Davy Fogel
Encyclopedia
David "Davy" Fogel also known as "Big Dave" (born 1945), was a former loyalist
and a leading member of the loyalist vigilante
Woodvale Defence Association
(WDA) which later merged with other groups becoming the Ulster Defence Association
(UDA). Born in London, Fogel was a former British soldier who had served in Northern Ireland before marrying a local Belfast woman and settling down with his family in the Woodvale area of west Belfast. In June 1970 at a pidgeon fanciers' club, he militarised the Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) and trained them as a military unit. He continued to instruct the new UDA recruits in military tactics and gave lectures on Army and police interrogation methods and urban guerilla fighting.
He was the second-in-command to the WDA's leader and the UDA's first commander, Charles Harding Smith
. Fogel was the leader of the UDA's B Company, 2nd Battalion, West Belfast Brigade
and enjoyed much prestige in 1972, having erected the first UDA street barricades and roadblocks in Woodvale. He left the organisation early in 1973 after he was ousted from power during an internal feud.
in 1965. His job in the army was to look after the stores; this is where he first became acquainted with guns and learned how to use them. When he left the Army in 1968, he married a Protestant girl from Belfast
, and settled down with her in a modest house in Palmer Street in the Woodvale area of west Belfast, located at the top of the Shankill Road. Palmer Street was close to the interface with the nationalist
Ardoyne
area and had been one of the worst hit streets in a series of riots that blighted this interface area. He worked as a machinist in Mackie's
engineering plant until he was made redundant in 1970. Thereafter he found casual work and collected unemployment benefits.
(WDA) in late June 1970 at a meeting held in a pigeon fanciers' club on Leopold Street just off the Crumlin Road
. He had gone to the meeting following an attack on 27 June by nationalists against an Orange Order pipe band
parade which had quickly escalated into a riot. Three Protestants had been killed, and this had made such a strong impression on Fogel that he wanted to take direct action against the nationalist Catholic community. When Fogel interrupted the meeting, which was attended by mostly middle-aged, apathetic men, by shouting out that "talk was not enough", the WDA's leader Charles Harding Smith
asked him to "put some order" into the men and give them military training. Fogel took up Harding Smith's suggestion and quickly became his second-in-command.
In a candid interview with British journalist Peter Taylor, Fogel stated:
He enjoyed the important position he held within the WDA, acknowledging that he "walked around the streets with the power of life and death over people". In September 1971, the WDA and other vigilante groups merged into the umbrella paramilitary organisation known as the Ulster Defence Association
(UDA) with Charles Harding Smith as its first commander and Fogel as the second most powerful man in the organisation. He continued to train the new recruits to the local Woodvale UDA unit, of which there were many. According to author Ian S. Wood, Fogel admitted the following: "I taught them about unarmed combat - you know, how to break a nose, burst an ear drum, dislocate a spine." He also gave them lectures on guerilla fighting and the methods of interrogation employed by the Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC) .
in December 1971. Shortly afterwards the British Government suspended the Parliament of Northern Ireland
(Stormont) and imposed Direct Rule
from London. When Harding Smith and John White
had gone to London to purchase arms and were subsequently arrested in April 1972 for gun-running, Jim Anderson
, a glazier from Crumlin Road, assumed command of the UDA. It was structured along military lines into battalions, companies, platoons, and sections and had continued to draw new members within its ranks, becoming the largest loyalist paramilitary organisation, having about 50,000 members in 1972. The UDA was legal at the time; it remained so until 1992 when it was eventually proscribed by the government. Fogel took control of west Belfast during Harding Smith's absence, and became leader of the UDA's B Company which covered the Woodvale area.
At the end of May, Fogel organised the first UDA roadblocks and barricades, sealing off the Woodvale area into a "no go" zone which the UDA controlled. Anderson, the de facto commander approved of his action and gave Fogel his full support, and the operation attracted much media and press coverage. Time Magazine described him as a "tough, salty Londoner" who commanded the Woodvale Defence Association. In an interview with Time journalists, Fogel spoke of his contempt for the middle-class politicians that made up the Ulster Unionist Party
. In June, Fogel and two other of his associates drove to Stormont
to negotiate with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
, William Whitelaw, who made it clear to Fogel and the others his strong disapproval of their erection of permanent street barricades. His fellow members in attendance at the meeting were Tommy Herron
and Billy Hull
. Fogel had been a strong advocate of sealing off streets linking to nationalist areas and in July 1972 advocated shutting off Ainsworth Avenue even though it would have meant some fifty Catholic families living on the street would be cut off from the Springfield Road and held within the Shankill. When the plan became known, William Whitelaw was called on by Ainsworth Avenue Catholics and units of the British Army
, under Major General Robert Ford
were sent to the area where a stand-off with the UDA ensued. In the street negotitations it was agreed that, despite what Whitelaw had stated in the previous meeting, the UDA could erect small temporary barriers and loose plans were put in place for joint UDA-Army patrols, something that the UDA leadership announced at a press conference in the Europa Hotel that same night.
That same month the UDA marched through the city centre of Belfast in a massive show of strength. Fogel's power in west Belfast rose and as a result he received many visitors to his home which included American congressmen. It was at that time he received his nickname "Big Dave". He also hired two bodyguards to look after him. He later described his role within the UDA during 1972 as having been a "bit of a policeman, magistrate and welfare worker." He often presided over unofficial UDA courts where local offenders from the community were tried. If found guilty, the culprits were given punishment beatings. At the end of the summer of 1972, Fogel, emerging leader Andy Tyrie
, and other UDA leaders met with an Army general to discuss the issue of street barricades. By the end of that year, the UDA and their loyalist rivals, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), had carried out 121 killings that they called "assassinations. About two-thirds were Catholic victims of what republicans would term "loyalist death squads".
, even had meetings with the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) in Dublin in an attempt to seek common ground and explore the possibility of reaching a working-class settlement with Catholics. On 7 December 1972, Elliott's body was discovered in the boot of Fogel's car; the outcome of the internal UDA feud. He had been killed by a shotgun blast to the face. Rumours circulated that Elliott had been killed because he was a Marxist, something frowned upon in loyalism, and Fogel confirmed that Elliott had been a keen reader of the works of Che Guevara
. However it later emerged that Elliott, a heavy drinker, had gone to Sandy Row
, a loyalist stronghold in south Belfast, to pick up a gun and whilst drunk had pointed it at patrons of the local UDA club. He was taken outside by a local UDA member and the two had a fight over the gun. Other local UDA men got involved and one of them pointed a shotgun at Elliott in an attempt to get him to back off but the gun went off killing Elliott instantly. The shooter fled to England but returned in 1983 and confessed his role in the death, also confirming that it had all been a drunken brawl which at no point involved any ideological concerns.
Fogel believed he was being set up by his associates and before long Harding Smith moved against him. Fogel was accused of embezzling funds from the UDA by Harding Smith, who also put the word around that a senior British Army officer had warned him that Fogel was, in some unspecified manner, a danger to the UDA and an informer. Fogel was even taken into custody by Harding Smith's men for a three hour period during which he was warned that he must leave the Shankill. When Tommy Herron, the formidable East Belfast brigadier and the UDA's vice-chairman and spokesman, appeared on the scene to challenge Harding Smith's leadership, Fogel was ousted from his position of power. Fearing there would be an attempt on his life, Fogel left the UDA and Northern Ireland for good in January 1973, transferring to England for a life of safe obscurity. Immediately before he left, Fogel had been summond to a "meeting" in an East Belfast UDA club and decided to leave before it was due to take place, fearing he would be walking into an ambush. Later that year Tommy Herron was shot dead, Jim Anderson had voluntarily stood down, and Andy Tyrie was appointed Chairman. Tyrie, an early recruit from the WDA, soon became the UDA's Supreme Commmander, a position he would hold until March 1988 when an attempted car-bombing brought about his retirement. Less than four months before on 27 December 1987, the Provisional IRA had succeeded in blowing up influential South Belfast brigadier John McMichael
in a booby-trap car bomb outside his home. Charles Harding Smith was long out of the picture. From 1973 to 1975, he had tried in vain to wrest the UDA leadership from Tyrie; finally he had been forced to leave Northern Ireland after surviving several assassination attempts by members of the pro-Tyrie faction.
Fogel's final involvement came just after he left Belfast when two journalists from the Sunday Times were brought to his home in southern England for an interview. In the course of the interview, Fogel informed them that the UDA had already imported several shipments of illegal arms, including one brought through the Port of Dublin. The revelations caused alarm amongst the UDA leadership as they were still presenting themselves as law-abiding and feared the organisation might face legal sanctions if their stockpiling of weapons came out.
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
and a leading member of the loyalist vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
Woodvale Defence Association
Woodvale Defence Association
The Woodvale Defence Association was a loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast.The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups. It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street, a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some...
(WDA) which later merged with other groups becoming the Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
(UDA). Born in London, Fogel was a former British soldier who had served in Northern Ireland before marrying a local Belfast woman and settling down with his family in the Woodvale area of west Belfast. In June 1970 at a pidgeon fanciers' club, he militarised the Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) and trained them as a military unit. He continued to instruct the new UDA recruits in military tactics and gave lectures on Army and police interrogation methods and urban guerilla fighting.
He was the second-in-command to the WDA's leader and the UDA's first commander, Charles Harding Smith
Charles Harding Smith
Charles Harding Smith was a loyalist leader in Northern Ireland and the first effective leader of the Ulster Defence Association...
. Fogel was the leader of the UDA's B Company, 2nd Battalion, West Belfast Brigade
UDA West Belfast Brigade
The UDA West Belfast Brigade is the section of the Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Defence Association based in the western quarter of Belfast in the Greater Shankill area...
and enjoyed much prestige in 1972, having erected the first UDA street barricades and roadblocks in Woodvale. He left the organisation early in 1973 after he was ousted from power during an internal feud.
Early life
Fogel was born in London, England and first arrived in Northern Ireland as a private in the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in 1965. His job in the army was to look after the stores; this is where he first became acquainted with guns and learned how to use them. When he left the Army in 1968, he married a Protestant girl from Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, and settled down with her in a modest house in Palmer Street in the Woodvale area of west Belfast, located at the top of the Shankill Road. Palmer Street was close to the interface with the nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
Ardoyne
Ardoyne
Ardoyne is an Irish nationalist, working class and mainly Catholic district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It gained notoriety due to the large number of incidents during "The Troubles". It is home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants...
area and had been one of the worst hit streets in a series of riots that blighted this interface area. He worked as a machinist in Mackie's
Mackie International
James Mackie & Sons was a textile machinery engineering plant and foundry in Northern Ireland. The company closed in 1999. Latterly called Mackie International, at its height James Mackie & Sons was one of the largest employers in Belfast...
engineering plant until he was made redundant in 1970. Thereafter he found casual work and collected unemployment benefits.
Woodvale Defence Association
Fogel first became involved in the loyalist vigilante group the Woodvale Defence AssociationWoodvale Defence Association
The Woodvale Defence Association was a loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast.The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups. It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street, a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some...
(WDA) in late June 1970 at a meeting held in a pigeon fanciers' club on Leopold Street just off the Crumlin Road
Crumlin Road
The Crumlin Road is a main road in north-west Belfast, Northern Ireland. The road runs from north of Belfast City Centre for about four miles to the outskirts of the city. It also forms part of the longer A52 road.-Lower Crumlin Road:...
. He had gone to the meeting following an attack on 27 June by nationalists against an Orange Order pipe band
Pipe band
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term used by military pipe bands, pipes and drums, is also common....
parade which had quickly escalated into a riot. Three Protestants had been killed, and this had made such a strong impression on Fogel that he wanted to take direct action against the nationalist Catholic community. When Fogel interrupted the meeting, which was attended by mostly middle-aged, apathetic men, by shouting out that "talk was not enough", the WDA's leader Charles Harding Smith
Charles Harding Smith
Charles Harding Smith was a loyalist leader in Northern Ireland and the first effective leader of the Ulster Defence Association...
asked him to "put some order" into the men and give them military training. Fogel took up Harding Smith's suggestion and quickly became his second-in-command.
In a candid interview with British journalist Peter Taylor, Fogel stated:
"The first thing I did was to tell each likely man to find one more reliable man. Then I did the same with them. That way we got a decent number - about forty. I began to train the men as a military unit. We marched and drilled and used a field out in Antrim for some training - crawling over the grass, up rope ladders, hand-to-hand-combat, target practice. I showed them how to make fire bombs. We also carved wooden guns for our training....But it would be dishonest to pretend that real guns didn't exist."
He enjoyed the important position he held within the WDA, acknowledging that he "walked around the streets with the power of life and death over people". In September 1971, the WDA and other vigilante groups merged into the umbrella paramilitary organisation known as the Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
(UDA) with Charles Harding Smith as its first commander and Fogel as the second most powerful man in the organisation. He continued to train the new recruits to the local Woodvale UDA unit, of which there were many. According to author Ian S. Wood, Fogel admitted the following: "I taught them about unarmed combat - you know, how to break a nose, burst an ear drum, dislocate a spine." He also gave them lectures on guerilla fighting and the methods of interrogation employed by the Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
(RUC) .
Role within the UDA
The UDA saw its first gun battle with the Provisional IRAProvisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
in December 1971. Shortly afterwards the British Government suspended the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
(Stormont) and imposed Direct Rule
Direct Rule
Direct rule was the term given, during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, to the administration of Northern Ireland directly from Westminster, seat of United Kingdom government...
from London. When Harding Smith and John White
John White (loyalist)
John White is a former leading loyalist in Northern Ireland. He was sometimes known by the nickname 'Coco'. White was a leading figure in the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and, following a prison sentence for murder, entered politics as a central figure in the Ulster Democratic...
had gone to London to purchase arms and were subsequently arrested in April 1972 for gun-running, Jim Anderson
Jim Anderson (loyalist)
James "Jim" Anderson was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary who from April to December 1972 was the acting leader of the Ulster Defence Association while its commander and the founder of the organisation, Charles Harding Smith was in jail on remand for gun-running...
, a glazier from Crumlin Road, assumed command of the UDA. It was structured along military lines into battalions, companies, platoons, and sections and had continued to draw new members within its ranks, becoming the largest loyalist paramilitary organisation, having about 50,000 members in 1972. The UDA was legal at the time; it remained so until 1992 when it was eventually proscribed by the government. Fogel took control of west Belfast during Harding Smith's absence, and became leader of the UDA's B Company which covered the Woodvale area.
At the end of May, Fogel organised the first UDA roadblocks and barricades, sealing off the Woodvale area into a "no go" zone which the UDA controlled. Anderson, the de facto commander approved of his action and gave Fogel his full support, and the operation attracted much media and press coverage. Time Magazine described him as a "tough, salty Londoner" who commanded the Woodvale Defence Association. In an interview with Time journalists, Fogel spoke of his contempt for the middle-class politicians that made up the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
. In June, Fogel and two other of his associates drove to Stormont
Stormont
-People:* Lord Stormont, British ambassador to France in the 18th century-Structures:* Stormont , first-class cricket ground in the Stormont Estate* Stormont Castle, currently used by the Northern Ireland Executive...
to negotiate with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
, William Whitelaw, who made it clear to Fogel and the others his strong disapproval of their erection of permanent street barricades. His fellow members in attendance at the meeting were Tommy Herron
Tommy Herron
Tommy Herron was a loyalist from Northern Ireland, and a leading member of the Ulster Defence Association up until his fatal shooting. Herron controlled the UDA in East Belfast, one of its two earliest strongholds...
and Billy Hull
Billy Hull
Billy Hull was a loyalist activist in Northern Ireland.Hull worked at the Harland and Wolff engine shop in Belfast, and became the convenor of shop stewards there. He joined the Northern Ireland Labour Party, but resigned in 1969 in protest at the Northern Ireland policy of the British Labour Party...
. Fogel had been a strong advocate of sealing off streets linking to nationalist areas and in July 1972 advocated shutting off Ainsworth Avenue even though it would have meant some fifty Catholic families living on the street would be cut off from the Springfield Road and held within the Shankill. When the plan became known, William Whitelaw was called on by Ainsworth Avenue Catholics and units of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, under Major General Robert Ford
Robert Ford (British Army officer)
General Sir Robert Cyril Ford GCB CBE is a former Adjutant-General to the Forces.-Military career:Born in Devon to John and Gladys Ford, Robert Ford was educated at Musgrave's College and was later commissioned into the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in 1943. He served in North West Europe during...
were sent to the area where a stand-off with the UDA ensued. In the street negotitations it was agreed that, despite what Whitelaw had stated in the previous meeting, the UDA could erect small temporary barriers and loose plans were put in place for joint UDA-Army patrols, something that the UDA leadership announced at a press conference in the Europa Hotel that same night.
That same month the UDA marched through the city centre of Belfast in a massive show of strength. Fogel's power in west Belfast rose and as a result he received many visitors to his home which included American congressmen. It was at that time he received his nickname "Big Dave". He also hired two bodyguards to look after him. He later described his role within the UDA during 1972 as having been a "bit of a policeman, magistrate and welfare worker." He often presided over unofficial UDA courts where local offenders from the community were tried. If found guilty, the culprits were given punishment beatings. At the end of the summer of 1972, Fogel, emerging leader Andy Tyrie
Andy Tyrie
Andrew "Andy" Tyrie is an Ulster loyalist and served as commander of the Ulster Defence Association during much of its early history...
, and other UDA leaders met with an Army general to discuss the issue of street barricades. By the end of that year, the UDA and their loyalist rivals, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), had carried out 121 killings that they called "assassinations. About two-thirds were Catholic victims of what republicans would term "loyalist death squads".
Fall from power
Following Harding Smith's release from imprisonment and subsequent return to Belfast, there was a power struggle within the UDA. Harding Smith had declared to his men upon his return: "I'm the boss. I take orders from no one". Harding Smith became joint Chairman of the UDA with Jim Anderson while Fogel was interested in taking the organisation down a political path. He, along with UDA "enforcer" Ernie "Duke" ElliottErnie Elliott
Ernest "Ernie" Elliott , nicknamed "Duke", was a Northern Irish loyalist activist and a leading member of the Ulster Defence Association during its early days. Unusually for the generally right-wing UDA Elliott expressed admiration for socialism and communism and frequently quoted the words of Che...
, even had meetings with the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) in Dublin in an attempt to seek common ground and explore the possibility of reaching a working-class settlement with Catholics. On 7 December 1972, Elliott's body was discovered in the boot of Fogel's car; the outcome of the internal UDA feud. He had been killed by a shotgun blast to the face. Rumours circulated that Elliott had been killed because he was a Marxist, something frowned upon in loyalism, and Fogel confirmed that Elliott had been a keen reader of the works of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
. However it later emerged that Elliott, a heavy drinker, had gone to Sandy Row
Sandy Row
Sandy Row is a Protestant working-class community in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. It has a population of about 3,000. It is a staunchly loyalist area of Belfast, being a traditional heartland for affiliation with the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and the Orange Order.-Location:Sandy...
, a loyalist stronghold in south Belfast, to pick up a gun and whilst drunk had pointed it at patrons of the local UDA club. He was taken outside by a local UDA member and the two had a fight over the gun. Other local UDA men got involved and one of them pointed a shotgun at Elliott in an attempt to get him to back off but the gun went off killing Elliott instantly. The shooter fled to England but returned in 1983 and confessed his role in the death, also confirming that it had all been a drunken brawl which at no point involved any ideological concerns.
Fogel believed he was being set up by his associates and before long Harding Smith moved against him. Fogel was accused of embezzling funds from the UDA by Harding Smith, who also put the word around that a senior British Army officer had warned him that Fogel was, in some unspecified manner, a danger to the UDA and an informer. Fogel was even taken into custody by Harding Smith's men for a three hour period during which he was warned that he must leave the Shankill. When Tommy Herron, the formidable East Belfast brigadier and the UDA's vice-chairman and spokesman, appeared on the scene to challenge Harding Smith's leadership, Fogel was ousted from his position of power. Fearing there would be an attempt on his life, Fogel left the UDA and Northern Ireland for good in January 1973, transferring to England for a life of safe obscurity. Immediately before he left, Fogel had been summond to a "meeting" in an East Belfast UDA club and decided to leave before it was due to take place, fearing he would be walking into an ambush. Later that year Tommy Herron was shot dead, Jim Anderson had voluntarily stood down, and Andy Tyrie was appointed Chairman. Tyrie, an early recruit from the WDA, soon became the UDA's Supreme Commmander, a position he would hold until March 1988 when an attempted car-bombing brought about his retirement. Less than four months before on 27 December 1987, the Provisional IRA had succeeded in blowing up influential South Belfast brigadier John McMichael
John McMichael
John "Big John" McMichael was a leading Northern Irish loyalist who rose to become the most prominent figure within the Ulster Defence Association as the Deputy Commander and leader of its South Belfast Brigade. He was also commander of the organisation's cover name, the "Ulster Freedom Fighters"...
in a booby-trap car bomb outside his home. Charles Harding Smith was long out of the picture. From 1973 to 1975, he had tried in vain to wrest the UDA leadership from Tyrie; finally he had been forced to leave Northern Ireland after surviving several assassination attempts by members of the pro-Tyrie faction.
Fogel's final involvement came just after he left Belfast when two journalists from the Sunday Times were brought to his home in southern England for an interview. In the course of the interview, Fogel informed them that the UDA had already imported several shipments of illegal arms, including one brought through the Port of Dublin. The revelations caused alarm amongst the UDA leadership as they were still presenting themselves as law-abiding and feared the organisation might face legal sanctions if their stockpiling of weapons came out.