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John Dunlop McKeagueWD Flackes & Sydney Elliott, Northern Ireland A Political Directory 1968–1993, The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 222 (1930 – 29 January 1982) was a Northern Irish Ulster loyalism and one of the founding members of the paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando in 1970.Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, p. 200 A number of authors on the Troubles in Northern Ireland have accused McKeague, a homosexual paederast, of involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal but he was never convicted.Henry McDonald, The Observer, 13 August 2000, "Rough justice for Ulster's 'paedophiles'" He was shot dead by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Belfast in January 1982.
McKeague split from Paisley in late 1969 under uncertain circumstances. Rumours that a young man with whom McKeague was living was his boyfriend had been rife but McKeague did not discuss the details. He stated only that he had been summoned to a meeting by Paisley where he was told he was an "embarrassment" and would have to leave the Free Presbyterian Church.Moloney, Paisley, p. 154 Whilst giving evidence to Lord Justice Scarman as part of his tribunal investigating the 1969 Northern Ireland riots, Paisley stated that he and other Ulster Constitution Defence Committee leaders had agreed to expel McKeague from the UPV in April 1969 after he breached Rule 15 of the group's code, which banned members from supporting "subversive or lawless activities".Patrick Marrinan, Paisley: Man of Wrath, Anvil Books, 1973, pp. 198–199 Whatever the circumstances, the two became bitter enemies, with McKeague frequently criticising Paisley in print.Moloney, Paisley, p. 159
In late 1969 Thomas McDowell, a member of the Free Presbyterian Church who held dual membership of the UPV and UVF, was killed after a bungled attempt to blow up the power station at Ballyshannon led to him being electrocuted, suffering severe burns.Cusack & McDonald, UVF, pp. 28–31 Investigations by the Garda Síochána, who found UVF insignia on McDowell's coat, led them to question his associate Samuel Stevenson who named McKeague as a central figure in a series of UVF explosions that had been carried out at the time, many involving UPV members.Cusack & McDonald, UVF, p. 31 The case went north, where the previous explosions had taken place, and on 16 February 1970 the trial opened. McKeague, along with William Owens (McKeague's 19-year-old flatmate), Derek Elwood, Trevor Gracey and Francis Mallon, were charged with causing an earlier explosion at Templepatrick.Cusack & McDonald, UVF, p. 33 The case collapsed after serious doubt was cast on the character of Stevenson, whose evidence was the main basis of the prosecution's case.Cusack & McDonald, UVF, p. 35
The violence of the SDA was accompanied by equally violent rhetoric from McKeague as he boasted that the group possessed "hundreds of guns" and vowed that "we will see the battle through to the end". His militant stance won him the public support of Ronald Bunting, who like McKeague had earlier been associated with Paisley but had since broken from him. In November 1969, McKeague was cleared of a charge of conspiracy to cause explosions. He was, however, sentenced to three months' imprisonment for unlawful assembly. McKeague's absence on remand for the initial charges saw his stock fall on the Shankill, where he was already mistrusted due to being from east Belfast and where his reputation had been further blackened by supporters of his former friend Ian Paisley.McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 15 Leaving the Shankill he attempted to set up a group similar to the SDA on the Donegall Road but was declared persona non grata by the head of an existing local Defence Committee, who was a loyal Paisleyite. This, combined with a rumour that McKeague was a "fruit", saw him abandon all initiatives in the west and south of the city and concentrate on east Belfast. The SDA continued in his absence until 1971, when it merged with other like-minded vigilante groups to form the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
In 1971 he was tried for incitement to hatred after publishing the controversial Loyalist Song Book. The first man to be tried under the Incitement to Hatred Act, McKeague's book included the line "you've never seen a better Taig than with a bullet in his head". After the jury disagreed at his trial, a retrial was ordered at which he and a co-defendant were acquitted. Martin Dillon argues that it was around this time that RUC Special Branch first recruited him as an agent, allegedly using information they had obtained about his paedophile activities to force him to agree. He was handed over to the Intelligence Corps by Special Branch the following year.Dillon, The Trigger Men, p. 109
McKeague broke fully from the UDA and established the Red Hand Commando in the middle of 1972, recruiting a number of young men primarily in east Belfast and North Down. McKeague had already been involved in organising the "Tartan gangs", groups of loyalist youths who were involved in rioting and general disorder, and used these as the basis of his new group. Following various attacks by his paramilitary organisation, in February 1973 he became one of the first loyalist internees, and was later imprisoned for three years on an armed robbery charge (a conviction he disputed). He started two hunger strikes in protest against the Special Powers Act and prison conditions while in jail.History Ireland, "Butcher of Bombay Street", p. 66 (article by Patrick Maume) July 2009 In his absence he lost control of the Red Hand Commando, which became an integral part of the UVF. UVF leader Gusty Spence, however, contended that he had secured McKeague's agreement that the running of the Red Hand Commando should be taken over by the UVF not long after McKeague established the movement.Roy Garland, Gusty Spence, Blackstaff Press, 2001, p. 151
Martin Dillon reports that according to British military intelligence and police files, McKeague was believed to have been behind the sadistic murder of a ten-year-old boy, Brian McDermott, in South Belfast in September 1973.Martin Dillon, The Shankill Butchers, p. 23 The killing, which involved dismemberment and the burning of the body in Ormeau Park, was so gruesome that the local press speculated that it might have been carried out as part of a Satanism ritual.Dillon, The Trigger Men, p. 104 However, Gareth Mulvenna has claimed that McKeague was serving a sentence in Long Kesh for robbery when McDermott was murdered, casting doubt over the validity of this accusation.Mulvenna, Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries: The Loyalist Backlash, p.73 On 3 October 1975, Alice McGuinness, a Catholic civilian, was fatally injured in an IRA bomb attack on McKeague's hardware shop on the Albertbridge Road. She died three days later. McKeague's sister was severely injured in the same bombing.History Ireland, July/August 2009, p. 66 ('Brief Lives' article by Patrick Maume)
With John McClure, McKeague contacted Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Joe Cahill to initiate talks in an attempt to find a common platform for an independent Northern Ireland. This collapsed after Conor Cruise O'Brien discovered and revealed the activity. from Republican Sinn Féin
In 1977, in a meeting brokered by the church-dissident Catholic priest Des Wilson, McKeague talked to Gerry Adams. Adams characterised the discussion as "constructive" inasmuch as it was "frank", but could discover no common ground.Sharrock and Devenport (1997), p. 155Patrick Bishop & Eamonn Mallie, The Provisional IRA, Corgi, 1994, p. 389 The contact between McKeague and his allies and the republicans, which was not endorsed by the wider ULCCC, saw the group fall apart as both the UDA and Down Orange Welfare resigned from the co-ordinating body when it came to light.Flackes & Elliott, Northern Ireland, p. 334
McKeague was subsequently a leading figure in the Ulster Independence Association, a group active from 1979 in support of an independent Northern Ireland. McKeague served as deputy to George Allport's leadership of the group.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy leader Peter Robinson attended the removal of McKeague's remains from his sister's home in East Belfast, as did former Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig, of whose party McKeague had briefly been a member. The Irish Times, 3 February 1982. The funeral service was attended by Fr. Des Wilson, who said: "John did a lot of terrible things but he was willing to talk to us".
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