Editing Loyalist feud (section)

===2000===
Although the two organisations had worked together under the umbrella of the [[Combined Loyalist Military Command]], the body crumbled in 1997 and tensions simmered between West Belfast UDA Brigadier<ref>The UDA divides its membership into six vaguely geographic areas which it labels "brigades" with the six commanders styled "Brigadiers". Other military-style ranks are used by the group for its members</ref> [[Johnny Adair]], who had grown weary of the [[Northern Ireland peace process]] and the [[Good Friday Agreement]], and the UVF leadership. Adair by this time had forged close links with the dissident LVF, a breakaway group to which the UVF was ardently opposed.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 323</ref> Amidst an atmosphere of increasing tension in the area, Adair decided to host a "Loyalist Day of Culture" on the Shankill on Saturday 19 August 2000, which saw thousands of UDA members from across Northern Ireland descend on his Lower Shankill stronghold, where a series of newly commissioned murals were officially unveiled on a day which also featured a huge UDA/UFF parade and armed UDA/UFF show of strength. The UVF leadership had sought and been given assurances that no LVF regalia would be displayed on the Shankill on the day of the procession. However, and unknown to the UDA beyond its "C Company", Adair had an LVF flag delivered to the Lower Shankill on the morning of the celebrations. He planned to have it unfurled as the procession passed the Rex Bar, a UVF haunt, in order to antagonise the UVF and try and drag it into conflict with as much of the UDA as possible. Adair waited until the bulk of the parade of UDA men had made its way up into the heart of the Shankill before initiating the provocative gesture. Violence broke out between UVF men who had been standing outside the Rex watching the procession and the group involved in unfurling the contentious flag, which had been discreetly concealed near the tail end of the parade. Prior to this the atmosphere at the Rex had been jovial, with the UVF spectators even joining in to sing UDA songs along to the tunes of the UDA-aligned flute bands which accompanied the approximately ten thousand UDA men on their parade up the Shankill Road. But vicious fighting ensued, with a roughly three hundred-strong C Company (the name given to the Lower Shankill unit of the [[UDA West Belfast Brigade|UDA's West Belfast Brigade]], which contained Adair's most loyal men) mob attacking the patrons of the Rex, initially with hand weapons such as bats and iron bars, before they shot up the bar as its patrons barricaded themselves inside. Also shot up was the [[Progressive Unionist Party]] (PUP) headquarters which faced the pub. C Company then went on the rampage in the Lower Shankill, attacking the houses of known UVF members and their families, including the home of veteran UVF leader [[Gusty Spence]], and evicting the inhabitants at gunpoint as they wrecked and stole property and set fire to homes. By the end of the day nearly all those with UVF associations had been driven from the Lower Shankill.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp. 325-327</ref> Later that night, C Company gunmen shot up the Rex again, this time from a passing car. While most of the UDA guests at Adair's carnival had duly left for home when it became apparent that he was using it to engineer violent conflict with the UVF, festivities nonetheless continued late into the night on the Lower Shankill, where Adair hosted an open air rave party and fireworks display.

The UVF struck back on Monday morning, shooting dead two Adair associates, Jackie Coulter and Bobby Mahood, as they sat in a Range Rover on the Crumlin Road. The UVF also shot up the  [[Ulster Democratic Party]] headquarters on the Middle Shankill. An hour later Adair's unit burned down the PUP's offices close to Agnes Street, the de facto border between the UVF-dominated Middle and Upper Shankill and the UDA-dominated Lower Shankill. The UVF responded by blowing up the [[Ulster Democratic Party|UDP]] headquarters on the Middle Shankill. Adair was returned to prison by the Secretary of State on 14 September, although the feud continued with four more killed before the end of the year.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp. 332-334</ref> Violence also spread to North Belfast, where members of the UVF's Mount Vernon unit shot and killed a UDA member, David Greer, in the Tiger's Bay area, sparking a series of killings in that part of the city. In another incident the County Londonderry town of Coleraine saw tumult in the form of an attempted expulsion of UVF members by UDA members, which was successfully resisted by the UVF.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 335</ref> But, aside from these exceptions, Adair's attempt to ignite a full-scale war between the two organisations failed, as both the UVF and UDA leaderships moved decisively to contain the trouble within the Shankill area, where hundreds of families had been displaced, and focused on dealing with its source as well as its containment. To Adair's indignation even the "A" and "B" Companies of his West Belfast Brigade of the UDA declined to get involved in C Company's war with the UVF. Eventually a ceasefire was reluctantly agreed upon by the majority of those involved in the feuding after new procedures were established with the aim of preventing the escalation of any future problems between the two organisations, and after consideration was paid to the advice of [[Gary McMichael]] and [[David Ervine]], the then leaders of the two political wings of loyalism.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 340</ref>