He moved from the SEA power base in the Rathcoole estate to the sleepy backwater of Greenisland as his grip on SEA weakened. In a move that was not universally popular in the region, Fisher allowed the Shoukris and their ally Alan McClean to live under South East Antrim Brigade protection and even attend meetings of the brigade's commanders. "The UDA is the biggest paramilitary group in Rathcoole, much bigger than the UVF, and there are some UDA men in the estate who would gladly do the job. The UDA was only proscribed - or declared illegal - in 1992 and, as the Troubles ended, the group began to fracture. [6] The Irish News described the brigade as 'powerful' and at one time being 'the most bloody and murderous gang operating within the paramilitary organisation'. At the service on 6 February, UVF/RHC representatives joined the UDA leadership in a show of anti-Adair solidarity. [73] . Convicted killer driver and drug offender Simms was once Fisher's muscle entrusted with keeping a small army of drug dealers in Carrick in check. Central role played at UFF parade by veteran crime lord's two underbosses hints at changing of the guard. The council released a statement expelling two figures within it, believed to be senior UDA figures Fisher and Kirkham, once a member of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), although they were not named. Fri 14 Jan 2022 at 00:30. Similarly, South East Antrim UDA which broke away from the Inner Council in 2007, is wholly independent of any other UDA faction. [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. [21] Nonetheless he was not keen to antagonise Adair and so, along with McFarland, McDonald and Jimbo Simpson, accepted his invitation to attend a "Loyalist Day of Culture" organised by Adair on the Lower Shankill on 19 August 2000. 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. 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. [7] Sometime after the Combined Loyalist Military Command of 1994 he succeeded Joe English, who had emerged as a leading figure in the Ulster Democratic Party, as so-called brigadier of the South-East Antrim UDA. A UDA member originally from the Woodvale Road had moved to Rathcoole where he had been beaten up after it emerged that he was a friend of Joe English, the former brigadier who had been exiled from the estate by Gregg for his anti-drugs stance. [2], Gregg joined the Ulster Young Militants (UYM), the youth wing of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) at the age of 14. 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Gregg was married with one son and two stepdaughters. In late 2001, Greggs reign of terror in Rathcoole, where drug dealing, knee-capping and savage beatings were the norm, was challenged by local British Labour Party Councillor Mark Langhammer, who also objected to Greggs close links to neo-Nazi groups in Great Britain. Widely known as a man with a fearsome reputation, Gregg was considered a hawk in loyalist circles. From the 1990s until he was shot dead in 2003 by rival associates, Gregg served as brigadier of the UDA's South East Antrim Brigade. 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. [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. [3] He later became part of the UDA South East Antrim Brigade. 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. Senior members of the UDA group want to take out the UVF member who they think is a 'tout'. A rebel UDA unit is re-arming in a grim warning to rival drug dealers. 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. Gregg was given a paramilitary funeral which was attended by thousands of mourners, including senior UDA members Jackie McDonald, Jim Gray, Sammy Duddy and Michael Stone. He was aware that (another UDA Brigadier) had arranged a trip to London for us to speak to people in England, where we would attempt to reorganise and motivate units in . [59], On 3 January 2019 police reported a baby in a pram narrowly escaped injury after homes were attacked in Co Down by South East Antrim UDA members. The organisation is now in the grip of a committee of senior paramilitary veterans with Fisher forced to toe the line. 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. Saturday, 28 January 2023 ePaper 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. He said there were about 2,000 members of the UDA in the south east Antrim . The deposed brigadier's ex-2IC is also facing major money worries having been fined 20,000 by the UVF. What makes a serial killer and why are we fascinated by them? [8] Gregg, Colin Gray and Gerry Welsh were immediately arrested by the waiting British Army, who had doctored the bullets to reduce their lethality. . On 8 December a bomb was found under Greggs car, apparently placed there by one of Adairs allies from the Loyalist Volunteer Force. [27] On 8 December a bomb was found under Gregg's car, apparently placed there by one of Adair's allies from the Loyalist Volunteer Force. Gregg took this as a threat and, after complaining to senior figures in the West Belfast UDA, ordered the three men to be kneecapped. [46], In March 2014 the South East Antrim Brigade was widely reported as being behind a "rampage" in which up to 100 people, some of them wearing masks, attacked a number of residential properties in Larne. 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. Widely known as a man with a fearsome . T he breakaway South East Antrim has issued a warning that it will get tough with Carrick dealers . His 2IC (second-in-command) was also dismissed after being given a sickening . 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. games. There is a belief in the organisation that the Task Force is building a case against Fisher and senior figures in SEA are content to leave him in place. Nowadays, pockets of the town remain on edge since the murder of a local man, Glenn Quinn, by the South East Antrim UDA. Intense police pressure is forcing South East Antrim UDA mob boss Gary Fisher to gradually withdraw from his leadership role. Snoddy was close to UDA leader Andy Tyrie and was recognised as one of his closest allies amongst the UDA leadership.[7]. Fisher is no longer the main man in South East Antrim, he has seen his close circle of trusted sidekicks dissolve. This has trigged UDA fury - the terror group has been facing an onslaught from crimebusters in South East Antrim while the UVF in the same area have been left relatively untouched. Charlie Strain, Hugh Cameron, Tommy Hollran and Mark Gourley, who is missing presumed murdered. Security sources say that with more than 2,000 members, the South East Antrim UDA is one of Northern Ireland's largest paramilitary gangs. Under Gregg the South-East Antrim Brigade were prepared to ignore the terms of the loyalist ceasefire, such as on 25 April 1997 when he dispatched a five-man team to Carrickfergus to set fire to a Catholic church in retaliation for a similar attack on a Protestant church in East Belfast (this earlier attack had actually been organised by dissident loyalists seeking to provoke the UDA into returning to violence). The organisation is now in the grip of a committee of . John Gregg (UDA) The man who shot Gerry Adam? Adair was returned to prison two days later. They have a number of supply lines. "It is notoriously difficult to leave," a senior loyalist source told us. [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. 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