually withdraw from his leadership role. In 1984, Gregg seriously wounded Sinn Fin president Gerry Adams in an assassination attempt. Carrick's drug trade is now a mish-mash of conflicting independent criminal gangs. Gregg's 18-year-old son Stuart and another man were also in the vehicle but neither sustained injuries in the shooting attack. The Reaper is coming for you. [32], When the taxi stopped at traffic lights close to the motorway, it was rammed by another taxi which had been hijacked earlier on the Shankill Road. The UVF man who is accused of touting - who we can't identify for legal reasons - went around the Rathcoole estate and other loyalist areas close by demanding cash payments from alleged drug dealers recently. He will have run the crime gang . [24] The shootings raised some anger on the Shankill, where the three were well-liked figures, and Adair sought to exploit this as a method of getting rid of Gregg. Gregg played the bass drum in the UDA-affiliated flute band Cloughfern Young Conquerors, a loyalist flute band which police claimed regularly caused trouble at Orange Order parades. The UDA South East Antrim Brigade was previously one of the six brigades of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and are heavily involved in the drug trade. fifty skinheads appeared from nowhere, many of them wearing Chelsea and Rangers football scarves and covered in Loyalist and swastika tattoos. id="addMyFavs"> [16], Having witnessed demographic shifts in Glengormley and Crumlin, traditionally loyalist majority towns that had come to have nationalist majorities on account of loyalists moving out of Belfast, he determined that the same thing would not happen in Carrickfergus and Larne and so launched a campaign of pipe bomb and arson attacks on Catholic homes there (despite these towns having very small Catholic populations). Widely known as a man with a fearsome reputation, Gregg was considered a "hawk" in some loyalist circles. A lengthy internal investigation into the former 'brigadier' led by convicted UVF bomber and provost marshal Jackie Anderson found that he stole at least 250,000 over the past five years. Gregg had been a regular visitor to Ibrox Park for a number of years,[11] often in the company of Michael Stone, and had even picked up a conviction for violence at an Old Firm match. Under Gregg, drug-dealing became a major problem in brigade areas, particularly Rathcoole, with Gregg himself said to have a leading role in the illicit trade. Afterwards a lone piper led the cortege to Carnmoney Cemetery where he was buried. In the last 12 months almost a dozen alleged South East Antrim members have been lifted and charged with drug offences by the National Crime Agency working alongside the Paramilitary Crime Task Force. Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Whiskey fungus forces Jack Daniels to stop construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, UN to ignore remarks of India guru's fictional country, India court panel to probe Adani fraud allegations. Adair ignored the expulsion, erecting West Belfast UDA Business as Usual banners on the Shankill Road, whilst continuing his struggles with the remaining brigadiers, Gregg in particular. A rebel UDA unit is re-arming in a grim warning to rival drug dealers. UVF chiefs fear that any deal they do with the British government about going out of business in return for funding and an amnesty will be dependent on Lisa's body being returned to her heartbroken family. Tommy Lyttle suspected that Craig had helped the IRA kill South Belfast UDA Brigadier, John McMichael in December 1987 not long after McMichael had aired complaints within the UDA hierarchy and in Craig's earshot, about Craig's dubious business dealings. [24], Gregg was not close to Johnny Adair but sympathised with his uncompromising attitudes and his anti-UVF views. "When we look at what they try and portray themselves to be, defenders of their area, I can't see how that ties in with dealing drugs in a community.". It is unclear when South East Antrim was first designated as a brigade area although its first recognised leader was Alan Snoddy and he held title of Brigadier by at least 1979. Fri 14 Jan 2022 at 00:30. During the course of the melee a Shankill Protestant Boys member managed to gouge out Greggs eye, although it is also claimed that Gregg lost his eye due to a fight with republicans at the same parade. The deposed brigadier's ex-2IC is also facing major money worries having been fined 20,000 by the UVF. The Belfast Telegraph called the move "a familiar loyalist pattern of events. Despite his reputation for gangsterism, Greggs failed attack on Gerry Adams had afforded him legendary status and, under the direction of Jackie McDonald, the remaining UDA brigadiers concluded that Adair had to be removed. [12] As the oldest member, English usually chaired the meetings of this Inner Council, although he often struggled to control UDA West Belfast Brigade brigadier Johnny Adair. On 8 February 2010, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the Brigade had completed decommissioning. In 2000 he helped to ensure that a proposal before the Inner Council to initiate the decommissioning of weapons was rejected. "When Gary was in complete control, there would have been no suggestion of any leaks, it was a tight, tight operation. [61], On 16 January 2019 four men were jailed for life for their involvement in the May 2017 UDA loyalist feud killing of 35-year-old father-of-two Colin Horner. Sunday World understands the UVF man, based in Rathcoole, is aware he has been fingered as a police tout and has stepped up security as his home in fear of attack. "The UDA in Rathcoole couldn't figure out why all the UVF dealers were being left alone while their guys were getting caught left, right and centre. UDA boss Gary Fisher plots his exit strategy. [13], Along with Jackie McDonald and Billy McFarland, fellow brigadiers on the UDA's Inner Council, Gregg was lacking in enthusiasm for the Belfast Agreement when it appeared in 1998. Snoddy was close to UDA leader Andy Tyrie and was recognised as one of his closest allies amongst the UDA leadership.[7]. Carrickfergus is a town that once inspired a classic Irish folk song about longing. [17] Protestant Trevor Lowry (aged 49) was beaten to death in Glengormley by UDA members under Gregg's command on 11 April 2001 after he was mistaken for a Catholic. [43] Accusations that the brigade has remained active continued, however, and in 2009, the mother of Jason Ballard, a 20-year-old Greenisland native subjected to a vicious beating at his home, claimed that the attack had been carried out by the South East Antrim Brigade, although they denied any involvement in the attack. Law enforcement agencies see the loosening of Fisher's control as an opportunity. Representing the UVF was John 'Bunter' Graham and the organisation's 1st Battalion commander Harry Stockman. [49] The targets of the attack were reported locally as being two brothers who had been involved in a scuffle with three UDA members the night before. @caolan-mclaughlin-844507501 this is a UDA song ya muppet why u put f the uvf know yer history kid. But South East Antrim UDA boss Gary Fisher refused to sanction an attack on the UVF man, further weakening his standing with rank-and-file members within his own terror group. Free. His gaunt appearance had people raising questions about his health. His perceived "crime" was a throwaway remark he made privately, when he criticised an attack by the South East Antrim UDA on a friend's business. "It is notoriously difficult to leave," a senior loyalist source told us. John Gregg (1957 - 1 February 2003) was a senior member of the UDA/UFF loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland.In 1984, Gregg seriously wounded Sinn Fin president Gerry Adams in an assassination attempt. The secretive mobster looks gaunt and has been described as 'haunted', Fisher is losing his grip on the crime gang. In late August, Adair had even managed to have Gregg stood down as Brigadier for not being militant enough and replaced by one of Adairs own associates. [14] Throughout 1999 his brigade continued to be active, undertaking a pipe bomb campaign against Catholic homes whilst on 12 May members of his brigade shot and wounded a Catholic builder in Carrickfergus under the cover name "Protestant Liberation Force". [31] Carson was described by UDA sources as a "dear friend" of Gregg's and a junior member of the South-East Antrim Brigade. FEARS of a new loyalist feud have emerged after a fanatical UDA faction accused a UVF chief of touting to cops. Spotlight's Gangland: The Murder of Glenn Quinn can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer. In 2019, Colin Horner was gunned down in front of his young son. [27], However, in late 2002 a UDA member originally from the Woodvale Road who had moved to Rathcoole was attacked after it emerged that he was a friend of Joe English, the former brigadier who had since been exiled from the area by Gregg for his anti-drugs stance. Widely known as a man with a fearsome . He managed to avoid being beaten in return for tricking his ex-UVF 2IC friend into attending the Monkstown meeting during which he was attacked. "[11] In 2000 he helped to ensure that a proposal before the Inner Council to initiate the decommissioning of weapons was rejected. His own earliest memory of the Troubles was the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marches in Derry, a movement to which Gregg and his family were strongly opposed. It is claimed they control "100%" of an illegal drugs network in south-east Antrim, Northern Ireland. Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. [39] A new interim leadership was appointed in their stead although the brigade effectively divided between those who supported the wider UDA leadership and those who remained loyal to Fisher. Catholic workman Gary Moore was killed in Monkstown in 2000 in another killing attributed to Greggs unit. It is claimed they control "100%" of an illegal drugs network in south-east Antrim, Northern Ireland. [13] The two clashed frequently and, in 1993, Adair even threatened to kill English after English had suggested that the UDA should not claim the murder of Marie Teresa Dowds de Mogollon, which Adair's top hitman Stephen McKeag had perpetrated. Gregg took this as a threat and, after complaining to senior figures in the West Belfast UDA, ordered the three men to be kneecapped. He cited former UFF chief Johnny Adair as one of the few to have got out with the skin on his back. Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, Statistical breakdown of deaths in the Troubles of Northern Ireland 1969 2001, Irish National Liberation Army ( I.N.L.A ), Irish Republican Army. Snoddy died from the illness in September 1988 and English immediately succeeded him. "There was an old joke going round the Rathcoole estate that when (name removed) is on the phone he's either talking to Den Elliott or the peelers," the source added. A bomb attack on Adairs house on 8 January 2003 was blamed on Gregg by White, although Adair himself was returned to prison two days later after a dossier detailing his drug-dealing and racketeering activities was shown to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy. "Some families had no involvement in drugs at all but still had to pay to escape being put out, or even worse. "But Gary Fisher doesn't want the hassle of sanctioning something against him. BUSINESS UDA signs strategic cooperation with Mara Inc to expand facilities management business " data-media=""> 21/02/2023 09:14 PM KUALA LUMPUR, Will the Windsor Framework be enough for the DUP? When the taxi stopped at traffic lights close to the motorway, it was rammed by another taxi which had been hijacked earlier on the Shankill Road. e views and opinions expressed in this documentary/ies and page are soley intended to educate and provide background information to those interested in the Troubles of Northern Ireland.
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