William Elliot was a former Northern Irish loyalist who served as brigadier of the

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

's (UDA) East Belfast Brigade in the 1980s.

Ulster Defence Association

Elliot joined the loyalist paramilitary organisation the

(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 Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

areas such as Woodvale, Shankill and east Belfast in the wake of

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

ostensibly to protect their communities against

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

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 Tommy Herron (1938 – 14 September 1973) was a Northern Irish loyalist and a leading member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) until his death in a fatal shooting. Herron controlled the UDA in East Belfast, one of its two earliest strong ...

.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 mentioned in court as having established a UDA group within a secondary school when one of the pupils was found in possession of a handgun. It subsequently emerged that Elliot had set up a unit of 19 schoolboys, most of whom were members of the proto-

spide "Chav" (), also "charver", "scally" and "roadman" in parts of England, is a British term, usually used in a pejorative way. The term is used to describe an anti-social lower-class youth dressed in sportswear. * * * * "Chavette" is a related te ...

" tartan gangs" that gathered in loyalist housing estates in the early 1970s. He ran as the

Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: si ...

(ULDP) candidate in the August 1981 council by-elections. Although he was not elected, he garnered more than one thousand votes, 38 per cent of the total votes cast, against stalwart

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

(UUP) and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidates. The ULDP, a loyalist party founded in June 1981 by the UDA, was led by the high-profile South Belfast brigadier,

John McMichael John McMichael (9 January 1948 – 22 December 1987) was a Northern Irish loyalist who rose to become the most prominent and charismatic figure within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) as the Deputy Commander and leader of its South Belf ...

East Belfast brigadier

Sometime in the 1980s, but before 1986, he succeeded

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 ...

as East Belfast brigadier and became a member of the UDA's ruling Inner Council. In 1986, in his role as brigadier, he represented the UDA at a meeting which was held at the DUP headquarters in Albertbridge Road with political leaders

James Molyneaux James Henry Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, KBE, PC (27 August 1920 – 9 March 2015) was a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1979 to 1995, and as the Member of Parliament ...

and Ian Paisley, of the UUP and DUP, respectively. The meeting was convened to discuss a planned one-day strike to be carried out by the "Ulster Says No" committee in protest against the 1985

Anglo-Irish Agreement The Anglo-Irish Agreement was a 1985 treaty between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which aimed to help bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The treaty gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Irela ...

; while Elliot spoke on behalf of the UDA,

David Ervine David Ervine (21 July 1953 – 8 January 2007) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist politician who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2002 to 2007, and was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belf ...

represented the

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 ...

(UVF)."Our own leaders let us down". ''The Sunday Times''. Ed Moloney. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 18 June 2011
/ref> Elliot was one of many prominent UDA members arrested for possessing classified security documents during the John Stevens Inquiry into collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the Northern Ireland security forces. As a result, he was suspected by his UDA associates of being a police informer.Wood, p.349 Elliot still held the rank of brigadier at this stage. However his position became more untenable when the seizure of a large UDA arms cache by the authorities followed his release from police custody, adding fuel to the rumours that he was a police informer.McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 160 Elliot had been critical of

Andy Tyrie Andrew Tyrie (born 5 February 1940) is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who served as commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during much of its early history. He took the place of Tommy Herron in 1973 when the latter was ...

's leadership of the UDA for some time, feeling that Tyrie was too interested in intellectualising loyalism and eventually Tyrie identified Elliot as a potential rival and sought to bring about his downfall. Elliot was ostracised by other brigadiers and he began to fear that he would meet the same fate as powerful

Shankill Road The Shankill Road () is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill. The road stretches westwards for about from central Belfast ...

racketeer and UDA fundraiser James Craig who was killed in October 1988 by the

Ulster Freedom Fighters The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

(UFF) for allegedly helping the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

to assassinate

.McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', pp. 159-160 Elliot promptly left east Belfast as well as the UDA and was later reported to have turned to religion. His retirement left a power vacuum within the organisation, but this was soon filled by the volatile

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 ...

who assumed command of the East Belfast Brigade in his place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliot, Billy Ulster Defence Association members Paramilitaries from Belfast Year of birth missing