page_title: UDA West Belfast Brigade
section_title: Feud with UVF
hierarchical_section_title: UDA West Belfast Brigade / Feud with UVF
caption_attribution_description: Northern Irish mural in Belfast.
context_page_description: The UDA West Belfast Brigade is the section of the Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, based in the western quarter of Belfast, in the Greater Shankill area. Initially a battalion, the West Belfast Brigade emerged from the local "defence associations" active in the Shankill at the beginning of the Troubles and became the first section to be officially designated as a separate entity within the wider UDA structure. During the 1970s and 1980s the West Belfast Brigade was involved in a series of killings as well as establishing a significant presence as an outlet for racketeering.
  The Brigade reached the apex of its notoriety during the 1990s when Johnny Adair emerged as its leading figure. Under Adair's direction the West Belfast Brigade in general and its sub-unit "C Company" in particular became associated with a killing spree in the neighbouring Catholic nationalist districts of west Belfast.
context_section_description: On 19 August 2000 the West Belfast Brigade hosted a "Loyalist Day of Culture" organised by Adair on the Lower Shankill with fellow brigadiers John Gregg, Billy McFarland, Jackie McDonald and Jimbo Simpson in attendance. However early in the day clashes broke out between UDA and UVF members outside the Diamond Jubilee, a UDA bar, and later UDA members attacked the UVF stronghold Rex Bar further up the road, firing shots at the UVF men trapped inside. In response, Adair drove all UVF members and their families out of the Lower Shankill and in doing so began the feud that his fellow brigadiers had hoped to avoid. Orders were sent up to A Company in Highfield by Dodds that the estate should be "cleansed" of UVF members. The UVF struck back on 21 August, killing two of Adair's allies, Jackie Coulter and Bobby Mahood, on the Crumlin Road. In response C Company members burned down the headquarters of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party. Adair was arrested on 22 August 2000 whilst he and Dodds were driving down the Shankill Road. Adair was sent back to prison for breaking terms of his parole. With command reverting to Dodds, UVF member Samuel Rockett was shot and killed at his home by C Company the following night. The feud continued with 4 more being killed on both sides until an uneasy truce was made. 
  The militancy of the West Belfast Brigade, and in particular Adair, who had become a cult hero among loyalists, meant that the brigade enjoyed the loyalty of some UDA members outside its nominal geographic area. Within the North Belfast Brigade an influx of new young members found more to admire in Adair than in their own brigadier Jimbo Simpson, and affiliated to the West Belfast brigade despite not living in the area. Further afield a group of Shankill men had relocated to areas of North Down such as Bangor and Newtownards and there had found that support amongst young loyalists for Adair was so strong that they established a new D Company for the West Belfast Brigade there. The area was supposed to be part of the jurisdiction of the East Belfast Brigade.
caption: Jackie Coulter, a West Belfast Brigade member killed in the feud with the UVF
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