UDA South East Antrim Brigade

The UDA South East Antrim Brigade is one of the six brigades of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and the The Irish News described the brigade as 'powerful' and at one time being 'the most bloody and murderous gang operating within the paramilitary organisation'. The South East Antrim 'Brigade' area stretches from the northern suburbs of Belfast up to Larne and across to Ballymena and Antrim town.

During the height of the brigades activity it was led by John 'Grug' Gregg who was responsible for the attempted assassination of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.

The brigadiers of the South East Antrim Brigade sided with the Shoukri brothers when they were expelled from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in June 2006, and the South East Antrim Brigadier at the time (Gary Fisher), divorced his UDA brigade from the mainstream organisation.

In 2007, the Ulster Defence Association'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 two men were not named in the statement, but were known to be the senior UDA figures Gary Fisher and Tommy Kirkham, who was once a member of the Ulster Political Research Group.

In 2009 the Brigade claimed to have decommissioned a substantial quantity of guns and explosives in a single day in the presence of the chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning however the brigade representatives refused to give any details about how many weapons were destroyed or give any indication of the amount of commercial explosives destroyed during the day-long exercise.

Song

There is a song about the South East Antrim Brigade of the UDA, named 'South East Antrim Brigade' In the song it refers to the attempted assassination of Gerry Adams carried out by a member of the brigade (John Gregg), and it also refers to the military wing of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF).

References

• The UDA expels South East Antrim Brigade chiefs
• UDA Brigade decommission and condemn McDaid killing
• UDA South East Antrim brigade blamed for gang attack

See Also

Ulster Defence Association