Editing Ulster Defence Association (section)

==Structure and leadership==
The UDA is made up of:
* the Inner Council
* the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)—whose role was to carry out attacks on republican and nationalist targets. However, many regard the UFF as merely a covername used when the UDA wished to claim responsibility for attacks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/uorgan.htm |title=CAIN: Abstracts of Organisations – 'U' |publisher=Cain.ulst.ac.uk |access-date=16 June 2010 |archive-date=22 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222030139/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/uorgan.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
* the Ulster Defence Force (UDF)—whose role was to give "specialist military training" to a select group of UDA members. The UDF was initiated by [[John McMichael]]<ref name="Lister 2004"/> (the then UDA/UFF commander) in 1985 as a response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The UDF operated training camps in rural parts of Northern Ireland that young loyalists such as [[Johnny Adair]] claim to have attended.<ref name="Lister 2004"/> One reported 'survival' training technique was to leave trainees stranded in [[Dublin]] with only £1.<ref name="Lister 2004"/> The training, which was described by UDA members as forming "the nucleus of a new loyalist army at the ready", was made possible thanks to "a sophisticated network of legal businesses" which allowed for the implementation of ambitious training programmes.<ref>Wood, Ian S. ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Page 123.</ref>
* the [[Ulster Young Militants]] (UYM)—the "youth wing" of the group. Formed in 1973.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/yorgan.htm |title=CAIN: Abstracts of Organisations – 'Y' |publisher=Cain.ulst.ac.uk |access-date=16 June 2010 |archive-date=6 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806150545/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/yorgan.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
* the [[Ulster Political Research Group]] (UPRG)—the UDA's "political advisory body". Formed in 1978.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/norgan.htm |title=CAIN: Abstracts of Organisations – 'N' |publisher=Cain.ulst.ac.uk |access-date=16 June 2010 |archive-date=14 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514135237/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/norgan.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The UDA operated a devolved structure of leadership, each with a brigadier representing one of its six "brigade areas".<ref name="Lister 2004">{{cite book | last = Lister| first = David| title = Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and C Company| publisher = Cox & Wyman | year=  2004| isbn = 978-1-84018-890-5}}</ref> It is not clear whether this brigade structure has been maintained in the UDA's post cease-fire state. The UDA's six "brigade areas" were:
* North Belfast
* East Belfast
* [[UDA South Belfast Brigade|South Belfast]], the UDA's largest brigade area, covering all of South Belfast down to Lisburn and operating as far away as South County Down, Lurgan, Portadown and Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh.<ref name="McDonaldCusack186187">McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp.186–187</ref>
* [[UDA West Belfast Brigade|West Belfast]]
* [[UDA South East Antrim Brigade|Southeast [County] Antrim]]
* North County Antrim & County Londonderry
[[File:Dervock UDA wall sign.JPG|thumb|right|A wall sign in [[Dervock]] showing support for the North Antrim and Londonderry brigade]]

In addition to these six core brigades two others may have existed. A seventh Mid-Ulster Brigade is mentioned by Steve Bruce as having existed for part of the UDA's history<ref>Steve Bruce, ''The Edge of the Union'', Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 157</ref> although Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack characterise this as a "battalion" rather than a brigade and suggest that its rural location prevented it from fully developing.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 25</ref> In the late 1970s a Scottish Brigade was established under the command of Roddy McDonald but this proved short-lived. The security forces infiltrated this brigade almost immediately and in 1979 arrested almost its entire membership, ninety people in all. Six members received particularly lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in UDA activities in [[Perth, Scotland|Perth]] and the Scottish Brigade quietly disappeared.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp. 108–109</ref>

Some of the notable brigadiers include:

[[Jackie McDonald]]—South Belfast (~1980s–present)<ref name="Lister 2004 280–283">{{cite book | last = Lister| first = David| title = Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and C Company| publisher = Cox & Wyman | year=  2004| pages = 280–283 | isbn = 978-1-84018-890-5}}</ref>
Resident of the Taughmonagh estate in South Belfast.<ref name="Lister 2004 280–283"/> McDonald was a cautious supporter of the UDA's ceasefire and a harsh critic of Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair during his final years of membership of the organisation.<ref name="Lister 2004 280–283"/> McDonald remains the only brigadier who did not have a commonly used nickname.

Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair—West Belfast (1990–2002)<ref name="Lister 2004"/>
An active figure in the UDA/UFF, Adair rose to notoriety in the early 1990s when he led the ''2nd Battalion, C Company'' unit in West Belfast which was responsible for one of the bloodiest killing sprees of [[the Troubles]].<ref name="Lister 2004"/>

[[Jim Gray (UDA member)|Jim 'Doris Day' Gray]]—East Belfast (1992–2005)<ref name="Lister 2004"/><ref>Wood, Ian S. ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Page 299.</ref> An unlikely figure in Northern Ireland loyalism, the openly bisexual<ref name="Lister 2004"/> Gray was a controversial figure in the organisation until his death on 4 October 2005. Always flamboyantly dressed, Gray was a key figure in the UDA's negotiations with [[Northern Ireland Secretary]] [[John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan|John Reid]]. It is widely believed that Gray received his nickname from the [[RUC Special Branch]].<ref name="Lister 2004"/>

[[Jimbo Simpson|Jimbo 'Bacardi Brigadier' Simpson]]—North Belfast (Unknown–2002)<ref name="Lister 2004"/> Simpson is believed to have been an alcoholic, hence his nickname. He was leader of the UDA in the volatile North Belfast area, an interface between Catholics and Protestants in the [[New Lodge, Belfast|New Lodge]] and [[Tiger's Bay]] neighbourhoods.<ref name="Lister 2004"/>

[[Billy McFarland (loyalist)|Billy 'The Mexican' McFarland]]—North Antrim and Londonderry (Unknown–2013)<ref name="Lister 2004"/> He earned his nickname because of his moustache and swarthy appearance, and had overall command of the UDA's North Antrim and Londonderry brigade at the time of the [[Belfast Agreement|Good Friday Agreement]]. He supported the leadership against [[Johnny Adair]] and has been associated with the magazine 'Warrior', which makes the case for [[Ulster nationalism|Ulster Independence]].

[[Shoukri brothers|Andre 'The Egyptian' Shoukri]]<ref name="Lister 2004"/>—North Belfast (2002–2005)<ref name="Lister 2004"/> Initially a close ally of Johnny Adair, Shoukri and his brother Ihab became involved with the UDA in his native North Belfast. The son of an Egyptian father and a Northern Irish mother, he was expelled from the UDA in 2005 following allegations of criminality.

[[John Gregg (UDA)|John 'Grug' Gregg]]—South East Antrim (c.1993<ref>Wood, Ian S. ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Page 351.</ref>–2003) John 'Grug' Gregg was a man with a fearsome reputation within the loyalist movement, known as a "Hawk" in loyalist circles, and controlled the streets of south east Antrim. On 14 March 1984, he severely wounded Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in an assassination attempt for which he was jailed. When asked by the BBC in prison if he regretted anything about the shooting, his reply was "only that I didn't succeed." He was killed on Belfast's Nelson Street, along with another UDA member (Rab Carson), while travelling in a taxi from the docks in 2003, and the murder was blamed on supporters of Johnny Adair, who had recently been expelled from the UDA in 2002.