Johnny Adair
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Johnny Adair (nickname: Mad Dog, 1963-) was the leader of "C Company" of the loyalist paramilitary organisation Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover name of the Ulster Defence Association. Adair was expelled from the organisation in 2002 following a violent power struggle. Since 2003, he, his family and a number of supporters have been forced to leave Northern Ireland by other loyalists.
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[edit] Early life
Johnny Adair was born in Belfast on 27 October 1963 into a working-class loyalist background. He grew up in the Lower Oldpark area of the Shankill, the site of many sectarian clashes during the height of the Troubles. By all accounts, he had little parental supervision, and did not attend school regularly. He instead took to the streets, forming a skinhead street gang with a group of young loyalist friends, who "got involved intitially in petty then increasingly violent crime". Eventually, Adair started a rock band called Offensive Weapon, which during performances espoused support for the far-right British National Front[1].
While still in his teens, he joined the Ulster Young Militants, and later the Ulster Defence Association - a loyalist paramilitary organisation which also called itself the Ulster Freedom Fighters.
[edit] Paramilitary career
Many colourful stories are told about Adair's paramilitary involvement. One is that Adair, when he was making a name for himself in the UDA, used to drive around nationalist areas wearing a Celtic jersey to allay suspicion - Celtic have a strong association with Irish nationalists. Even when his face was beginning to become well known to his republican enemies, he once entered the Phoenix Bar in Belfast's nationalist New Lodge area on the Antrim Road, ordered a "carry-out" and left a minute or two later.
What is certain is that by the early 1990s, Adair had established himself as head of the UDA/UFF's "C Company" based on the Shankill Road. When Adair was charged with terrorist offences in 1995, he admitted that he had been a UDA commander for three years up to 1994. During this time, Adair and his colleagues were involved in multiple and random murders of Catholic civilians. At Adair's trial in 1995, the prosecuting lawyer said he was dedicated to his cause against those whom he "regarded as militant republicans - among whom he had lumped almost the entire Roman Catholic population".[2] RUC Detectives believe his unit killed up to 40 people in this period.[3] Adair once remarked to a Catholic journalist from the Republic of Ireland upon the discovery of her being Catholic, that normally Catholics travelled in the boot of his car[4]. According to a press report in 2003, Adair was handed details of republican suspects by British Army intelligence, and was even invited for dinner in the early 1990s.[5] In his autobiography, he claimed he was frequently passed information by sympathetic British army members, while his own whereabouts were passed to republican paramilitaries by the RUC Special Branch, which he said hated him [1]
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing of a fish shop on the Shankill Road in October 1993 was an attempt to assassinate Adair and the rest of the UDA's Belfast leadership in reprisal for attacks on Catholics. The IRA claimed that the office above the shop was regularly used by the UDA for meetings and one was due to take place shortly after the bomb exploded. The bomb went off early, killing one of the IRA men (Thomas Begley) and nine Protestant civilians. The UFF retaliated with a random attack on the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel (County Londonderry), which killed seven civilians and again at Castlerock, killing 4 men, one of whom happened to be an IRA volunteer. Adair has survived 13 assassination bids, most of which were carried out by the IRA and Irish National Liberation Army.[6]
During this time, undercover officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary had recorded months of discussions with Adair, in which he boasted of his activities, producing enough evidence to charge him with directing terrorism. He was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in the The Maze prison.
Adair was held with other loyalist prisoners in their "block" of the Prison. In prison, according to some reports, Adair sold drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy tablets and amphetamines to other loyalist prisoners, earning him an income of £5000 a week.[6]
In January 1998, Adair was one of five loyalist prisoners visited in the prison by British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam. She persuaded them to drop their objection to their political representatives continuing the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement in April that year. In 1999, Adair was released early as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners after the Agreement.
[edit] Intra loyalist feuds
Since his release, much of Adair's activities have been bound up with violent internecine feuds within the UDA and between the UDA and other loyalist paramilitary groupings. The motivation for such violence is sometimes difficult to piece together. It involves a combination of political differences over the loyalist ceasefires, rivalry between loyalists over control of territory and competition over the proceeds of organised crime.
In 1999, shortly after his release from prison, Adair was shot at and grazed by a bullet in the head at a UB40 concert in Belfast. Adair blamed the shooting on republicans, but it is thought that rival loyalists were to blame.[7]
In August 2000, Adair was again mildly injured by a pipe bomb he was transporting in a car. He again attempted to blame the incident on an attack by republicans, but this claim was widely discounted. A feud had broken out at that time between the UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) leaving several loyalists dead. As a result of Adair's involvement in the violence, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson revoked Adair's early release and returned him to prison.
In May 2002, Adair was released from prison again. Once free, he was a key part of an effort to forge stronger ties between the UDA/UFF and the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), a small breakaway faction of the UVF loyalist paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland. The most open declaration of this was a joint mural depicting Adair's UDA "C company" and the LVF. Other elements in the UDA/UFF strongly resisted these movements, which they saw as an attempt by Adair to win external support in a bid to take over the leadership of the UDA. Some UDA members disliked his overt association with the drugs trade, which the LVF were even more heavily involved with. A loyalist feud began, and ended with several men dead and scores evicted from their homes.
On September 25, 2002, Adair was expelled from the UDA/UFF along with close associate John White, and the organisation almost split as Adair tried to woo influential leaders such as Andre Shoukri, who were initially sympathetic to him. There were attempts on Adair's and White's lives.
Adair returned to prison in January 2003, when his early release licence was revoked by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, on grounds of engaging in unlawful activity.
On February 1, 2003, UDA divisional leader John Gregg was shot dead along with another UDA member (Rab Carson), on returning from a Rangers F.C. match in Glasgow. The killing was widely blamed on Adair's C Company - Gregg was one of those who had organised the expulsion of Adair from the UDA. On February 6, about 20 Adair supporters, including White, fled their homes for Scotland, widely seen as a response to severe intimidation: the graffiti "Johnny Adair and John White, Dead men walking" was seen in Belfast.
[edit] Exile from Northern Ireland
He was released from prison again on January 10, 2005. He immediately left Northern Ireland and joined his family in Bolton, Lancashire where it was claimed he stayed with supporters of Combat 18 and the Racial Volunteer Force [2]. The police in Bolton have questioned his wife of 23 years, Gina about her involvement in the drugs trade, and his son (nicknamed both 'Mad Pup' and 'Daft Dog' [3]) has been charged with selling crack cocaine and heroin.[8] Adair himself was arrested and fined for assault and threatening behaviour in September 2005. After being released, he was almost immediately arrested again for violently assaulting his wife Gina, who suffers from ovarian cancer.[9] Since this episode Johnny Adair is reported as having moved to Scotland, living in Troon in Ayrshire.[10]
In May 2006, it was reported that Adair had received £100,000 from John Blake publishers for a ghost-written autobiography.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Wood, Ian S. (2006). Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 155, 156.
- ^ Profile of the notorious loyalist leader Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair — The Guardian newspaper article, 15 May 2002.
- ^ a b 'Mad Dog' Adair sparks fury over £100,000 book — The Guardian newspaper article, 21 May 2006.
- ^ Lister, David and Jordan, Hugh. (2005). Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company'. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN: 978-1840188905
- ^ Top Army officer 'handed over IRA files to Adair' — The Guardian newspaper article, 27 April 2003.
- ^ a b Mad Dog finds peace is bad for business — Irish Examiner newspaper article, 24 August 2000.
- ^ RUC investigate Johnny Adair shooting claim — RTÉ News article, 2 May 1999.
- ^ Terror follows Loyalist diehards to Bolton outpost — The Independent newspaper article, 18 December 2003.
- ^ Adair admits park attack on wife — BBC News article, 28 September 2005.
- ^ 'I'm no threat to anyone.' Why the war is over for Mad Dog Adair — The Guardian newspaper article, 19 February 2006.
In November 2006 Five Television (UK) transmitted an observational documentary on Adair made by Dare Films. Clips can be seen on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehw4YbP1PLE
