Little talk of politics on streets of loyalist Belfast

WHEN Johnny Adair was dumped from the Ulster Defence Association, his public utterances suggested he felt hurt and isolated after this snub from his erstwhile political comrades.

For experienced watchers of Belfast's loyalist underbelly, these were the emotions of a crocodile. They have seen this particular individual in action before and fully expected him to bite. Adair is a power-hungry, drug-dealing, gangster. So too are his former pals in the UDA. To many, that is what the feud is all about, power, money and drugs.

The 39-year-old was sentenced to 16 years in prison for directing terrorism during a time when scores of Catholics were murdered in north Belfast. Adair was returned to prison a year after his release after the then Secretary of State Peter Mandelson was advised the Brigadier of C Co West Belfast was up to his neck in a feud with the Ulster Volunteer Force. Seven people died.

Five months after he was released once again, he and sidekick John White, double murderer and one-time elected politician with the now disbanded Ulster Democratic Party, were kicked out of the UDA. Five members of the inner council, who have power bases in the north, east and south of Belfast, decided the Mad Dog, according to one loyalist source, "wanted to be top dog. He thought he could tramp all over us." By that stage Adair probably felt he could do without them. Far from being hurt or insulted, he may have engineered the break.

Adair has attracted a hard core of young men as followers and established a base, complete with a fortified former community centre, in the lower Shankill Road. He has also forged stronger links with members of yet another group, the LVF, who had helped out during the UVF feud. It was the LVF link that appears to have really triggered the falling out that has led to dozens of people being driven out of their houses, bomb attacks, shootings and deaths, including last week's killing of Jonathan Stewart, the nephew of a UDA man who had apparently fallen out with Adair. This was followed by the shooting of Elizabeth McDonald, whose brother, Jackie, is the South Belfast commander.

The death of Stephen Warnock, a drug dealer who, like many others in his trade, is aligned to one of the groupings, this time the LVF, triggered this particular feud. The LVF blamed the East Belfast UDA, whose commander is a man named Jim Gray, who personally dislikes Adair and vice versa. It was claimed the two groups were involved in a drugs and turf war in East Belfast. Gray was invited to talks in the house where Warnock's body was lying before burial but as he arrived was shot in the head. He managed to escape.

The UDA claimed Adair approved of the shooting and was in the house at the time.

Days later, there was a heated meeting between Adair and the leadership, after which he was expelled. There is an arrogance and bravado about the no longer hurt or insulted Adair. This is despite a death threat hanging over his head.

In Belfast, there is talk that some in the UDA don't want him dead, fearing this would make him a martyr; there is talk of the secretary of state throwing him back in jail; there is talk of power, turf and personal dislikes and warnings; and talk of more dead in the new year. There is little talk of politics on the streets of loyalist Belfast.