Editing Johnny Adair (section)

==Paramilitary activity==
Upon joining the UDA in 1984, Adair and his friends were assigned to C8, an active unit that formed part of the West Belfast Brigade's C Company, which covered the lower Shankill. The young members' early duties mostly consisted of rioting, along with occasional gun attacks on heavily armoured police vehicles{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} or arson attacks on local businesses felt to be employing "too many" Catholics.<ref>Lister & Jordan, pp. 51–52</ref> The unit was eager to become even more active and from an early stage plotted to kill a nationalist solicitor, [[Pat Finucane (solicitor)|Pat Finucane]], although the plan was initially vetoed by the brigade leadership.<ref>Lister & Jordan, p. 78</ref>

By the early 1990s, a new leadership had emerged on the Shankill Road following the killing of powerful South Belfast Brigadier and UDA Deputy Commander John McMichael in 1987 by a booby-trap car bomb planted by the [[Provisional IRA]]; less than three months later, Supreme Commander [[Andy Tyrie]] resigned after an attempt was made on his life. He was not replaced; instead the organisation was run by its Inner Council. With the West Belfast UDA brigadier and spokesman [[Tommy Lyttle]] in prison and gradually eased out of the leadership, Adair, as the most ambitious of the "Young Turks", established himself as head of the UDA's "C Company", 2nd Battalion based on the Shankill.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, p.161</ref> Adair formed a so-called "Dream Team" of active gunmen, with many of his friends from his former skinhead gang including Sam "Skelly" McCrory, [[Mo Courtney]], "Fat" Jackie Thompson, and Donald Hodgen recruited into the unit.<ref>Lister & Jordan, p. 88</ref> In the early 1990s,[[Gary Smyth (loyalist)| Gary ‘Smickers’ Smith]], who also ran a pet shop on the Shankill Road, was eventually promoted to second in command of C Company and became deputy to Adair.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, p. 179</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=24 November 2024|url=https://www.sundayworld.com/news/irish-news/uff-hitman-and-convicted-paedo-gary-smickers-smith-dies-in-exile/a1199861033.html|title=UFF hitman and convicted paedo Gary ‘Smickers’ Smith dies in exile|newspaper=Sunday World| language=en|access-date=26 November 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=8 August 2023|url=https://www.sundayworld.com/crime/irish-crime/former-uda-terror-chief-avoids-jail-after-serious-12-year-old-boy-sex-conviction/a1440974717.html|title=Former UDA terror chief avoids jail after serious ‘12-year-old boy’ sex conviction|newspaper=Sunday World| language=en|access-date=26 November 2024 }}</ref>
===Brigadier===
Adair succeeded [[Jim Spence (loyalist)|Jim Spence]] as brigadier in 1993 after Spence was imprisoned for [[extortion]].<ref>Lister & Jordan, p. 149</ref> When Adair became the first person in Northern Ireland charged with directing [[terrorism]] in 1995, he admitted that he had been a UDA leader for three years up to 1994. During this time, Adair and his colleagues were involved in multiple random murders of Catholic civilians, mostly carried out by a special killing unit led by [[Stephen McKeag|Stevie "Top Gun" McKeag]].<ref>McDonald & Cusack, p. 3</ref> 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".<ref name="guardian2">[https://www.theguardian.com/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,715867,00.html Profile of the notorious loyalist leader Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 15 May 2002.</ref>

[[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) detectives believe his unit killed up to 40 people in this period.<ref name=guardian1>[https://www.theguardian.com/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,1779850,00.html "'Mad Dog' Adair sparks fury over £100,000 book"], ''The Guardian'', 21 May 2006.</ref> Adair once remarked to a Catholic journalist from the Republic of Ireland that normally Catholics traveled in the boot of his car.<ref>Lister & Jordan<!-- page(s) needed --></ref> According to a press report in 2003, Adair was handed details of republican suspects by the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]], and was even invited for dinner with them in the early 1990s.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,944533,00.html Top Army officer 'handed over IRA files to Adair'], ''The Guardian'', 27 April 2003.</ref>

In his autobiography, he alleged he was frequently passed information on republican paramilitaries by sympathetic [[British Army]] members, and that his own whereabouts were passed to the IRA by the [[RUC Special Branch]], who, he claimed, hated him.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2005683,00.html Troops 'colluded with Mad Dog'], guardian.co.uk; retrieved 10 August 2011.</ref> As brigadier of the West Belfast UDA, Adair was entitled to one of the six seats on the organisation's Inner Council and in this role, because he wanted to continue on the path of violence, clashed frequently with [[South East Antrim Brigadier]] [[Joe English (loyalist)|Joe English]], who advocated seeking a peace settlement.<ref>Lister & Jordan, pp. 209–11.</ref>

The BBC described Adair as "the most controversial, high-profile and ubiquitous" of all the paramilitaries operating in Northern Ireland during this period.<ref name="bbcnews">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2647547.stm "Johnny Adair: Notorious loyalist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912182733/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2647547.stm |date=12 September 2012 }}, BBC News. 10 January 2003; retrieved 21 September 2012.</ref> The IRA's [[Shankill Road Bombing]] of a fish shop 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 office above the shop was the UDA's Shankill headquarters and a meeting was due to take place shortly after the bomb exploded.<ref name=mcd-cusack>Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack. ''UDA: Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror''. Penguin Ireland, 2004. pp. 247–49.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref><ref name=dillon>Dillon, Martin. ''The Trigger Men: Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict''. Random House, 2011. Part 2: Taking Down 'Mad Dog'.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> The bomb detonated prematurely, killing one of the two IRA men, [[Thomas Begley]], and nine Protestants (a UDA volunteer and eight civilians). The UDA retaliated by carrying out the [[Greysteel massacre]] in [[County Londonderry]], an attack on the Rising Sun bar in which eight civilians, two of whom were Protestants, were shot dead. While Adair was targeted for assassination a number of times, he frequently exaggerated the number of attempts.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/oct/05/features.magazine7 Adair profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221111630/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/oct/05/features.magazine7 |date=21 December 2016 }}, theguardian.com, 5 October 2003; accessed 28 December 2015.</ref>

===First conviction===
During this time, undercover officers from the RUC 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 on 6 September 1995 and sentenced to 16 years in the [[Maze (HM Prison)|Maze]] prison.<ref>Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p. 233<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> As is standard practice in the UDA, Adair vacated his position as Brigadier upon entering prison, with his friend [[Winkie Dodds]] succeeding him.<ref>Lister & Jordan, p. 227</ref>

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 £5,000 a week.<ref name=examiner>[http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/08/24/current/i_text.htm Mad Dog finds peace is bad for business] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311153152/http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/08/24/current/i_text.htm |date=11 March 2007 }}, ''[[Irish Examiner]]'', 24 August 2000.</ref>

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. Following the killing of [[Loyalist Volunteer Force]] (LVF) leader [[Billy Wright (loyalist)|Billy Wright]] inside the Maze prison by the [[Irish National Liberation Army|INLA]] the previous December, the UDA prisoners had voted two to one to withdraw from the peace process.<ref>Taylor, p. 245</ref> Adair's co-operation was essential as he was regarded as the key figure in securing the support of the other loyalist prisoners.<ref name="bbcnews"/>

At the end of April 1999, while he was on home leave from prison, Adair was shot at and grazed by a bullet in the head at a UB40 concert in Belfast which he had attended with his wife.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/333547.stm "Republicans behind Adair shooting?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105113757/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/333547.stm |date=5 January 2009 }}, BBC News; accessed 12 September 2016.</ref> He blamed the shooting on republicans, although a drug dealer {{Who|date=December 2016}} was responsible.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=liiq7RU67OoC&q=billy+mcfarland+loyalist+prison&pg=PA211|title=Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA|author=Ian S. Wood|year=2006|page=211|isbn=9780748624270|access-date=16 December 2016}}</ref><ref>[http://www.rte.ie/news/1999/0502/adair.html "RUC investigate Johnny Adair shooting claim"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050215082844/http://www.rte.ie/news/1999/0502/adair.html |date=15 February 2005 }}, RTÉ News, 2 May 1999.</ref> In September 1999, Adair was released as part of the early-release scheme for paramilitary prisoners under the [[Belfast Agreement]].<ref name="bbcnews"/>