John Gregg (loyalist)
John Gregg | |
---|---|
Birth name | John Gregg |
Nickname(s) | "Grugg", "The Reaper" |
Born | 1957 |
Died | 1 February 2003 (aged 45–46) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Buried | Carnmoney Cemetery |
Allegiance | Ulster Defence Association |
Service/ | UDA South East Antrim Brigade |
Years of service | 1971–2003 |
Rank | Brigadier |
Conflict | The Troubles |
John Gregg (1957 – 1 February 2003) was a senior member of the
Early life
Gregg was born in 1957 and raised in a
Ulster Defence Association
Gregg joined the Ulster Young Militants (UYM), the youth wing of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) at the age of 14.[3] He spent six months in jail for rioting in 1977.[3] 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.[1]
Assassination attempt on Gerry Adams
On 14 March 1984, he severely wounded
Gregg and his team were apprehended almost immediately by a British Army patrol that opened fire on them before ramming their car.[4] 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 officers, acting on the informants' information, had replaced much of the ammunition in the UDA's Rathcoole weapons dump with low-velocity bullets.[5]
Gregg was sentenced to 18 years in prison; however, he only served nine years before he was released in 1993.[6] When asked by the BBC in prison if he regretted anything about the shooting, his reply was, "Only that I didn't succeed."[1]
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 trade, with his Rathcoole stronghold a centre of narcotics.
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
Anti-Catholic campaigns
Along with
Having witnessed demographic shifts in Glengormley and Crumlin, traditionally loyalist majority towns that had come to have nationalist majorities on account of loyalists 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 there (despite these towns having very small Catholic populations). 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 12 times by Gregg's men between 2000 and 2002.[17] Protestant 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.[18] Catholic workman Gary Moore was killed in Monkstown in 2000 in another killing attributed to Gregg's unit.[19]
In 2001, Gregg's reign of terror in
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 Adair.[21] Nonetheless he was not keen to antagonise Adair and so, along with McFarland, McDonald and Jimbo Simpson, accepted his invitation to attend 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.[22]
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.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25]
By September 2002, Adair had even circulated stories to contacts in the media that Gregg was under death threat from the UDA. In late August, Adair had even managed to have Gregg stood down as Brigadier for "not being militant enough" and replaced by one of Adair's own associates.[6] However, this proved short-lived. In October 2002, Gregg was one of the brigadiers who passed the resolution expelling Adair from the UDA for his involvement in the non-fatal shooting of Jim Gray.[26]
Adair ignored the expulsion, erecting "West Belfast UDA - Business as Usual" banners on the
Killing and aftermath
On 1 February 2003, along with another UDA member, Robert "Rab" Carson, Gregg was shot dead on Nelson Street, in the old
When the taxi stopped at traffic lights close to the motorway, it was rammed by another taxi which had been hijacked earlier on the Shankill Road. Masked gunmen immediately opened fire on the occupants with automatic weapons. Gregg, seated in the backseat, was hit at close range and died instantly. A mortally wounded Carson died later in hospital, and taxi driver William McKnight was seriously hurt. Gregg's 18-year-old son Stuart and another man were also in the vehicle but neither sustained injuries in the shooting attack.[31] Carson was described by UDA sources as a "dear friend" of Gregg's and a junior member of the South-East Antrim Brigade.[33]
Gregg's killing proved to be the undoing of Adair. Gregg was the most senior UDA member killed since South Belfast brigadier John McMichael was blown up by the IRA in 1987. Despite his reputation for gangsterism, Gregg's failed 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.[34]
Gregg was given a paramilitary funeral which was attended by thousands of mourners, including senior UDA members Jackie McDonald, Jim Gray,
Following the conclusion of the feud with Adair the UDA reconstituted its ceasefire in what they christened the "Gregg initiative". The juxtaposition of this initiative with the name of Gregg was condemned by the mother of a Catholic who had been killed by members of the South-East Antrim Brigade in 2000 as she argued "it's sickening to call it the Gregg initiative when he was a ruthless terrorist....Everyone goes on about Johnny Adair but they're all as bad as each other".[33]
In November 2011, Stuart Gregg received £400,000 compensation for psychological trauma due to having witnessed his father's murder.[38]
Personal life
Gregg was married with one son and two stepdaughters.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d "John "Grug" Gregg". news.bbc.co.uk. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ Susan McKay Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People p. 92
- ^ a b c Rosie Cowan (3 February 2003). "Loyalists on brink of war as UDA chief is shot dead". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ a b c Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, UDA - Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror, Penguin Ireland, 2004, p. 129
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 129–130
- ^ a b "Assassin is kicked out of top UDA post | UK news". The Guardian. 25 August 2002. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 279
- ^ Ian S. Wood, Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA, Edinburgh University Press, 2006, p. 200
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 289
- ^ a b McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 348
- ^ a b c "The Times & The Sunday Times". timesonline.co.uk. 3 February 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 292
- ^ McKittrick et al, Lost Lives, p. 1517
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 302
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 311–312
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 317
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 344–345
- ^ a b McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 350
- ^ "Retaliation inevitable - Just a matter of when" Archived 24 February 2014 at the Wayback MachineNewshound
- ^ a b McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 349
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 314
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 327
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 369
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 369–370
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 370
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 374
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 374–375
- ^ David Lister & Hugh Jordan, Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C' Company, Mainstream, 20o4, p. 323
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 325
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 377
- ^ a b Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, pp. 326–327
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 382–383
- ^ a b David McKittrick et al, Lost Lives, Mainstream Publishing, 2008, p. 1518
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 383
- ^ "Funeral for loyalist leader"BBC News 6 February 2003 Retrieved 7 November 2012.
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 385
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 393
- ^ "UDA leaders son gets record payout – UTV News". u.tv. Archived from the original on 25 January 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2017.