Peace hopes as Mad Dog loses bite

Hopefully the words of the North’s Chief Constable Hugh Orde will be prophetic. He said the flight of Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair’s associates to Scotland will help calm the situation.

Others defected to the camp which was led by his arch-rival John Gregg, the UDA boss who was buried yesterday, hours after Adair’s supporters deserted him, following a practical purge of his lower Shankill power base.

Currently in jail, Adair, once the most feared loyalist in the North, is now left isolated and humiliated with his unit effectively demolished and with the knowledge that his wife and family were among those to who took the ferry to Scotland.