Review

By Chrissie McGlinchey

Born on the eve of the Queen Mother's visit to Belfast and raised in the Shankill Road district during the height of the 'Troubles' Johnny Adair went on to become leader of one of the most ruthless murder gangs ever seen in the history of this conflict. Its campaign would see the deaths of many innocent people, as well as attempts on the lives of many of the 'big names' in Republicanism. Their attack on the headquarters of Sinn Fein in the republican heartland of West Belfast was one particularly audacious incident and would gain Adair's 'C Company' their place in loyalist folklore.

David Lister and Hugh Jordan's book attempts to chronicle the events which led to Adair's rise from a glue-sniffing corner boy to the head of one of the UDA's largest and most notorious Companies. They use numerous sources including an interesting prologue which exposes, rather sinisterly, the esteem which even the prison staff of Maghaberry Gaol hold him in. On their visit with Adair, one female screw asks in ‘a frisson of excitement, “are you here to see our Johnny?".’ The writers don't pass comment on this incident themselves but by mentioning it they highlight the institutionalised sectarianism which exists in all aspects of the British administration.

There are interviews with Adair himself as well as interviews with a number of leading UDA members and some of Adair's more intimate acquaintances, one of whom figures quite prominently, both in the book and in Adair's own life - Jackie 'Legs' Robinson, Adair's former girlfriend. The information divulged by Robinson gives an insight into the workings of Adair's mind and exposes the casual and boastful manner with which he and his men approached the murders they committed. According to her "they would celebrate for days at a time." They would go to a bar and "half an hour later they'd have put the news on and it [a murder] was on the news and they'd all be screaming and shouting and yo-hoing, so you knew."

The writers succeed in further exposing the open co-operation and collusion between members of the security forces and Adair in the targeting of Republicans during the 1990's through their use of different accounts of events and incidents involving the passing of information. Most sinister of these is the mention of "a rogue RUC man" who 'floated' ideas for attacks to C Coy volunteers during interrogations in Castlereagh. They allege that this CID officer "linked Gerard O'Hara's family to the IRA", an 18 year old Catholic schoolboy shot 17 times in his home in front of his mother and sister, and who had no proven links with the IRA at all. This same man provided them with information on the movements of leading Sinn Fein members and even suggested The Rock Bar and Connolly House in Belfast as potential targets.

Another source of information for Adair cited in the book is a Royal Marine, Derek Adgey, who in the words of one police officer "just got fed up because his mates were being hurt." The writers conclude that "although there was never orchestrated collusion between the security forces. some of them believed that Adair's war was just and necessary." Again the writers maintain an objective stance in their description of these events, leaving the reader to assess the facts and make up their own mind.

I felt that the book is well written and that the writers use the sources well in backing up some of the claims made in the book, particularly about the murder of Pat Finucane, in which they claim that although Ken Barrett was involved, albeit indirectly, the real killers are still at large. They also reaffirm what is already largely believed - that there was Special Branch and RUC involvement in the killing - citing examples of "young loyalists emerging from Castlereagh holding centre saying that police had urged them to target Finucane."

Throughout the book they resist the temptation of portraying Adair either as "a mindless sectarian psychopath or a loyalist folk hero who took the war to the IRA's front door." Instead they appear to find a happy medium providing all the information they have gathered in a straight forward and very readable way, avoiding the flaw of similar books which read like a collection of newspaper articles and interviews, and instead providing a detailed description of events and using their sources to support their assertions.

I would recommend it to anyone who, like myself, was never fully aware of, and never really understood, the full story and details of Loyalism, particularly the background to many of the recent feuds, as it gives a fascinating insight into one of the more vicious periods in the long history of sectarian violence on this island.

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