Ned McCreery

Edward "Ned" McCreery (c. 1945 - 15 April 1992) was a Northern Irish loyalist. A leading member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), he was notorious for the use of torture in his killings. McCreery came from a well-known east Belfast family that produced a number of leading loyalists as well as footballers, including his cousin David McCreery.^[1]

Rise to prominence

McCreery was a founder member of the UDA in 1971.^[2] Holding the rank of Colonel within the UDA, McCreery sat on the group's Inner Council in the early 1970s.^[3] According to Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, McCreery was responsible for the murders of at least six Catholics in 1972 and also launched a grenade attack on a busload of Catholic workers.^[3] His gang became notorious, along with the groups led by John White and Davy Payne, for pioneering the use of torture in their murders, something that was new to Northern Ireland at the time.^[1] In this role McCreery co-operated closely with Albert "Ginger" Baker.^[2]

McCreery's name was even mentioned in connection with the killing of Tommy Herron in 1973. According to one theory the two had a long-running dispute over money that ended when McCreery used a woman to lure Herron into a deadly ambush. The theory remains unproven and is one of a number of competing ideas as Herron's death remains unsolved.^[4] Following the introduction of internment in 1973, McCreery was one of the first UDA members to be taken into custody.^[3]

Imprisonment and trial

In 1973 Albert "Ginger" Baker, a Belfast-born British soldier and UDA volunteer, decided to leave the organisation after becoming disillusioned with killing. Baker turned himself into the police and agreed to testify against a number of UDA leaders, including McCreery.^[5] Baker's evidence saw McCreery and six others brought to trial for the torture and murder of James McCartan on 3 October 1972. However the evidence Baker provided proved incoherent and was tailored in an attempt to minimise his own involvement resulting in the judge dismissing the case and McCreery going free.^[3] McCartan had been kidnapped from the lobby of the Park Avenue Hotel, Holywood Road and tortured at two separate Newtownards Road UDA clubs on Finmore Street and Clermont Lane before being shot dead. According to the evidence presented McCreery had directed the torture but had left the shooting to Baker, preferring to remain behind and drink at the Clermont Lane club.^[6]

Whilst being held McCreery was part of a Camp Council that met from time to time in the Maze and in which issues affecting prisoners in the compound were discussed. The Council was established by Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) leader Gusty Spence and Provisional IRA members Proinsias MacAirt and Billy McKee, to which UDA representatives McCreery and James Craig as well as Official IRA (OIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) representatives were added.^[7]

McCreery was released on 17 February 1974 prompting celebrations in his native east Belfast that quickly escalated into a riot. A gun battle between the UDA and the army followed with UDA volunteer Kirk Watters and local non-combatant Gary Reid, a cousin of footballer George Best, both shot and killed by soldiers. However Sammy McCormick, recently appointed east Belfast brigadier, soon called a halt to the mayhem and over the coming weeks instilled a discipline within the ranks of his brigade that had previously been lacking in the area.^[8] McCreey was then interned without trial along with two other men involved in the Baker trial.^[2]

Later years

McCreery remained an active figure in loyalism and according to author Ian S. Wood, McCreery was probably one of those who killed Protestant Margaret Caulfield in Ballysillan on 7 May 1986.^[9] However during the 1980s he began to take more of a role in the racketeering side of the movement. Towards the end of the decade he began to garner a reputation within the movement for corruption and greed, a trait shared by his old ally Craig.^[1] By this time his base was the Avenue One on Templemore Avenue, a bar which he owned.^[10] He had risen to the rank of Brigadier of the East Belfast UDA, following the resignation of Billy Elliot. This made him effectively one of the six leaders of the movement.^[11]

By the early 1990s however McCreery's position within the UDA became less secure. In 1991 his cousin had been shot and wounded by UDA colleagues, an attack that left McCreery embittered, and shortly before his death McCreery had a fight with another UDA member, beating him roundly.^[2] An internal UDA inquiry in the early 1990s determined that McCreery was also a police agent and claimed that he had even passed on information about fellow UDA members to Irish republicans.^[12] McCreery's close links to Craig, who had been killed in 1988 following similar claims, as well as the persona non grata Tommy Lyttle sealed his fate and a death sentence was passed on McCreery by the new UDA leadership in early 1992. He was shot and killed outside his home on Grahamsbridge Road, Dundonald on 15 April 1992. He was 46 years old.^[13] The killing was claimed by the UFF's Special Assignment Section which had first appeared in 1988 when it claimed Craig's murder.^[10] McCreery was killed by leading gunman Geordie Legge who would later also be killed by fellow UDA members after speaking out against the organised crime activities of Jim Gray.^[14] Ironically Gray was also believed to have issued the order to kill McCreery.^[11]

Following his death an Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) statement described McCreery as an "enemy of Ulster" and accused him of being a leading figure within the illegal drugs trade.^[15]

References