Editing Loyalist feud (section)

===1974–1975===
A feud in the winter of 1974-75 broke out between the UDA and the UVF, the two main loyalist paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland.<ref name="taylor146">Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p.146</ref> The bad blood originated from an incident in the [[Ulster Workers' Council strike]] of May 1974 when the two groups were co-operating in support of the [[Ulster Workers' Council]]. That support the UDA and UVF members were giving involved shutting down their own social clubs and pubs due to complaints from loyalist wives of the striking men. The reason for this was with the men not working and funds being tight, the wives saw what little money they did have being spent at the pubs and social clubs controlled by UDA/UVF; therefore, the wives put pressure on the leaders of both groups to shut them down for the duration of the strike, and after consultation they agreed. All shut down except for a lone UVF-affiliated pub on the Shankill Road. On a November night in 1974, a UVF man named Joe Shaw visited the pub for a drink. While there, he was "ribbed by the regulars about having allowed his local to be closed".<ref>The Red Hand by Steve Bruce 1992,p.124</ref> A few pints later Shaw and some friends returned to their local, on North Queen St., and opened it up. UDA men patrolling the area had seen the pubs lights on and ordered Shaw and his friends to close the place down and go home. Shaw refused, and the UDA men left, but they returned a short while later with a shotgun, determined to close the pub down. In the brawl that developed Shaw was fatally wounded.<ref>(Bruce 1992)</ref>  A joint statement described it as a tragic accident, although a subsequent UVF inquiry put the blame on Stephen Goatley and John Fulton, both UDA men.<ref>Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, ''UDA - Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror'', Penguin Ireland, 2004, pp. 98-99</ref> With antagonism growing, another man was killed in a drunken brawl on 21 February 1975, this time the UDA's Robert Thompson. This was followed by another pub fight in North Belfast in March and this time the UVF members returned armed and shot and killed both Goatley and Fulton, who had been involved in the earlier fight.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 99</ref>

The following month, UDA Colonel Hugh McVeigh and his aide David Douglas were the next to die, kidnapped by the UVF on the Shankill Road and taken to [[Carrickfergus]] where they were beaten before being killed near [[Islandmagee]].<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp. 99-100</ref> The UDA initially believed the IRA were responsible and intended to kidnap twenty Catholics in retaliation. The UDA's leadership were persuaded to call off their plan by a Protestant clergyman, who convinced them that the IRA were not involved. After [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (SDLP) leader [[John Hume]] revealed he had been informed of the aborted attacks, UDA chairman [[Andy Tyrie]] conceded that had been the UDA's intention but denied the group had planned shoot one hostage a day until the two missing UDA men were released.<ref>''Belfast News Letter'', 1 May 1975.</ref>

The UDA retaliated in East Belfast by attempting to kill UVF leader [[Ken Gibson (loyalist)|Ken Gibson]], who in turn ordered the UDA's headquarters in the east of the city to be blown up, although this attack also failed.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 100</ref> The feud rumbled on for several months in 1976 with a number of people, mostly UDA members, being killed before eventually the two groups came to an uneasy truce.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp. 100-101</ref>