BBC Spotlight: UDA leader Johnny Adair said ‘confidence’ grew after arms shipment

Weapons smuggled into Northern Ireland by Ulster Resistance in the late 1980s were “a godsend” for loyalist terrorists, a former UDA leader has said.
By The Newsroom
Published 6th Oct 2019, 18:53 BST
Former UDA leader Johnny Adair told the BBC Spotlight programme that the confidence of loyalist paramilitaries grew after an arms shipment from South Africa in the late 1980sFormer UDA leader Johnny Adair told the BBC Spotlight programme that the confidence of loyalist paramilitaries grew after an arms shipment from South Africa in the late 1980s
Former UDA leader Johnny Adair told the BBC Spotlight programme that the confidence of loyalist paramilitaries grew after an arms shipment from South Africa in the late 1980s

Johnny Adair claims the assault rifles from South Africa helped fuel an escalation of violence – with loyalist paramilitaries out-killing the IRA for the first time.

In this week’s episode of the BBC’s ‘Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History,’ Adair tells reporter Mandy McAuley how the deadly weaponry brought a new “confidence” to the UVF and UDA.

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The $120,000 arms shipment was sent to Northern Ireland to be split three ways between Ulster Resistance, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force.

However, the UDA share of the arsenal – including VZ58 rifles and grenades – was intercepted almost immediately during a police operation in Portadown in January 1988, while much of the UVF’s haul was recovered soon afterwards in a series of searches.

A large number of the automatic rifles, rocket launchers and grenades belonging to Ulster Resistance were never recovered by the security forces.

VZ58 rifles would be used to kill at least 70 people, including three mass murders in south Belfast, Loughinisland and Co Londonderry.

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In February 1992 five people were shot dead in Sean Graham bookmakers on the Ormeau Road and the following year another eight civilians were murdered when the UDA opened fire at a pub in Greysteel.

The same type of rifle was also used when in June 1994 the UVF shot dead six Catholic men at The Heights bar in Loughinisland, Co Down.

Adair tells the Spotlight programme, which is being broadcast on Tuesday, that: “Our organisations did not have an assault rifle, and it wasn’t until these weapons came, this shipment came in, that the UDA, UFF, then took control of assault rifles.

“With that armoury of weapons and stockpile of weapons came confidence to the men. Where they were no longer running into these areas with shotguns or 38 special hand-guns, they were now going in with assault rifles, deadly assault rifles.”

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The programme makers also claim to have unearthed new information about MI5 and Army agents at the heart of the UDA – as well as presenting fresh revelations about the official inquiry into the murder of Catholic solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

Ulster Resistance was formally launched at a rally in Belfast’s Ulster Hall in November 1986 in protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

In the Spotlight programme, footage is shown of DUP leader Ian Paisley appearing on the platform with Peter Robinson, the then DUP deputy leader, and Sammy Wilson.

The documentary claims police intelligence compiled soon afterwards reveals that some Ulster Resistance members began meeting with loyalist paramilitary groups to discuss smuggling weapons into Northern Ireland.

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The DUP leadership had publicly disassociated itself from Ulster Resistance before the organisation was linked with the arms smuggling plot.

The documentary is being screened on Tuesday on BBC One and BBC Four at 9pm.