The UDA South East Antrim Brigade was previously one of the six brigades of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and are heavily involved in the drug trade. It is claimed they control "100%" of an illegal drugs network in south-east County Antrim, Northern Ireland. A mural in support of the group lists its areas of activity as being Rathcoole (the mural's location), Rathfern, Monkstown, Glengormley and Whitewell, all of which are part of Newtownabbey, as well as Carrickfergus, the Shore Road, Greenisland, Ballymena, Whitehead, Antrim and Larne.Mural directory from Conflict Archive on the Internet A newer mural in the Cloughfern area of Newtownabbey and flags have updated the areas to include Ballycarry, Ballyclare, the rural hinterland of Ballymena called 'Braidside' and despite not being in County Antrim, the town of Newtownards.New mural on Extramuralactivity.com The Guardian has identified it as "one of the most dangerous factions". The Irish News described the brigade as 'powerful' and at one time being 'the most bloody and murderous gang operating within the paramilitary organisation'. Since 2007 the South East Antrim Brigade has operated independently of the UDA following a fall-out.
Emergence under Alan Snoddy It is unclear when South East Antrim (SEA) was first designated as a brigade area although its first recognised leader was Alan Snoddy and he held the title of Brigadier by at least 1979. Snoddy was close to UDA leader Andy Tyrie and was recognised as one of his closest allies amongst the UDA leadership.Wood, p. 355
Amongst the Brigade's most notorious attacks during the Troubles was the attempted killing of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in 1984. Adams was in a taxi near Belfast City Hall with some associates when another car containing John 'Grug' Gregg and two fellow Rathcoole UDA members pulled up alongside and opened fire on Adams. Adams was hit five times in the attack but the taxi rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he received treatment and survived.Wood, p. 120 Gregg, Colin Gray and Gerry Welsh were immediately arrested by the waiting British Army, who had doctored the bullets to reduce their lethality.McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 129-130 They were convicted for the attack the following year.Wood, p. 121 The attack is commemorated in the song South East Antrim Brigade by loyalist singer Rab C, many of whose compositions were about the brigade and its leading members.
In the later 1980s Snoddy took ill with cancer and many of his duties as brigadier were filled by his ally Joe English. Snoddy died from the illness in September 1988 and English immediately succeeded him.Wood, p. 136
Towards ceasefire under Joe English As brigadier Joe English enjoyed, theoretically, more power than his predecessor, as Andy Tyrie had been removed from the UDA leadership and replaced by a collective leadership of the movement's six brigadiers, including English.McDonald & Cusack, p. 160 As the oldest member, English usually chaired the meetings of this Inner Council, although he often struggled to control UDA West Belfast Brigade brigadier Johnny Adair.Lister & Jordan, pp. 210-211 The two clashed frequently and, in 1993, Adair even threatened to kill English after English had suggested that the UDA should not claim the murder of Marie Teresa Dowds de Mogollon, which Adair's top hitman Stephen McKeag had perpetrated.Lister & Jordan, pp. 155-156 Later in the year, English was forced to confront Adair about rumours that Adair was considering attending an Inner Council meeting armed in order to eliminate the other five brigadiers and assume sole control of the UDA.Lister & Jordan, p. 209 English was a strong advocate of political means and pushed for the UDA to call a ceasefire in the early 1990s, a position that was anathema, at that point, to Adair.Lister & Jordan, p. 211
John Gregg as Brigadier Gregg was released from prison in 1993. His assassination attempt had made him a loyalist hero and he quickly took over from English as brigadier.Wood, p. 351 According to the Workers' Party, English was stood down by the UDA after he had expressed willingness to enter into dialogue with them.Wood, p. 200 English would soon re-emerge as part of the Ulster Democratic Party. Under Gregg, drug-dealing became a major problem in brigade areas, particularly Rathcoole, with Gregg himself said to have a leading role in the illicit trade.McDonald & Cusack, p. 279 In late August 1997, the brigade became involved in simmering tensions with fellow loyalist paramilitaries in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Cloughfern Young Conquerors, a flute band attached to the brigade, had been to Derry for the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry march through the city centre when at the train station they met members of the Shankill Protestant Boys, a UVF-affiliated band. Brawls between the two had been frequent and tensions had been growing between the UDA and UVF, leading to a drink-fuelled pitched battle between the two groups at the train station. During the course of the melee a Shankill Protestant Boys member managed to gouge out Gregg's eye.McDonald & Cusack, p. 292
Although the UDA was officially on ceasefire, the South East Antrim Brigade remained active in late 1998 and early 1999, undertaking a series of pipe bomb attacks on Catholic properties. These were carried out under the Red Hand Defenders cover name, with some attacks also blamed on the Orange Volunteers who were active in similar attacks at the time.Wood, p. 233 Gregg, who was noted for his sectarian beliefs, insisted that such attacks were necessary in order to prevent the "greening" of places such as Carrickfergus and Antrim, a process he claimed had already happened in Glengormley where the Catholic population had experienced significant growth.Wood, p. 267 Around this time Gregg spearheaded an initiative to significantly increase recruitment into the South East Antrim Brigade. He told author Ian S. Wood that he had only supported the Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire in an effort to ensure the release of imprisoned friends. In 2000, he helped to ensure that a proposal before the Inner Council to initiate the decommissioning of weapons was rejected.McDonald & Cusack, p. 317 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.McDonald & Cusack, p. 350
Gregg was not close to Johnny Adair but sympathised with his uncompromising attitudes and his anti-UVF views. Under Gregg, the South East Antrim Brigade was linked to the killing of UVF member Mark Quail during Adair's feud with the UVF in 2000 although according to the BBC the killing was not directly connected to Adair's issues with the UVF but rather stemmed from a pub dispute in north Belfast between members of the two paramilitary groups.
However, in late 2002 a UDA member originally from the Woodvale Road who had moved to Rathcoole was attacked after it emerged that he was a friend of Joe English, the former brigadier who had since been exiled from the area by Gregg for his anti-drugs stance.McDonald & Cusack, p. 369 In response, three Woodvale UDA members went to Gregg and complained about the attack in a move Gregg saw as a threat. He complained to senior figures in West Belfast before ordering that the three men be kneecapped.McDonald & Cusack, UDA, pp. 369-370 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.McDonald & Cusack, p. 370 This briefly occurred in late August when one of Adair's allies took command of the brigade, although this proved short-lived. Gregg was back in command by October, at which point he was one of the brigadiers who passed the resolution expelling Adair from the UDA for his involvement in the attempted murder of Jim Gray.McDonald & Cusack, p. 374
On 8 December, a bomb was found under Gregg's car, apparently placed there by one of Adair's allies from the Loyalist Volunteer Force.Lister & Jordan, p. 323 This was followed by two pipe bombs being thrown at Gregg's house and shots being fired at that of his friend Tommy Kirkham.Lister & Jordan, p. 325 A bomb attack on Adair's house on 8 January 2003 was blamed on Gregg by John White. Adair was returned to prison two days later.Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, pp. 326-327 Members of Adair's C Company shot and killed Gregg the following month. His deputy Rab Carson was killed in the same attack, with both men having just returned from Scotland where they were attending a Rangers F.C. match.Wood, p. 291 Adair would be removed from his position of power soon afterwards in a show of strength by the mainstream UDA under the command of Jackie McDonald.
Under Gary Fisher Gary Fisher, a close associate of Tommy Kirkham, succeeded Gregg as brigadier. Under Fisher, the South East Antrim Brigade became close to the Shoukri brothers, who commanded the neighbouring North Belfast Brigade before being expelled from the UDA in June 2006. In a move that was not universally popular in the region, Fisher allowed the Shoukris and their ally Alan McClean to live under South East Antrim Brigade protection and even attend meetings of the brigade's commanders. In response to the criticism from the rest of the UDA leadership, Fisher withdrew the South East Antrim brigade from the UDA and reconstituted it as a separate movement.
In 2007, the UDA's inner council expelled the Brigadier in the South East Antrim area and his political adviser after a long-running stand-off between the mainstream UDA and the South East Antrim Brigade. The council released a statement expelling two figures within it, believed to be senior UDA figures Fisher and Kirkham, once a member of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), although they were not named. This came within a few days of a £1m allocation to a conflict transformation project in loyalist areas. The Belfast Telegraph called the move "a familiar loyalist pattern of events." The dissident branch was also revealed to have contained an informer after Jon McDowell, Tommy Kirkham's assistant, told the Belfast Telegraph that he was an RUC Special Branch agent in November 2007. A new interim leadership was appointed in their stead although the brigade effectively divided between those who supported the wider UDA leadership and those who remained loyal to Fisher. As of 2014, the South East Antrim Brigade is no longer considered part of the wider UDA and their brigadier does not attend meetings of the organisation's ruling Inner Council.