February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Last Friday, the UDA was behind a series of bomb hoaxes in Belfast that snarled traffic all over the city. A formal declaration that the organization was ending its cessation would almost certainly lead to more serious violence. The UDA has been responsible for some of the worst violence in the long history of the Northern Ireland conflict.
David McNarry, a member of the Loyalist Commission, on which nearly all the loyalist paramilitaries, including the UDA are represented, said that he “had heard the rumor. . . I just don’t know how serious it is.” He said that if it were true, it would create “difficulties.”
The commission was set up in the wake of a vicious feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the UDA in 2000. Its membership includes 18 paramilitary representatives, three churchmen and several community workers. The commission tries to articulate a loyalist view in the hope that “loyalists can be taken away from paramilitarism,” according to McNarry. It also provides a venue where issues that of concern to the loyalist groups can be settled before they lead to violence.
The UDA declared its ceasefire, along with the UVF, in October 1994, six weeks after the IRA called off its campaign to help launch the current peace process. But the British government stopped recognizing that the group is on ceasefire about two years ago. Since about 1997, the UDA has been engaged in frequent violence, including sectarian killings, feuds with other groups and internecine violence that at the beginning of last year led to a split. It has also been linked to criminal activity, including drug dealing and racketeering.
The UDA’s most notorious leader, Johnny “Mad Dog” Adare, who commanded the Shankill Road-based C company, was ousted from the organization in 2002 after he had been accused along with John White of trying to seize control of the whole group. A subsequent feud led to three deaths, including that of John Gregg, a feared hitman. Adare was arrested and many of his supporters, including White and Adare’s wife, Gina, were forced to flee the country. Gina Adare was arrested some weeks ago by police in Bolton, England, and charged in connection with drug possession.
The UDA, throughout its history, has been volatile and often unpredictable. In 1989, it set up a political party, the Ulster Democratic Party. But after failing to make a significant electoral impact it was wound up in 2001. Since then, the organization has drifted politically. Its views have been articulated by the Ulster Political Research Group, which has several members on the Loyalist Commission.
The UDA is embroiled in a dispute between loyalist prisoners and prisoner officers at Maghaberry prison near Belfast. However, the decision on ending the ceasefire is not thought to be connected to that issue. Informed sources suggest a faction within the UDA leadership has been growing ever more impatient with what it sees as a stream of concessions to republicans as a result of the Good Friday agreement. They interpreted last November’s electoral victory of the Democratic Unionist Party, which is strongly anti-agreement, as a signal that loyalists were now completely alienated from the peace process. They believe that this would give them sufficient support to return to violence aimed at the nationalist community.
However, it sources say that there is opposition within the organization to such a move. Among those opposed is Jackie McDonald, who was instrumental in the overthrow of Adare. Units in West Belfast are in favor of going back to war, according to sources. They are among the most unstable and dangerous in the whole organization. Last month they were believed to have been behind threats to Ulster Unionist Party councilor Chris McGimpsey, forcing him to shut down his advice center on the Shankill Road. McGimpsey had attacked the UDA for its continuing criminal activities.
“I stood up to them,” he said.