Billy McQuiston
Billy McQuiston | |
---|---|
Born | William McQuiston Shankill Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Nationality | British |
Other names | Twister |
Occupation | community worker |
Known for | leader of the A Company, Highfield, West Belfast Brigade, Ulster Defence Association (UDA) |
William McQuiston, also known as "Twister", is an Ulster loyalist, who was a high-ranking member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Leader of the organisation's A Company, Highfield, West Belfast Brigade, McQuiston spent more than 12 years in HM Prison Maze outside Lisburn for possession of weapons. He is now a community activist, often working with former members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in West Belfast's troubled interface areas where adjoining loyalist and republican communities occasionally clash.
Ulster Defence Association
McQuiston was born and raised in west Belfast's staunchly loyalist and
He became the leader of the UDA's A Company, Highfield, West Belfast Brigade. Described by journalist David Lister as "stocky, and impish-faced", the five feet four McQuiston had a reputation among the UDA as a "messer", which is Belfast slang for a practical joker.[3]
He was first sent to prison on the evidence of a supergrass.[4] He spent 31 days on hunger strike in 1982.[3] He was released in the mid-1980s and it was during this period that he became acquainted with the British agent Brian Nelson, who had infiltrated the UDA. McQuiston was soon sent back to the Maze Prison after being caught in Portadown with masks, hoods, and weapons.[5] Upon his release in 1991, he survived an assassination attempt by the IRA who had broken down his door with a sledgehammer and tried to shoot him with an AK-47. He evaded his attackers by escaping through his loft. In an interview with journalist Peter Taylor in the 1990s, he stated that he had not been overly perturbed by the attempt on his life. He offered the following explanation for his nonchalance
It's a war. I'm a soldier in the UDA so I'm entitled to be shot at now and again. I think I was extremely lucky.[6]
On 23 October 1993, he was on the Shankill Road conducting business for the Loyalist Prisoners' Association (LPA). He had just gone into a pub when an
Role in Adair feud
McQuiston remained a popular and influential figure in Highfield, a loyalist estate located on the Upper Shankill and near the republican
Subsequent activities
Since leaving the UDA, McQuiston has worked as a community activist for the Springfield Intercommunity Development Project.
References
- ^ Rolston, Bill. "Children of the Revolution". Derry Journal. Retrieved 12 August 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Taylor, Peter (1999).Loyalists. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp.90–91
- ^ a b c "The 'odd couple' bridge Ulster's divide". Sunday Times. David Lister. 10 July 2004
- ^ Taylor. p.207
- ^ Taylor. pp.207–208
- ^ Taylor. p.208
- ^ Taylor, p.224
- ^ Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror, Penguin Ireland, 2004, pp. 383–384
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 396