Following his release from prison, Gregg returned to Rathcoole where he again became an important figure, taking a central role in the illegal drug trade, with his Rathcoole stronghold a centre of narcotics.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 brigadier of the South-East Antrim UDA. 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. [5], Gregg was sentenced to 18 years in prison; however, he only served nine years before he was released in 1993. The UDA South East Antrim Brigade is one of the six brigades of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). [9] They were convicted for the attack the following year. 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. [45] As of 2014 Fisher was still identified by the Irish Independent as Brigadier, with the brigade reported as being in the process of rearming. South East Antrim Brigade mural in Ballymena honouring Gregg. ago. [1] Gregg was also characterised as "a bully, a racketeer, and a sectarian bigot who took particular delight in carrying out vicious punishment attacks and randomly targeting Roman Catholics. [3], Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, "BBC NEWS | Programmes | Panorama | John "Grug" Gregg", "Loyalists on brink of war as UDA chief is shot dead | UK news", "Assassin is kicked out of top UDA post | UK news", "Retaliation inevitable - Just a matter of when", "UDA leaders son gets record payout UTV News", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Gregg_(loyalist)&oldid=1118219468, This page was last edited on 25 October 2022, at 19:42. Charlie Strain, Hugh Cameron, Tommy Hollran and Mark Gourley, who is missing presumed . Greggs killing proved to be the undoing of Adair. [15] English was a strong advocate of political means and pushed for the UDA to call a ceasefire in the early 1990s, a position that was anathema, at that point, to Adair. It has brought the town under close scrutiny from the Paramilitary Crime Task Force. e views and opinions expressed in this documentary/ies and page are soley intended to educate and provide background information to those interested in the Troubles of Northern Ireland. [37] In response to the criticism from the rest of the UDA leadership, Fisher withdrew the South East Antrim brigade from the UDA and reconstituted it as a separate movement. His 2IC (second-in-command) was also dismissed after being given a sickening . Read about our approach to external linking. Will the Windsor Framework be enough for the DUP? Many of them were innocent - but had to pay up anyway. [8] 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). [20] This followed in summer 2002 when a community centre was taken over for this purpose although Gregg's UDA objected and daubed the building with the word "tout". "He's already under enough heat from the cops. The Sunday World understands he is desperate for an exit strategy that will take him out of the firing line. Formed in 1971 from a number of loyalist vigilante groups, the UDA's stated aims were to protect unionist communities from attacks by republican paramilitaries, but it went on to kill hundreds of people during the Troubles using a cover name - the Ulster Freedom Fighters. Old tensions resurfaced however, and after Adair's men fought with UVF supporters at the Shankill's Rex Bar, Adair launched a pogrom of the lower Shankill, forcing out all UVF members and their families and initiating a loyalist feud. The Sunday World also understands Fisher has become increasingly paranoid, believing there is an informant who is passing information about his movements to the PSNI. [4], Gregg and his team were apprehended almost immediately by a British Army patrol that opened fire on them before ramming their car. games. He is currently recovering at his mother's home in the Rathcoole estate after last week's beating. The violence, on the Castlemara estate in the town, saw up to 150 loyalists confront each other as members of the 'mainstream' UDA flooded the area in a show of strength against the . [26], 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. "Drugs is the big one. And now it's emerged the UVF heavy has also given a separate list of UDA-linked dealers to the cops. [18], Despite the continuing activity of his brigade, and his own earlier maiming, Gregg shared the reluctance of other brigadiers about what he saw as a coming war between the UVF and West Belfast brigadier Johnny Adair. "Several UDA men told their bosses they wanted him shot dead while others wanted his knees done but they've been ordered by Fisher to leave him alone, for now. Much of this activity was inspired by Greggs personal hatred of Catholics. [4] Gregg, at the time the head of the UDA group in Rathcoole, was in charge of a three-man hit team that pulled up alongside Adams' car near Belfast City Hall and opened fire injuring Adams and his three fellow passengers, who nonetheless escaped to seek treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. The veteran loyalist, who was 'brigadier' of its South East Antrim unit, was kicked out of the organisation last week. The South East Antrim UDA is believed to be responsible for seven unsolved murders in the same area dating back to 1998. The violence that erupted in the East Antrim town of Carrickfergus on Saturday night 21 July was the latest episode in internecine UDA feuding. "I think that the powers that be know exactly which individuals are involved. [43] The decommissioning was completed at the same time as that of the republican Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA). Gregg was born in 1957 and raised in a Protestant family from the Tigers Bay area of North Belfast. A volley of shots was fired over his coffin by UDA gunmen outside his Rathcoole home. Police confirmed that they were treating it as part of the existing feud. Members of this brigade were believed to be behind the killings of Catholic postman Danny McColgan, Protestant teenager Gavin Brett and Trevor Lowry (the latter kicked to death in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic), and a spate of pipe bomb attacks on the homes of Catholics. Greggs 18-year-old son Stuart and another man were also in the vehicle but neither sustained injuries in the shooting attack. Representing the UVF was John 'Bunter' Graham and the organisation's 1st Battalion commander Harry Stockman. Since his release, Shoukri had resumed his position as 'brigadier' of the north Belfast UDA while his brother Andre was in prison. [6] When asked by the BBC in prison if he regretted anything about the shooting, his reply was, "Only that I didn't succeed. Gregg was the most senior UDA member killed since South Belfast brigadier John McMichael was blown up by the IRA in 1987. In the later 1980s Snoddy took ill with cancer and many of his duties as brigadier were filled by his ally Joe English. [32], When the taxi stopped at traffic lights close to the motorway, it was rammed by another taxi which had been hijacked earlier on the Shankill Road. 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. Former PSNI superintendent Ken Pennington said he considers them to be "a criminal cartel that have wrapped themselves in a flag". Gregg, seated in the backseat, was hit at close range and died instantly. Law enforcement agencies see the loosening of Fisher's control as an opportunity. [69] [2] Since 2007 the South East Antrim Brigade has operated independently of the UDA following a fall-out. Nonetheless he was not keen to antagonise Adair and so, along with McFarland, McDonald and Jimbo Simpson, accepted his invitation to attended a Loyalist Day of Culture organised by Adair on the Lower Shankill on 19 August 2000. He managed to avoid being beaten in return for tricking his ex-UVF 2IC friend into attending the Monkstown meeting during which he was attacked. . In late August, Adair had even managed to have Gregg stood down as Brigadier for not being militant enough and replaced by one of Adairs own associates. A lengthy internal investigation into the former 'brigadier' led by convicted UVF bomber and provost marshal Jackie Anderson found that he stole at least 250,000 over the past five years. Martin Quinn says the family has been threatened by the South East Antrim UDA for speaking out, Security sources say the South East Antrim UDA has over 2,000 members, Police intelligence says the South East Antrim UDA is involved in the supply of drugs, Rev Philip McAlister officiated at the funeral of Geordie Gilmore, a BBC Spotlight programme on the murder of Glenn Quinn. During the course of the melee a Shankill Protestant Boys member managed to gouge out Gregg's eye,[12] although it is also claimed that Gregg lost his eye due to a fight with republicans at the same parade. SouthEast Antrim UDA crime boss Gary Fisher is facing an internal revolt with even his closest lieutenants saying his time is up. Central role played at UFF parade by veteran crime lord's two underbosses hints at changing of the guard. From the 1990s until his shooting death in 2003 by rival associates, Gregg served as brigadier of the UDAs South East Antrim Brigade. [15] A senior police source once described him as a man driven by "pure and absolute bigotry". A man described in court as the commander of the UDA in South East Antrim is one of four men charged with conspiring to supply cocaine. What makes a serial killer and why are we fascinated by them? pockets of the town remain on edge since the murder of a local man, Glenn Quinn, by the South East Antrim UDA. Simms' demise was the catalyst for the disintegration of Fisher's power base. At the service on 6 February, UVF/RHC representatives joined the UDA leadership in a show of anti-Adair solidarity. 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