John Gregg (UDA)
Encyclopedia
John Gregg (nicknamed "Grugg") was a senior member of the UDA/UFF
loyalist
organisation in Northern Ireland
. From the 1990s until his shooting death by rival associates, he served as brigadier of its South East Antrim Brigade
. He was considered a "hawk
" in Loyalist circles.
(UYM), the youth wing of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association
(UDA) at the age of 14. He spent six months in jail for rioting in 1977. He later became part of the UDA South East Antrim Brigade
. Members of this brigade were believed to be behind the killings of Catholic postman Danny McColgan, Protestant teenager Gavin Brett and Trevor Lowry (the latter kicked to death in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic), and a spate of pipe bomb
attacks on the homes of Catholics.
president Gerry Adams
in an attack ordered as a response to the earlier killings of Ulster Unionist Party
politicians Robert Bradford and Edgar Graham
. Gregg, at the time the head of the UDA commando in Rathcoole
, was in charge of a three man hit team that pulled up alongside Adams' car near Belfast City Hall
and opened fire injuring Adams and his three fellow passengers, who nonetheless escaped to seek treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
.
Gregg and his team were apprehended almost immediately by a British Army
patrol that opened fire on them before ramming their car. The attack had been known in advance by security forces due to a tip-off from informants within Rathcoole; Adams and his co-passengers had survived in part because Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC) officers, acting on the informants' information, had replaced much of the ammunition in the UDA's Rathcoole weapons dump with low-velocity bullets.
Gregg was jailed for 18 years; however, he only served half his sentence and was released in 1993. When asked by the BBC in prison if he regretted anything about the shooting, his reply was, "Only that I didn't succeed."
of 1994 he succeeded Joe English
, who had emerged as a leading figure in the Ulster Democratic Party
, as brigadier of the East Antrim UDA. Under Gregg the East Antrim Brigade were prepared to ignore the terms of the loyalist ceasefire, such as on the 25th April 1997 when he dispatched a five man team to Carrickfergus
to set fire to a Catholic church in retaliation for a similar attack on a Protestant church in East Belfast (although this earlier attack had actually been organised by dissident loyalists seeking to provoke the UDA into returning to violence). Gregg's fearsome reputation earned him the nickname "the Reaper" and he bore a tattoo of the Grim Reaper on his back as a tribute.
Gregg played the bass drum in the UDA-affiliated flute band Cloughfern Young Conquerors, a loyalist flute band which police claimed regularly caused trouble at Orange Order parades. In late August 1997 this band was one of a number of similar flute bands to travel to Derry
for the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry
march through the city centre. As the band prepared to take the train home that evening they met members of the Shankill Protestant Boys, another band in town for the parade that was affiliated to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Brawls between the two had been frequent and tensions had been growing between the UDA and UVF leading to a drink-fuelled pitched battle between the two groups at the train station. During the course of the melee a Shankill Protestant Boys member managed to gouge out Gregg's eye.
and Billy McFarland
, fellow brigadiers on the UDA's Inner Council, Gregg was lacking in enthusiasm for the Belfast Agreement
when it appeared in 1998. Throughout 1999 his brigade continued to be active, undertaking a pipe bomb
campaign against Catholic homes whilst on 12 May members of his brigade shot and wounded a Catholic builder in Carrickfergus under the cover name "Protestant Liberation Force". Much of this activity was inspired by Gregg's personal hatred of Catholics. Indeed a senior police source once described him as a man driven by "pure and absolute bigotry". Gregg was also characterised as "a bully, a racketeer, and a sectarian bigot who took particular delight in carrying out vicious punishment attacks and randomly targeting Roman Catholics." In 2000 he helped to ensure that a proposal before the Inner Council to initiate the decommissioning of weapons was rejected.
Having witnessed demographic shifts in Glengormley
and Crumlin
, traditionally unionist towns that had become majority nationalist on account of people moving out of Belfast, he determined that the same thing would not happen in Carrickfergus and Larne
and so launched a campaign of pipe bomb and arson attacks on Catholic homes. Perhaps the main target proved to be Danny O'Connor
, a Social Democratic and Labour Party
(SDLP) representative on initially Larne Borough Council
and then the Northern Ireland Assembly
, whose home and office were attacked at least twelve times by Gregg's men between 2000 and 2002. Trevor Lowry (aged 49) was beaten to death in Glengormley by UDA members under Gregg's command on 11 April 2001 after he was mistaken for a Catholic.
In late 2001, Gregg's reign of terror in Rathcoole, where drug dealing, knee-capping
and savage beatings were the norm, was challenged by local labour councillor Mark Langhammer
, who also objected to Gregg's close links to neo-Nazi groups in the United Kingdom
. He called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland
(PSNI) to establish an auxiliary police "clinic" on the estate, which had no permanent police building, so as locals concerned about crime could have somewhere to go. This followed in summer 2002 when a community centre was taken over for this purpose although Gregg's UDA objected and daubed the building with the word "tout". On 4 September Langhammer's car was blown up outside his Whiteabbey
home by Gregg's men, although Langhammer himself was asleep at the time and no one was injured.
. Nonetheless he was not keen to antagonise Adair and so, along with McFarland, McDonald and Jimbo Simpson
, accepted his invitation to attended a "Loyalist Day of Culture" organised by Adair on the Lower Shankill on 19 August 2000. Old tensions resurfaced however and after Adair's men fought with UVF supporters at the Shankill's Rex Bar Adair launched a pogrom of the lower Shankill, forcing out all UVF members and their families and initiating a loyalist feud
.
Gregg initially remained aloof from the struggle and instead concentrated on his anti-Catholic campaign. However in the second half of 2002 he was dragged into the conflict after Adair made him a target in his own attempts to take full control of the UDA. A UDA member originally from the Woodvale Road had moved to Rathcoole where he had been beaten up after it emerged that he was a friend of Joe English, the former brigadier who had been exiled from the estate by Gregg for his anti-drugs stance. As a result of the attack three Woodvale UDA members went to Gregg and complained about the attack. Gregg took this as a threat and, after complaining to senior figures in the West Belfast UDA
, ordered the three men to be kneecapped. The shootings raised some anger on the Shankill, where the three were well-liked figures, and Adair sought to exploit this as a method of getting rid of Gregg. He sought to portray Gregg as unstable and thuggish and spread a rumour that he was about to be replaced as brigadier. By September Adair had even circulated stories to contacts in the media that Gregg was under death threat from the UDA. Indeed in late August Adair had even managed to have Gregg stood down as Brigadier for "not being militant enough" and replaced by one his own associates. This proved short-lived however and in October 2002 Gregg was one of the brigadiers who passed the resolution expelling Adair from the UDA for his involvement in the murder of Jim Gray
.
Adair ignored the expulsion, erecting "West Belfast UDA - Business as Usual" banners on the Shankill Road, whilst continuing his struggles with the remaining brigadiers, Gregg in particular. On 8 December a bomb was found under Gregg's car, apparently placed there by one of Adair's allies from the Loyalist Volunteer Force
. Soon after two pipe bombs were thrown at Gregg's house and his friend Tommy Kirkham
's house was shot at. In response graffiti appeared around the walls of Rathcoole in December, stating "Daft Dog and White beware. The Reaper is coming for you" as a threat to "Mad Dog" Adair and his ally John White
. A bomb attack on Adair's house on 8 January 2003 was blamed on Gregg by White, although Adair himself was returned to prison two days later after a dossier detailing his drug-dealing and racketeering activities was shown to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Paul Murphy.
district near Belfast docks, while travelling in a taxi after returning from Glasgow where he regularly went to watch Rangers F.C.
Gregg had been a regular visitor to Ibrox Park for a number of years, often in the company of Michael Stone, and had even picked up a conviction for violence at an Old Firm
match. Gregg's movements were known to C Company member Alan McCullough who, receiving instruction from Adair who was at the time in HMP Maghaberry, arranged for a hit team to kill Gregg and his associate as a taxi took them from the port of Belfast. Gregg's 18 year old son Stuart was also in the car but was not hurt in the attack. At the time of his death, Gregg was married with one son and two stepdaughters.
Gregg's death proved to be the undoing of Adair. Despite his reputation for gangsterism Gregg's attack on Gerry Adams had afforded him legendary status and, under the direction of Jackie McDonald, the remaining UDA brigadiers concluded that Adair had to be removed. Gregg was given a paramilitary funeral which was attended by thousands of mourners. A volley of shots was fired over his coffin by UDA gunmen outside his Rathcoole
home. Afterwards a lone piper led the cortege to Carnmoney Cemetery where he was buried. At the service on 6 February, UVF representatives joined the UDA leadership in a show of anti-Adair solidarity. That same night Jackie McDonald's forces invaded the lower Shankill and ran those members of C Company that had remained loyal to Adair, who was still in prison, out of the city.
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"...
loyalist
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...
organisation in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. From the 1990s until his shooting death by rival associates, he served as brigadier of its South East Antrim Brigade
UDA South East Antrim Brigade
The UDA South East Antrim Brigade was one of the six paramilitaries of the Ulster Defence Association . It operated in County Antrim, mainly in Newtownabbey, Larne and Antrim. The Guardian has identified it as "one of the most dangerous factions"...
. He was considered a "hawk
War Hawk
War Hawk is a term originally used to describe members of the Twelfth Congress of the United States who advocated waging war against the British in the War of 1812...
" in Loyalist circles.
Ulster Defence Association
Born in 1957 and raised in a Protestant family, Gregg joined the Ulster Young MilitantsUlster Young Militants
The Ulster Young Militants are considered to be the youth wing of the Ulster Defence Association, a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. Commonly known as the Young Militants or UYM, the group formed in 1974 when the Troubles were at their height...
(UYM), the youth wing of the loyalist paramilitary 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) at the age of 14. He spent six months in jail for rioting in 1977. He later became part of the UDA South East Antrim Brigade
UDA South East Antrim Brigade
The UDA South East Antrim Brigade was one of the six paramilitaries of the Ulster Defence Association . It operated in County Antrim, mainly in Newtownabbey, Larne and Antrim. The Guardian has identified it as "one of the most dangerous factions"...
. Members of this brigade were believed to be behind the killings of Catholic postman Danny McColgan, Protestant teenager Gavin Brett and Trevor Lowry (the latter kicked to death in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic), and a spate of pipe bomb
Pipe bomb
A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
attacks on the homes of Catholics.
Assassination attempt on Gerry Adams
On 14 March 1984, he severely wounded Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
president Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
in an attack ordered as a response to the earlier killings of 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...
politicians Robert Bradford and Edgar Graham
Edgar Graham
Edgar Samuel David Graham, MPA, BL , was an Ulster Unionist Party politician and academic from Northern Ireland. He was perceived as a rising star of both legal studies and Unionism until he was killed on 7 December 1983 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army .-Career:A graduate of the Queen's...
. Gregg, at the time the head of the UDA commando in Rathcoole
Rathcoole
Rathcoole may refer to:* Rathcoole, Dublin, a village in south Dublin, Republic of Ireland* Rathcoole , a large housing estate in Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK* Rathcoole Aerodrome Co. Cork, Republic of Ireland...
, was in charge of a three man hit team that pulled up alongside Adams' car near Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall is the civic building of the Belfast City Council. Located in Donegall Square, Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, it faces north and effectively divides the commercial and business areas of the city centre.-History:...
and opened fire injuring Adams and his three fellow passengers, who nonetheless escaped to seek treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
The Royal Victoria Hospital is a hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland....
.
Gregg and his team were apprehended almost immediately by a 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...
patrol that opened fire on them before ramming their car. The attack had been known in advance by security forces due to a tip-off from informants within Rathcoole; Adams and his co-passengers had survived in part because 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) officers, acting on the informants' information, had replaced much of the ammunition in the UDA's Rathcoole weapons dump with low-velocity bullets.
Gregg was jailed for 18 years; however, he only served half his sentence and was released in 1993. When asked by the BBC in prison if he regretted anything about the shooting, his reply was, "Only that I didn't succeed."
Brigadier
Following his release from prison, Gregg returned to Rathcoole where he again became an important figure, taking a central role in the illegal drug trades, with Gregg's Rathcoole stronghold a centre of narcotics. Sometime after the Combined Loyalist Military CommandCombined Loyalist Military Command
The Combined Loyalist Military Command was an umbrella body for loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s, recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee....
of 1994 he succeeded Joe English
Joe English (loyalist)
Joe English is a former Ulster loyalist activist. English was a leading figure in both the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Democratic Party and was instrumental in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process. He is a native of the Rathcoole area of Newtownabbey, Northern...
, who had emerged as a leading figure in the Ulster Democratic Party
Ulster Democratic Party
The Ulster Democratic Party was a small loyalist political party in Northern Ireland. It was established in June 1981 as the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party by the Ulster Defence Association to replace their New Ulster Political Research Group...
, as brigadier of the East Antrim UDA. Under Gregg the East Antrim Brigade were prepared to ignore the terms of the loyalist ceasefire, such as on the 25th April 1997 when he dispatched a five man team to Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus , known locally and colloquially as "Carrick", is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,201 at the 2001 Census and takes its name from Fergus Mór mac Eirc, the 6th century king...
to set fire to a Catholic church in retaliation for a similar attack on a Protestant church in East Belfast (although this earlier attack had actually been organised by dissident loyalists seeking to provoke the UDA into returning to violence). Gregg's fearsome reputation earned him the nickname "the Reaper" and he bore a tattoo of the Grim Reaper on his back as a tribute.
Gregg played the bass drum in the UDA-affiliated flute band Cloughfern Young Conquerors, a loyalist flute band which police claimed regularly caused trouble at Orange Order parades. In late August 1997 this band was one of a number of similar flute bands to travel to Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
for the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry
Apprentice Boys of Derry
The Apprentice Boys of Derry is a Protestant fraternal society with a worldwide membership of over 80,000, founded in 1814. They are based in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. However, there are Clubs and branches across Ireland, Great Britain and further afield...
march through the city centre. As the band prepared to take the train home that evening they met members of the Shankill Protestant Boys, another band in town for the parade that was affiliated to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Brawls between the two had been frequent and tensions had been growing between the UDA and UVF leading to a drink-fuelled pitched battle between the two groups at the train station. During the course of the melee a Shankill Protestant Boys member managed to gouge out Gregg's eye.
Anti-Catholic campaigns
Along with Jackie McDonaldJackie McDonald
John "Jackie" McDonald is a senior Northern Irish loyalist and the incumbent Ulster Defence Association brigadier for South Belfast, having been promoted to the rank by former UDA commander Andy Tyrie in 1988, following John McMichael's killing by the Provisional IRA in December 1987...
and Billy McFarland
Billy McFarland
William "Billy" McFarland, also known as "the Mexican", is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary. A leading figure in the Ulster Defence Association , he has served as head of the North Antrim and Londonderry Brigade of the group.-Early years:...
, fellow brigadiers on the UDA's Inner Council, Gregg was lacking in enthusiasm for the Belfast Agreement
Belfast Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement , sometimes called the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process...
when it appeared in 1998. Throughout 1999 his brigade continued to be active, undertaking a pipe bomb
Pipe bomb
A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
campaign against Catholic homes whilst on 12 May members of his brigade shot and wounded a Catholic builder in Carrickfergus under the cover name "Protestant Liberation Force". Much of this activity was inspired by Gregg's personal hatred of Catholics. Indeed a senior police source once described him as a man driven by "pure and absolute bigotry". Gregg was also characterised as "a bully, a racketeer, and a sectarian bigot who took particular delight in carrying out vicious punishment attacks and randomly targeting Roman Catholics." In 2000 he helped to ensure that a proposal before the Inner Council to initiate the decommissioning of weapons was rejected.
Having witnessed demographic shifts in Glengormley
Glengormley
Glengormley or Glengormly is the name of a townland and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Glengormley is within the urban area called Newtownabbey and the wider Newtownabbey Borough.-Location:...
and Crumlin
Crumlin
Crumlin may refer to* Crumlin, Belfast, a ward of North Belfast* Crumlin, Caerphilly, a town in Caerphilly County Borough, Wales, United Kingdom* Crumlin, County Antrim, a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom...
, traditionally unionist towns that had become majority nationalist on account of people moving out of Belfast, he determined that the same thing would not happen in Carrickfergus and Larne
Larne
Larne is a substantial seaport and industrial market town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a population of 18,228 people in the 2001 Census. As of 2011, there are about 31,000 residents in the greater Larne area. It has been used as a seaport for over 1,000 years, and is...
and so launched a campaign of pipe bomb and arson attacks on Catholic homes. Perhaps the main target proved to be Danny O'Connor
Danny O'Connor (politician)
Danny O'Connor is a former nationalist politician in Northern Ireland having previously been a member of Larne Borough Council from 1997 to 2011....
, a Social Democratic and Labour Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...
(SDLP) representative on initially Larne Borough Council
Larne Borough Council
Larne Borough Council is a Local Council in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Its headquarters is in the town of Larne and the population of the area is nearly 31,000...
and then the Northern Ireland Assembly
Northern Ireland Assembly
The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...
, whose home and office were attacked at least twelve times by Gregg's men between 2000 and 2002. Trevor Lowry (aged 49) was beaten to death in Glengormley by UDA members under Gregg's command on 11 April 2001 after he was mistaken for a Catholic.
In late 2001, Gregg's reign of terror in Rathcoole, where drug dealing, knee-capping
Knee-capping
Kneecapping is a form of malicious wounding, often as criminal punishment or torture, in which the victim is injured in the knee, often using a firearm or power drill to damage the knee joint and kneecap.- Use :...
and savage beatings were the norm, was challenged by local labour councillor Mark Langhammer
Mark Langhammer
Mark Langhammer is a trade unionist, employed as Director of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and elected onto the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in 2008, being re-elected in 2010...
, who also objected to Gregg's close links to neo-Nazi groups in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. He called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland
Police Service of Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland....
(PSNI) to establish an auxiliary police "clinic" on the estate, which had no permanent police building, so as locals concerned about crime could have somewhere to go. This followed in summer 2002 when a community centre was taken over for this purpose although Gregg's UDA objected and daubed the building with the word "tout". On 4 September Langhammer's car was blown up outside his Whiteabbey
Whiteabbey
Whiteabbey is a townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the urban area called Newtownabbey and the wider Newtownabbey Borough...
home by Gregg's men, although Langhammer himself was asleep at the time and no one was injured.
Johnny Adair
Despite the continuing activity of his brigade, and his own earlier maiming, Gregg shared the reluctance of other brigadiers about what he saw as a coming war between the UVF and West Belfast brigadier Johnny AdairJohnny Adair
Jonathan Adair, better known as Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair is the former leader of the "C Company", 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, West Belfast Brigade of the "Ulster Freedom Fighters" . This was a cover name used by the Ulster Defence Association , an Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation...
. Nonetheless he was not keen to antagonise Adair and so, along with McFarland, McDonald and Jimbo Simpson
Jimbo Simpson
James "Jimbo" Simpson, also known as the Bacardi Brigadier, is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary. He is most noted for his time as Brigadier of the North Belfast Ulster Defence Association...
, accepted his invitation to attended a "Loyalist Day of Culture" organised by Adair on the Lower Shankill on 19 August 2000. Old tensions resurfaced however and after Adair's men fought with UVF supporters at the Shankill's Rex Bar Adair launched a pogrom of the lower Shankill, forcing out all UVF members and their families and initiating a loyalist feud
Loyalist feud
A loyalist feud refers to any of the sporadic feuds which have erupted almost routinely between Northern Ireland's various loyalist paramilitary groups since they were founded shortly before and after the religious/political conflict known as The Troubles broke out in the late 1960s...
.
Gregg initially remained aloof from the struggle and instead concentrated on his anti-Catholic campaign. However in the second half of 2002 he was dragged into the conflict after Adair made him a target in his own attempts to take full control of the UDA. A UDA member originally from the Woodvale Road had moved to Rathcoole where he had been beaten up after it emerged that he was a friend of Joe English, the former brigadier who had been exiled from the estate by Gregg for his anti-drugs stance. As a result of the attack three Woodvale UDA members went to Gregg and complained about the attack. Gregg took this as a threat and, after complaining to senior figures in the West Belfast UDA
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...
, ordered the three men to be kneecapped. The shootings raised some anger on the Shankill, where the three were well-liked figures, and Adair sought to exploit this as a method of getting rid of Gregg. He sought to portray Gregg as unstable and thuggish and spread a rumour that he was about to be replaced as brigadier. By September Adair had even circulated stories to contacts in the media that Gregg was under death threat from the UDA. Indeed in late August Adair had even managed to have Gregg stood down as Brigadier for "not being militant enough" and replaced by one his own associates. This proved short-lived however and in October 2002 Gregg was one of the brigadiers who passed the resolution expelling Adair from the UDA for his involvement in the murder of Jim Gray
Jim Gray (UDA member)
James "Jim" Gray, , was the East Belfast brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association in Northern Ireland, a loyalist paramilitary group. He was often nicknamed "Doris Day" for his flamboyant dress sense and dyed blond hair. Another media nickname for Gray was the "Brigadier of Bling"...
.
Adair ignored the expulsion, erecting "West Belfast UDA - Business as Usual" banners on the Shankill Road, whilst continuing his struggles with the remaining brigadiers, Gregg in particular. On 8 December a bomb was found under Gregg's car, apparently placed there by one of Adair's allies from the Loyalist Volunteer Force
Loyalist Volunteer Force
The Loyalist Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and the Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force's Mid-Ulster Brigade was stood down by the UVF leadership. He had been the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. The...
. Soon after two pipe bombs were thrown at Gregg's house and his friend Tommy Kirkham
Tommy Kirkham
Tommy Kirkham is a Northern Ireland loyalist political figure and former councillor. He was previously associated with the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Political Research Group although he has since been expelled from both groups. He was a former deputy mayor of Newtownabbey and was...
's house was shot at. In response graffiti appeared around the walls of Rathcoole in December, stating "Daft Dog and White beware. The Reaper is coming for you" as a threat to "Mad Dog" Adair and his ally 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...
. A bomb attack on Adair's house on 8 January 2003 was blamed on Gregg by White, although Adair himself was returned to prison two days later after a dossier detailing his drug-dealing and racketeering activities was shown to 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...
Paul Murphy.
Death and aftermath
In February 2003, along with another UDA member, Rab Carson, he was killed on Nelson Street, in the old SailortownSailortown, Belfast
Sailortown was a working-class dockland community located in the Docks area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Established in the mid-19th century on partly reclaimed land, it had a mixed Protestant and Catholic population...
district near Belfast docks, while travelling in a taxi after returning from Glasgow where he regularly went to watch Rangers F.C.
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
Gregg had been a regular visitor to Ibrox Park for a number of years, often in the company of Michael Stone, and had even picked up a conviction for violence at an Old Firm
Old Firm
The Old Firm is a common collective name for the association football clubs Celtic and Rangers, both based in Glasgow, Scotland.The origin of the term is unclear. One theory has it that the expression derives from Celtic's first game in 1888, which was played against Rangers. However, author,...
match. Gregg's movements were known to C Company member Alan McCullough who, receiving instruction from Adair who was at the time in HMP Maghaberry, arranged for a hit team to kill Gregg and his associate as a taxi took them from the port of Belfast. Gregg's 18 year old son Stuart was also in the car but was not hurt in the attack. At the time of his death, Gregg was married with one son and two stepdaughters.
Gregg's death proved to be the undoing of Adair. Despite his reputation for gangsterism Gregg's attack on Gerry Adams had afforded him legendary status and, under the direction of Jackie McDonald, the remaining UDA brigadiers concluded that Adair had to be removed. Gregg was given a paramilitary funeral which was attended by thousands of mourners. A volley of shots was fired over his coffin by UDA gunmen outside his Rathcoole
Rathcoole
Rathcoole may refer to:* Rathcoole, Dublin, a village in south Dublin, Republic of Ireland* Rathcoole , a large housing estate in Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK* Rathcoole Aerodrome Co. Cork, Republic of Ireland...
home. Afterwards a lone piper led the cortege to Carnmoney Cemetery where he was buried. At the service on 6 February, UVF representatives joined the UDA leadership in a show of anti-Adair solidarity. That same night Jackie McDonald's forces invaded the lower Shankill and ran those members of C Company that had remained loyal to Adair, who was still in prison, out of the city.