Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

TURF WAR AND PEACE: LOYALIST PARAMILITARIES SINCE 1994

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09546550490509829

1556-1836

Steve Bruce,

Irish and British Studies

Abstract This article uses the pattern of Loyalist violence since the cease fires of 1994 as the starting point for observations about the current roles of paramilitary organizations, the criminal economy and the power of megalomania. Notes 1 I would like to acknowledge the generous assistance of Thomas Tracy and the Irish American Fund in supporting the costs of my regular visits to Northern Ireland since 1991 and the ESRC for grant R000221718, which funded my research between 1996 and 1999. 2 The Red Hand Defender name was first used in 1998 by LVF men working with the UDA, usually Johnny Adair's unit from the lower Shankill Road. Gary Smith, a close Adair associate, was convicted in March 2002 of making a hoax bomb phone call in the name of the RHD. During 2002, divisions within the UDA/UFF were apparent in conflicting public statements about the fictitious RHD. In January, the UDA ordered the RHD to 'disband' (that is, warned Adair to stop defying the organization) but in April, the RHD was still claiming incidents. Despite having supported the official UDA warning, the North Belfast UDA also used the RHD name to claim the murder of Gerard Lawlor in July 2002. The UDA brigadier acknowledged it shortly after; Guardian 14 August 2002. 3 Guardian 8 April 1997. 4 Irish News 12 July 1997. 5 In addition to Smith (see note 2), John Simpson, briefly West Belfast brigadier, was sentenced for riotous behavior (Irish News 19 April 2002). In the briefing paper that led Secretary of State John Reid to declare the UDA cease fire over in October 2001, the police said that they believed the UDA to have been responsible for over 200 pipe bombing incidents in 2001, a lot of that the work of the West Belfast UDA. 6 Biographies of two leading UVF men – Henry Sinnerton, David Ervine: Uncharted Waters (Dingle: Brandon Press 2002) and Roy Garland, Gusty Spence (Belfast: Blackstaff 2001) – contain little that was not already in the public domain but they describe in useful detail the evolution of political thought in the UVF. 7 Steve Bruce, 'Terrorists and Politics: The Case of Northern Ireland's Loyalist Paramilitaries', Terrorism and Political Violence 13/2 (2001) pp.27–48. 8 Of 12 UVF men charged with smashing up a Portadown Bar frequented by the LVF in August 1997, eight were unemployed. 9 David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing 1999): victim 698. For each murder pre-2000 I have given the victim number used in McKittrick et al.'s invaluable reference work. 10 McKittrick et al. (note 9) p.938. 11 Steve Bruce, The Red Hand: Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1992) pp.251–60. 12 McKittrick et al. (note 9) 2993. 13 Ibid. 1128, 1328, and 1329. 14 Ibid. 3562. 15 Ibid. 3633. 16 Peter Taylor, Loyalists (London: Bloomsbury 1999) pp.170–2. 17 Andrew Silke, 'In Defence of the Realm: Financing Loyalist Terrorism in Northern Ireland – Part One: Drinks, Drugs and Rock and Roll', Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 21/4 (1998) pp.107–27. 18 Ibid. 19 Irish News 24 November 1995. 20 Herald 24 March 2003. 21 The nickname was invented in the early 1980s by journalist Martin O'Hagan (murdered by friends of Wright in September 2001). Sunday World published a series of brief stories about a group of new recruits to the Mid-Ulster UVF which called them the 'brat pack'. This was cut down to 'rat pack' and so Wright became 'King Rat'. 22 Nothing in this point suggests that Paisley or any close colleagues encouraged Wright in his return to violence beyond whatever effect there may have been from their criticisms of the politics of the PUP. For a detailed examination of Paisleyite attitudes to violence, see Steve Bruce, 'Fundamentalism and Political Violence: The Case of Paisley and Ulster Evangelicals', Religion 31/4 (2001) pp.387–405. 23 It is worth noting that these views were shared by Clifford Peeples and the others who formed the Orange Volunteers. Where others burnt Catholic churches because it would anger Catholics, Peeples burnt them because he believes the Pope to be the anti-Christ. 24 Sinnerton (note 6) p.165. 25 Jim McDowell, Godfathers: Inside Northern Ireland's Drugs Racket (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 2001) pp.149–72. 26 Irish News 10 November 1994. 27 Hugh Jordan, Milestones in Murder: Defining Moments in Ulster's Terror War (Edinburgh: Mainstream 2002) pp.202–3. 28 Times 7 November 1998. 29 McDowell (note 25) picture facing p.151. 30 Irish News 21 August 2000. 31 Irish News 13 June 2002. 32 Irish News 23 August 2002. 33 Sunday Life 17 November 2002. 34 Belfast Telegraph 29 December 2002. 35 Irish Examiner 30 December 2002; and Belfast Telegraph 26 December 2002. 36 When one of them, Alan McCullough, returned to Belfast in June 2003, he was picked up by two senior former colleagues and later found murdered. Mo Courtney, previously one of Adair's closest supporters, was charged with the killing. 37 Sunday Life 17 November 2002. 38 The victims were Gavin Brett and Daniel McColgan. Gregg also approved the placing of a bomb under the car of Mark Langhammer, a Labour councilor and fearless critic of the UDA's drug trade in Rathcoole; and Irish News 5 September 2002. 39 Steve Bruce, 'The Problem of "Pro-State" Terrorism: Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland', Terrorism and Political Violence 4/1 (1992) pp.67–88.