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Ned McCreery
Edward "Ned" McCreery (c. 1945 – 15 April 1992) was a Northern Irish loyalist. A leading member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), he was notorious for the use of torture in his killings. He was leader of the UDA East Belfast Brigade for several years at a time when the brigade was at its most active. He later fell out of favour with other high-ranking UDA figures and was killed by unidentified members of the organisation. McCreery came from a well-known east Belfast family that produced a number of leading loyalists as well as footballers, including his cousin David McCreery.Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, ''UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror'', Penguin Ireland, 2004, p. 226 Rise to prominence McCreery was a founder-member of the UDA in 1971. Holding the rank of colonel in the UDA, McCreery sat on the group's Inner Council in the early 1970s.McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 42 According to Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, McCreery was responsible for the murders of at ...
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People Of Northern Ireland
Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern Irish, Irish people, Irish or British people, British, or a combination thereof. National identity In Northern Ireland, national identity is complex and diverse. The question of national identity was asked in the 2011 census with the three most common identities given being British people, British, Northern Irish and Irish people, Irish. Most people of Protestant background consider themselves British, while a majority of people of Catholic background are native Irish. This has origins in the 17th-century Plantation of Ulster. In the early 20th century, most Ulster Protestants and Catholics saw themselves as Irish, although Protestants tended to have a strong sense of Britishness also.Walker, Brian"British or Irish - who do you think y ...
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Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom. The UVF's declared goals were to combat Irish republicanism – particularly the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – and to maintain Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom. It was responsible for more than 500 deaths. The vast majority (more than two-thirds) (choose "religion summary" + "status" + "organisation") of its victims were Irish Catholic civilians, who were often killed at random. During the conflict, its ...
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Billy Elliot (UDA)
William Elliot was a former Northern Irish loyalist who served as brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) East Belfast Brigade in the 1980s. Ulster Defence Association Elliot joined the loyalist paramilitary organisation the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) shortly after its formation in September 1971, having become an umbrella organisation for various loyalist vigilante groups. These groups had sprung up in loyalist Protestant areas such as Woodvale, Shankill and east Belfast in the wake of The Troubles ostensibly to protect their communities against nationalist attacks. By 1972, Elliot was already a colonel in the UDA and led a unit in east Belfast. He also acted as bodyguard to the formidable East Belfast brigadier Tommy Herron.Wood, Ian S. (2006). ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press. p.74 Herron was kidnapped and shot dead in September 1973 by unidentified UDA rivals during an internal feud. Earlier Elliot's name had been men ...
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Ballysillan
Oldpark is one of the nine district electoral areas (DEA) in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Located in the North of the city, the district elects six members to Belfast City Council and contains the wards of Ardoyne; Ballysillan; Cliftonville; Legoniel; New Lodge and Water Works. Oldpark forms part of the Belfast North constituency for the Northern Ireland Assembly and UK Parliament. History The DEA was created for the 1985 local elections. Legoniel, Ballysillan and Ardoyne wards had previously been part of Area E, New Lodge and the southern half of the Waterworks ward had been in Area G, while Cliftonville and the northern half of Waterworks ward had been in Area H. Wards Councillors 2019 Elections 2014: 3 × Sinn Féin, 1 × SDLP, 1 × DUP, 1 × PUP 2019: 3 × Sinn Féin, 1 × SDLP, 1 × DUP, 1 × People Before Profit 2014-2019 Change: People Before Profit gain from PUP 2014 Elections 2014: 3 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x PUP S ...
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Sammy McCormick
Samuel McCormick was a Northern Irish loyalist who served from 1973 until the 1980s as the brigadier for the Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) East Belfast Brigade. He had taken over the command following the shooting death of its former leader Tommy Herron. East Belfast UDA brigadier In September 1973, powerful East Belfast leader Tommy Herron was kidnapped and subsequently shot dead during an internal Ulster Defence Association (UDA) feud.Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p.114 Although Andy Tyrie was the UDA's commander, there was intense rivalry between Herron and former UDA leader (and the organisation's founder), Charles Harding Smith. Upon Herron's killing, McCormick was appointed to succeed him as leader of the East Belfast Brigade. He was viewed as a disciplinarian with a bland, colourless personality. This suited the UDA leadership who felt that he presented a staid, responsible image in direct contrast to the flamboyantly corrupt ...
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George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968 and came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. Best received plaudits for his playing style, which combined pace, skill, balance, feints, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to get past defenders. Born in Belfast, Best began his club career in England with Manchester United, with the scout who had spotted his talent at the age of 15 sending a telegram to manager Matt Busby which read: "I think I've found you a genius". After making his debut aged 17, he scored 179 goals from 470 appearances over 11 years and was the club's top goalscorer in the league for five consecutive seasons. He won two League titles and the European Cup with ...
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British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkhas, and 28,330 volunteer reserve personnel. The modern British Army traces back to 1707, with antecedents in the English Army and Scots Army that were created during the Restoration in 1660. The term ''British Army'' was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between England and Scotland. Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief, but the Bill of Rights of 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. The Brit ...
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Roy Garland
Roy Garland is a newspaper columnist for the nationalist ''Irish News'' and a member of the Ulster Unionist Party. Career In the 1960s, Garland became convinced that the Northern Ireland civil rights movement was a front for the IRA and Roman Catholic Church and that its activities would lead to the persecution of Protestants. As a result he got deeply involved in paramilitarism, Orangeism and Unionism. At that time one of the organisations Garland supported was Tara, a movement, led by William McGrath, which espoused extreme anti-Catholic views. In the late 60s, he worked closely with the UVF in an attempt the strengthen links between the two groups. Garland later became a prominent opponent of McGrath and helped expose his involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal. Some years later, Garland had grave doubts about the direction in which the Orange Order and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) were going and he left both organisations. According to Garland, "...there was a ...
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Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA, ga, Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group formed on 10 December 1974, during the 30-year period of conflict known as " the Troubles". The group seeks to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland. With membership estimated at 80–100 at their peak, it is the paramilitary wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP). The INLA was founded by former members of the Official Irish Republican Army who opposed that group's ceasefire. It was initially known as the "People's Liberation Army" or "People's Republican Army". The INLA waged a paramilitary campaign against the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland. It was also active to a lesser extent in the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and mainland Europe. High-profile attacks carried out by the INLA include the Droppin Well bo ...
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Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of the Troubles, when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) split into two factions. The other was the Provisional IRA. Each continued to call itself simply "the IRA" and rejected the other's legitimacy. Unlike the "Provisionals", the "Officials" did not think that Ireland could be unified until the Protestant majority and Catholic minority of Northern Ireland were at peace with each other. The Officials were Marxist-Leninists and worked to form a united front with other Irish communist groups, named the Irish National Liberation Front (NLF). The Officials were called the NLF by the Provisionals and "stickies" by nationalists in Belfast (apparently in reference to members who would glue Easter lil ...
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James Craig (loyalist)
James Pratt Craig (17 November 1941 – 15 October 1988) was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary during The Troubles in Northern Ireland in the latter half of the 20th century, who was a member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and a command member of its Inner Council.Wood, pp. 119–20 He also ran a criminal large-scale protection racket from the West Belfast Shankill Road area, where he resided. Described by journalist David McKittrick as "Belfast's foremost paramilitary extortionist",McKittrick, David"Exposure sealed fate of notorious activists" ''The Independent'', 24 August 2000. Retrieved 17 March 2011. Craig allegedly colluded at times with the enemies of the UDA, Irish Republican groups such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), providing them with information on key loyalists which led to their subsequent murders. Aside from controlling rackets and extorting protection money from a variety of businesses, i ...
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Billy McKee
Billy McKee ( ga, Liam Mac Aoidh; 12 November 1921 – 11 June 2019) was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican and a founding member and leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Early life McKee was born in Belfast on 12 November 1921, and joined the Irish Republican Army (1922-1969), Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1939. During the Second World War, the IRA carried out a number of armed actions in Northern Ireland known as the Northern Campaign (IRA), Northern Campaign. McKee was arrested and imprisoned in Crumlin Road (HM Prison), Crumlin Road Gaol until 1946 for his role in this campaign. In 1956, the IRA embarked on another armed campaign against Partition of Ireland, partition, known as the Border Campaign (IRA), Border Campaign. McKee was again arrested and internment, interned for the duration of the campaign. He was released in 1962. Upon release, he became Officer Commanding (OC) of the IRA's Belfast Brigade. However, he resigned this position in 1963, after a ...
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