A history of Loyalist feuds

GANGLAND battles for supremacy among rival terror organisations who control Protestant areas of the city have left 14 men dead in the last two-and-a-half years.

August, 2000. A bloody war between the UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force erupted after a pub on Belfast’s Shankill Road was attacked.

Factions close to Adair were accused of firing shots into the UVF-controlled bar during a major paramilitary parade.

As the two sides launched into a series of tit-for-tat strikes seven men were shot dead in the following weeks.

In one attack, senior UVF man Bobby Mahood and another high-ranking UDA figure, Jackie Coulter, were gunned down as they sat in a car on the Crumlin Road trying to broker a truce.

As the shootings threatened to spiral out of control, former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson ordered Adair back into jail.

The two sides agreed a truce by the autumn of that year.

May, 2002. Adair was released from Maghaberry Prison, Co Antrim.

September, 2002. Loyalist Volunteer Force man Stephen Warnock was shot dead in Newtownards, Co Down.

The splinter organisation, closely linked to Adair’s unit, blamed another UDA commander, East Belfast brigadier Jim Gray, and targeted him in a failed murder bid.

As a new shooting war broke out, UDA bosses accused Adair of siding with the LVF. He was expelled from the organisation along with close associate John White.

October, 2002. Three men were killed before the two sides agreed to end their hostilities. But deadly tensions between the UDA leadership and Adair’s ousted C Company remained unresolved.

December, 2002. Jonathan Stewart, 22, was murdered by a lone gunman as he attended a Stephen’s DayBoxing Night party in north Belfast. The victim was the nephew of an opponent of Adair’s faction.

January, 2003. Drug dealer Roy Green, 32, was shot dead outside a south Belfast pub after ignoring UDA orders to cut ties with Adair.

Adair was thrown back in jail after Secretary of State Paul Murphy claimed it was too dangerous to leave him on the streets.

February, 2003. UDA brigadier John ‘Grug’ Gregg, 45, and Robert Carson were ambushed and killed by Adair’s supporters at Belfast docks as they returned from a Glasgow Rangers football match.

Gregg’s comrades ordered C Company to leave Adair or be killed.

On the eve of Gregg’s showpiece funeral, Adair’s wife Gina and John White were among dozens driven from their Lower Shankill power-base.

The dwindling band still loyal to Adair quit Northern Ireland and boarded an overnight boat to Scotland.