Republican News · Thursday 16 January 2002

You can't teach a Mad Dog...

BY ÁINE NÍ BHRIAN

It has been a difficult week for Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair.

Shortly after 6:30am on the morning of Wednesday, 8 January, the loyalist leader was on the receiving end of one of his own organisation's pipe bombs.

A device was thrown into the back of his home at Boundary Way in the Shankill, where it hit his garden shed and exploded against a rear wall.

The object did no discernable damage and unlike the victims of most UDA attacks, Adair and his family managed to sleep through the event. The PSNI sealed off the area and the British Army later removed the remains of a device for forensic examination.

Blame for the bomb immediately fell onto Adair's rival UDA members, with whom he is currently engaged in a vicious feud.

In one of his most surreal statements to date, Adair's shadow, loyalist John White, told the Irish Times what nationalists have known for years: "As far as I know it is typical of the UDA to attack a house when they know that there are young children asleep inside at the time."

For its part, the UDA leadership claims it had nothing to do with the attack.

"If the UDA got that close to Adair's home, they would not be throwing a simple blast bomb at the house," said a UDA source. "The UDA knows it would only have one chance at getting close to Adair's home and would want to make it count."

There are claims that Adair planted the bomb himself - to provide cover for his failure to attend the funeral of Roy Green (shot by the UDA outside a pub near the Ormeau Road on 2 January). Even a PSNI spokesperson wondered aloud if the bomb hadn't been planted by one of Adair's own men, asking skeptically, "Why penetrate the citadel and use such a minor weapon?"

But John White leaps to Adair's defence. "Johnny gets blamed for everything," he laments. He calls Adair "a peacemaker" and says: "It is against natural justice when those responsible for murder and mayhem are allowed to run free."

Oh, the irony runneth over...

Meanwhile, Adair's week wasn't getting any better.

On Friday, British Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, revoked the licence which had allowed Adair early release from prison after serving half of a 16-year sentence for directing terrorism. A mere 48 hours after the pipe bomb scratched his garden shed, the PSNI was back at Adair's home - to return him to jail for a second time.

official explanation of this most recent arrest was read to Adair as he sat in Maghaberry jail.

Murphy, Adair was told, had evidence that since May 2002, Adair had been involved in directing terrorism, distributing guns and plotting acts of violence. He was also suspected of drug dealing, extortion, money-laundering and membership of an illegal organisation.

Adair can now be kept in jail until 2005 without further charge, but plans to launch a judicial review against the decision. John White said Adair intends to seek the help of the Human Rights Commission, and the Committee on the Administration of Justice - a civil liberties watchdog.

More irony.

For his part, Paul Murphy says, "I am satisfied Adair is a danger to others and while he is at liberty, is likely to commit further offences".

As far as his physical wellbeing is concerned, the arrest could not have come at a better time for Adair.

Over the last few weeks, loyalist graffiti has appeared throughout Belfast pronoucing Adair and White "Dead men walking" and papers have quoted a UDA source who predicted that Adair and White would be killed "in weeks, not months".

In December, the UDA leadership reportedly offered £10,000 to anyone who would kill Adair and an additional £10,000 if he was dead by Chistmas. Just last week, a "senior UDA member" told the Irish Times: "This feud won't end until there are two coffins going down the Shankill Road and those coffins will carry Adair and White. Nobody can behave like those two men have and get away with it."

PSNI chiefs hope Adair's arrest will take the heat out of the feud, which has killed nearly a dozen people over the last two years. Acting Deputy Chief Constable Alan McQuillan told the press: "We hope that the arrest of Mr Adair will have a significant impact on the current situation in Belfast."

It looks like McQuillan has good reason to be optimistic. After Adair's arrest a member of the UDA inner council stated, "Hopefully this is the chance that west Belfast needs to get themselves sorted out. This will be the end of the feud from our side unless "C" company does something."

If the loyalist feud peters out as a result of Adair's arrest, the UDA is now free to go back to doing what it does with abandon - attacking nationalists.

PSNI statistics say loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for 114 shootings and 89 serious assaults in 2002, most of which were against the nationalist community.

Several of its victims have been Protestants who were killed in the mistaken belief that they were Catholics, including young Gavin Brett and David Cupples, who was beaten to death on his way to work at Girdwood Barracks at Christmas.

Just in case there is any doubt of unionist priorities, local Ulster Unionist councillor Chris McGimpsey summed up the feelings of his community this way: "The working class Protestant community is sick of it (the feud)," he said.

"They already feel under immense pressure from the British government, the Dublin government, nationalists and republicans. Now the largest loyalist paramilitary groups are running around killing each other.

"Young people might say they joined the UDA to fight for their country and defend their community. Yet some have ended up killing other Protestants." No hint of irony here.

"They need to consider where their leadership is taking them and rethink their actions."