Richard Jameson (loyalist)
Encyclopedia
Richard Jameson was a Northern Irish businessman and loyalist
, who served as the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force
's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade
. He was killed outside his Portadown
home during a feud with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force
(LVF), the breakaway organisation founded by former Mid-Ulster UVF commander Billy Wright
after he and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were officially stood down by the Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) in August 1996.
Following Jameson's death, the feud between the UVF and LVF escalated into a series of retaliatory killings. These went on intermittently until the LVF disbanded in 2005.
, County Armagh
, Northern Ireland
to a Protestant Church of Ireland
family in about 1953, one of five sons. He had a twin brother, Stuart. He was married to Moira by whom he had three children: Glen, Wayne and Kirsty. A former reservist in the Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC), he worked as a manager in the Jameson Group, a building firm which was a family-owned business. The building firm was regularly awarded government contracts to carry out work for the security forces and it was for this reason that Jameson's brother, David lost a leg in a 1991 IRA
bombing attack. Jameson was a member of the Orange Order's Drumherriff Star of Erin LOL 8 Portadown district.
It is not known exactly when he became a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) nor the leader of its Mid-Ulster Brigade
. The Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade had been officially stood down by the Brigade Staff in Belfast in August 1996 when it carried out an unauthorised sectarian killing while the UVF were on ceasefire. The Mid-Ulster Brigade's commander at the time, Billy Wright
, was expelled from the UVF. He brazenly defied a Combined Loyalist Military Command
(CLMC) order to leave Northern Ireland or face execution by establishing the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force
(LVF). The charismatic Wright took most of the Portadown Mid-Ulster UVF with him. The units of the Mid-Ulster Brigade that remained loyal to the Brigade Staff continued to function in the mid-Ulster area and Jameson became the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. He was said by The Guardian to have been a "staunch supporter of the Good Friday Agreement".
, whom he falsely accused of involvement in drugs and slapped forcefully in the face. This was followed by a fracas at the Portadown F.C.
Social Club on 27 December 1999 where LVF members were commemorating the second anniversary of Billy Wright's fatal shooting inside the Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation Army
(INLA). When Jameson entered the club several LVF men began to push and jostle him and challenged him to a fight; telling Jameson to hit them instead of women. Deeply offended, Jameson left and soon returned with a UVF gang armed with pickaxe handles and baseball bats. In the violent brawl that ensued, 12 people, including three LVF prisoners out on Christmas parole, received severe injuries. The LVF leaders subsequently made the decision that Jameson would pay for the attack with his life.
One of the LVF members, who lived near Dungannon
, got in touch with a family of north Belfast loyalists who had been members of the UVF but who had left after Wright's expulsion. From these former UVF members the LVF obtained the gun with which to shoot Jameson. On the evening of 10 January 2000, Jameson returned from work and drove his Isuzu Trooper jeep into the driveway outside his home on the Derrylettiff Road near Portadown. Waiting in ambush, a single gunman suddenly approached from the passenger side of the parked jeep. Before Jameson could emerge from the vehicle and with the engine still running, the gunman opened fire through the window with a 9mm. semi-automatic pistol and shot Jameson five times in the head and chest. The side of Jameson's head was blown off and his assassin escaped to a nearby getaway car. Jameson was rushed to Craigavon Area Hospital but died of his horrific gunshot wounds minutes after his arrival. The RUC immediately began a murder inquiry. Within hours of the killing, the UVF Brigade Staff convened an emergency meeting at "the Eagle", their headquarters on the Shankill Road, where they compiled a list of all those they believed had been involved in Jameson's death and planned their retaliation against the LVF.
Among those who condemned the killing was Northern Ireland's First Minister
David Trimble
and he released the following statement: "This is exactly the sort of thing we thought we had finally put behind us. I'm shocked by the news".
Jameson's funeral was held on 13 January at the Tartaraghan Parish Church and attended by several thousand mourners including Progressive Unionist Party
(PUP) leaders David Ervine
and Billy Hutchinson
. Drumcree
Orangeman Harold Gracey and Gary McMichael
, the son of slain Ulster Defence Association
(UDA) brigadier John McMichael
, also attended as did local politicians representing the Ulster Unionist Party
(UUP) and Democratic Unionist Party
(DUP). The service was officiated by Rev. David Hilliard who spoke out against vengeance and described Jameson as a "man admired and loved by many" and who "had been so cruelly murdered". Jameson was buried in the adjacent churchyard.
's claim that his organisation had had nothing to do with the shooting, the UVF/LVF feud intensified. In the immediate aftermath members of Jameson's family were filmed angrily defacing LVF murals in Portadown. A month after Jameson's killing, two Protestant teenagers, Andrew Robb (19) and David McIlwaine (18)
, were savagely beaten and repeatedly stabbed to death in a country lane outside Tandragee, County Armagh by a local UVF gang. The young men were targeted by their UVF killers after they left a nightclub together in search of a party; they were believed to have been LVF members. However neither teenager was part of any paramilitary organisation and only Robb had tenuous links to the LVF. It was reported in the Belfast Telegraph that according to court hearings Robb had made disparaging remarks about Jameson's death. Two of the UVF men, Stephen Leslie Brown and Noel Dillon, were infuriated by the comments and afterwards Brown drove the victims to Druminure Road where he, Dillon and another man carried out the double killing. One of Jameson's brothers, Bobby was among the mourners at David McIlwaine's funeral. The West Belfast Brigade
of the Ulster Defence Association
, whose brigadier Johnny Adair
was close to the LVF, briefly became involved in the feud after Adair attended Andrew Robb's funeral and joined LVF members at the Drumcree conflict
. The tit-for-tat killings went on intermittently until 2005 when the UVF made a final assault against the LVF, leaving four members dead and the LVF leadership with no alternative but to order its military units to permanently disband.
Richard Jameson's family persistently denied that he was a UVF leader and maintained that he was shot on account of the firm stand he had taken against drug dealers in the Portadown area. The late PUP leader David Ervine had expressed the same opinion the day after the killing by stating that "Mr. Jameson had been murdered by drug dealers masquerading as loyalists because he had been a bulwark in his community against dealers". Ervine had also described him as having been a "fine and honourable man, widely respected in the community". Northern Ireland security sources, however, named him as the Mid-Ulster UVF commander. He is listed as a UVF member in the Cain: Sutton Index of Deaths, an online University of Ulster
-sponsored project which chronicles the Northern Ireland conflict. It also emerged that for several days prior to his killing, he had been working at the Ballykinlar Army base. Immediately after his death, his family began an anti-drug campaign in Portadown by putting up posters and handing out leaflets to passing motorists.
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...
, who served as the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in late 1965 or early 1966 and named after the Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913. The group's volunteers undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles...
's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade formed part of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland. The brigade was established in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna. The unit operated mainly around the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Subsequent leaders of the...
. He was killed outside his Portadown
Portadown
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...
home during a feud with the rival 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...
(LVF), the breakaway organisation founded by former Mid-Ulster UVF commander Billy Wright
Billy Wright (loyalist)
William Stephen "Billy" Wright was a prominent Ulster loyalist during the period of violent religious/political conflict known as "The Troubles". He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1975 and became commander of its Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s...
after he and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were officially stood down by the Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) in August 1996.
Following Jameson's death, the feud between the UVF and LVF escalated into a series of retaliatory killings. These went on intermittently until the LVF disbanded in 2005.
Ulster Volunteer Force leader
Richard Jameson was born in PortadownPortadown
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...
, County Armagh
County Armagh
-History:Ancient Armagh was the territory of the Ulaid before the fourth century AD. It was ruled by the Red Branch, whose capital was Emain Macha near Armagh. The site, and subsequently the city, were named after the goddess Macha...
, 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...
to a Protestant Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
family in about 1953, one of five sons. He had a twin brother, Stuart. He was married to Moira by whom he had three children: Glen, Wayne and Kirsty. A former reservist in the 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), he worked as a manager in the Jameson Group, a building firm which was a family-owned business. The building firm was regularly awarded government contracts to carry out work for the security forces and it was for this reason that Jameson's brother, David lost a leg in a 1991 IRA
Provisional 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...
bombing attack. Jameson was a member of the Orange Order's Drumherriff Star of Erin LOL 8 Portadown district.
It is not known exactly when he became a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in late 1965 or early 1966 and named after the Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913. The group's volunteers undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles...
(UVF) nor the leader of its Mid-Ulster Brigade
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade formed part of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland. The brigade was established in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna. The unit operated mainly around the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Subsequent leaders of the...
. The Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade had been officially stood down by the Brigade Staff in Belfast in August 1996 when it carried out an unauthorised sectarian killing while the UVF were on ceasefire. The Mid-Ulster Brigade's commander at the time, Billy Wright
Billy Wright (loyalist)
William Stephen "Billy" Wright was a prominent Ulster loyalist during the period of violent religious/political conflict known as "The Troubles". He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1975 and became commander of its Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s...
, was expelled from the UVF. He brazenly defied a Combined Loyalist Military Command
Combined 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....
(CLMC) order to leave Northern Ireland or face execution by establishing the breakaway 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...
(LVF). The charismatic Wright took most of the Portadown Mid-Ulster UVF with him. The units of the Mid-Ulster Brigade that remained loyal to the Brigade Staff continued to function in the mid-Ulster area and Jameson became the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. He was said by The Guardian to have been a "staunch supporter of the Good Friday Agreement".
Shooting death
In the weeks prior to his killing, he got into a violent street altercation with LVF member Muriel GibsonMuriel Gibson (loyalist)
Muriel Gibson is a leading Northern Irish loyalist who was a member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force . The organisation was founded in 1996 by Billy Wright...
, whom he falsely accused of involvement in drugs and slapped forcefully in the face. This was followed by a fracas at the Portadown F.C.
Portadown F.C.
Portadown F.C. is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club which plays in the IFA Premiership.The club was founded in the late 1880s and joined the Irish League in 1924. It is based in Portadown in County Armagh and plays its home games at Shamrock Park...
Social Club on 27 December 1999 where LVF members were commemorating the second anniversary of Billy Wright's fatal shooting inside the Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
(INLA). When Jameson entered the club several LVF men began to push and jostle him and challenged him to a fight; telling Jameson to hit them instead of women. Deeply offended, Jameson left and soon returned with a UVF gang armed with pickaxe handles and baseball bats. In the violent brawl that ensued, 12 people, including three LVF prisoners out on Christmas parole, received severe injuries. The LVF leaders subsequently made the decision that Jameson would pay for the attack with his life.
One of the LVF members, who lived near Dungannon
Dungannon
Dungannon is a medium-sized town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the third-largest town in the county and a population of 11,139 people was recorded in the 2001 Census. In August 2006, Dungannon won Ulster In Bloom's Best Kept Town Award for the fifth time...
, got in touch with a family of north Belfast loyalists who had been members of the UVF but who had left after Wright's expulsion. From these former UVF members the LVF obtained the gun with which to shoot Jameson. On the evening of 10 January 2000, Jameson returned from work and drove his Isuzu Trooper jeep into the driveway outside his home on the Derrylettiff Road near Portadown. Waiting in ambush, a single gunman suddenly approached from the passenger side of the parked jeep. Before Jameson could emerge from the vehicle and with the engine still running, the gunman opened fire through the window with a 9mm. semi-automatic pistol and shot Jameson five times in the head and chest. The side of Jameson's head was blown off and his assassin escaped to a nearby getaway car. Jameson was rushed to Craigavon Area Hospital but died of his horrific gunshot wounds minutes after his arrival. The RUC immediately began a murder inquiry. Within hours of the killing, the UVF Brigade Staff convened an emergency meeting at "the Eagle", their headquarters on the Shankill Road, where they compiled a list of all those they believed had been involved in Jameson's death and planned their retaliation against the LVF.
Among those who condemned the killing was Northern Ireland's First Minister
First Minister
A First Minister is the leader of a government cabinet.-Canada:In Canada, "First Ministers" is a collective term that refers to all Canadian first ministers of the Crown, otherwise known as heads of government, including the Prime Minister of Canada and the provincial and territorial premiers...
David Trimble
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC , is a politician from Northern Ireland. He served as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party , was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland , and was a Member of the British Parliament . He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party...
and he released the following statement: "This is exactly the sort of thing we thought we had finally put behind us. I'm shocked by the news".
Jameson's funeral was held on 13 January at the Tartaraghan Parish Church and attended by several thousand mourners including Progressive Unionist Party
Progressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...
(PUP) leaders David Ervine
David Ervine
David Ervine was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party .-Biography:...
and Billy Hutchinson
Billy Hutchinson
Billy Hutchinson is the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. He was elected to Belfast City Council in 1997 and to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998. He lost his assembly seat in 2003 and his council seat in 2005...
. Drumcree
Drumcree conflict
The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is an ongoing dispute over a yearly parade in the town of Portadown, Northern Ireland. The dispute is between the Orange Order and local residents. The residents are currently represented by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition ; before 1995 they were...
Orangeman Harold Gracey and Gary McMichael
Gary McMichael
Gary McMichael is the son of former Ulster Defence Association leader John McMichael and was the leader of the now defunct Ulster Democratic Party during the peace process....
, the son of slain 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) 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"...
, also attended as did local politicians representing 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...
(UUP) and Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
(DUP). The service was officiated by Rev. David Hilliard who spoke out against vengeance and described Jameson as a "man admired and loved by many" and who "had been so cruelly murdered". Jameson was buried in the adjacent churchyard.
Aftermath
Despite Reverend Hilliard's pleas and LVF leader Mark "Swinger" FultonMark Fulton (loyalist)
Mark "Swinger" Fulton was a Northern Irish loyalist. He was the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force , having taken over its command following the killing of the paramilitary organisation's founder, Billy Wright, in the Maze Prison in 1997 by members of the Irish National Liberation Army .Fulton...
's claim that his organisation had had nothing to do with the shooting, the UVF/LVF feud intensified. In the immediate aftermath members of Jameson's family were filmed angrily defacing LVF murals in Portadown. A month after Jameson's killing, two Protestant teenagers, Andrew Robb (19) and David McIlwaine (18)
2000 Tandragee killings
The Tandragee killings took place in the early hours of Saturday 19 February 2000 on an isolated country road outside Tandragee, County Armagh, Northern Ireland...
, were savagely beaten and repeatedly stabbed to death in a country lane outside Tandragee, County Armagh by a local UVF gang. The young men were targeted by their UVF killers after they left a nightclub together in search of a party; they were believed to have been LVF members. However neither teenager was part of any paramilitary organisation and only Robb had tenuous links to the LVF. It was reported in the Belfast Telegraph that according to court hearings Robb had made disparaging remarks about Jameson's death. Two of the UVF men, Stephen Leslie Brown and Noel Dillon, were infuriated by the comments and afterwards Brown drove the victims to Druminure Road where he, Dillon and another man carried out the double killing. One of Jameson's brothers, Bobby was among the mourners at David McIlwaine's funeral. The 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...
of 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"...
, whose brigadier Johnny Adair
Johnny 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...
was close to the LVF, briefly became involved in the feud after Adair attended Andrew Robb's funeral and joined LVF members at the Drumcree conflict
Drumcree conflict
The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is an ongoing dispute over a yearly parade in the town of Portadown, Northern Ireland. The dispute is between the Orange Order and local residents. The residents are currently represented by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition ; before 1995 they were...
. The tit-for-tat killings went on intermittently until 2005 when the UVF made a final assault against the LVF, leaving four members dead and the LVF leadership with no alternative but to order its military units to permanently disband.
Richard Jameson's family persistently denied that he was a UVF leader and maintained that he was shot on account of the firm stand he had taken against drug dealers in the Portadown area. The late PUP leader David Ervine had expressed the same opinion the day after the killing by stating that "Mr. Jameson had been murdered by drug dealers masquerading as loyalists because he had been a bulwark in his community against dealers". Ervine had also described him as having been a "fine and honourable man, widely respected in the community". Northern Ireland security sources, however, named him as the Mid-Ulster UVF commander. He is listed as a UVF member in the Cain: Sutton Index of Deaths, an online University of Ulster
University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
-sponsored project which chronicles the Northern Ireland conflict. It also emerged that for several days prior to his killing, he had been working at the Ballykinlar Army base. Immediately after his death, his family began an anti-drug campaign in Portadown by putting up posters and handing out leaflets to passing motorists.