Editing Johnny Adair (section)

===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>