Description
‘Three things come with taking a man’s life. The first one is the easy bit – going into a room and shooting somebody… The second is preparing yourself if you get caught coming or going and getting life in prison – could you do it? And the third and final and most important is can you live with it for the rest of your life? And that’s where a lot of people fail.’ With these chilling words we are afforded a glimpse into the mind of Northern Ireland’s most infamous paramilitary godfather, Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair.
Enemies Within explores Adair’s rise from neo-Nazi skinhead to leader of the notorious Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover-name for the assassination wing of the Ulster Defence Association, a Protestant paramilitary group that killed hundreds of people during the Troubles.
With unprecedented access to Adair and his associates, critically acclaimed author and counter-terrorism expert Aaron Edwards paints a vivid picture of how the loyalist godfather built up an extensive terror network that was at one time responsible for more deaths than the IRA. Using his extensive contacts in the paramilitary underworld and security services, Edwards reveals for the first time the inside story of the race against time to bring down Adair in a bid to save the peace process, not once but three times. He also discovers startling new evidence of how attempts to remove Adair with informers inadvertently ushered in a return of UDA gangsterism that continues to pose serious challenges to peace and stability in Northern Ireland today.
Enemies Within is the gripping, no-holds-barred story of loyalty, murder and betrayal.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Introduction
Vigilantes
Terrorising the Terrorists
Shooting Fathers and Creating Orphans
Small Cells Are Only as Good as the Weakest Link
‘I am central!’
A Legitimate Target of War
‘Youse are the UFF!’
Death of the Architect
Grumpy Old Men
‘Tucker keeps the bin lid on you lot’
C Company Reborn
‘It would have been a bloodbath!’
Beirut
‘I love a wee bit of ethnic cleansing, so I do’
A Magnet for the Cops
‘Where’s Johnny Adair now?’
Intelligence Target
‘Can you slow down, son?’
A Cult Figure
‘What do we do to Taigs? We spray them!’
One Behind the Ear Keeps Them in Line
‘The ball is at my foot’
Who Shall Separate Us?
Enemies Within
The Powers That Be
‘Kill ’em all, let God sort ’em out!’
Their Only Crime Loyalty
Removing the Engine
‘I’m not finished with the Provos’
A Gangland Execution
Epilogue: All Those Wee Men Are Dead
About the Author
Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester. He is the author of several books, including Agents of Influence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA (2021). His work has featured in The Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph, Belfast News Letter and The Irish News.
