Frankie Curry
Encyclopedia
Frankie Curry nicknamed "Pigface", was an Ulster loyalist
who was involved with a number of paramilitary groups during his long career. A critic of the Northern Ireland peace process
, Curry was killed during a loyalist feud
.
's Shankill Road and a nephew of Gusty Spence
, Curry became involved in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) at an early age, claiming that he had helped conceal guns in the aftermath of the June 1966 murder of Catholic Peter Ward by Spence, Robert Williamson and Hugh McClean in the Malvern Arms bar on the Shankill.
Curry's reputation within the UVF soon grew and in 1972 at the age of 17, he was a central figure in the plot to break his uncle Gusty Spence out of the Maze Prison. Curry was driving Spence back to prison after a period of leave when their car was stopped by a UVF patrol and Spence was abducted. In fact both Curry and Spence were closely involved in planning and executing the supposed kidnapping. Curry knew in advance the Springmartin Road location on which the event was to take place and had been told specially by the UVF leadership to drive Spence that day.
Curry operated as part of the UVF's elite Red Hand Commando (RHC) and was said to have been responsible for at least twelve of the killings claimed by the RHC. Curry himself would claim to have been involved in at least 16 deaths and had even described himself as a serial killer
. Henry McDonald
and Jim Cusack have claimed that Curry suffered from severe mood swing
s as well as an addiction to morphine
-based painkillers. He also spent time in prison for his loyalist
activity and during one spell in 1986 he went on hunger strike
over conditions, shedding two stone in weight and being hospitalised before ending his protest.
and head of the Portadown
UVF Billy Wright
were expelled from the Combined Loyalist Military Command
and ordered to leave Northern Ireland after the pair had lent their support to a campaign against the Belfast Agreement
in general and the Progressive Unionist Party
and Ulster Democratic Party
in particular that was being led by former UDA hitman and Ulster Independence Movement
member Pastor Kenny McClinton
.
However Curry admired Wright and his Mid-Ulster UVF dissidents and had forged close links with the group, which would soon re-emerge as the Loyalist Volunteer Force
(LVF), in the run-up to the Drumcree conflict
of 1996. A photograph showing Curry embracing Wright at a 1996 Portadown
rally in support of "King Rat" was published at this time. Curry's involvement with Wright saw him expelled from the RHC and ordered to stand down by the Shankill UVF. Curry however, who also had some skill as a bomb maker, ignored the orders and offered his services to any loyalist paramilitary group that felt it could use him.
Curry began to use the term 'Red Hand Defenders
' in late 1996 as a means of allowing loyalists on ceasefire to continue their activity. Publicly however Curry consistently denied any involvement in the RHD as well as any links to the LVF, claims that were regularly published in the press. Curry soon fell in with a group of dissidents within the West Belfast UDA and constructed a number of car bombs for them, including one that detonated under the car of Eddie Copeland
on 22 December 1996, seriously injuring the Provisional IRA
leader. A further car bomb Curry made for the UDA was used to kill Glen Greer on 25 October 1997 outside his Bangor
home. Greer, who had been a UDA member in the Kilcooley estate
, had long been under threat due to allegations that he had worked as an informer for the Royal Ulster Constabulary
. McDonald and Cusack have also claimed that Curry personally shot and killed William "Wassy" Paul, a former UVF member killed on 3 July 1998 in what police believed to be part of feud over drugs. The two had a long-running personal enmity and Curry would confess being the murderer shortly before his own death the following year.
Curry also continued his links with the LVF and on 5 September 1998 a pipe bomb he manufactured was brought to Drumcree by Muriel Landree, a close ally of Billy Wright, before being lobbed by an unidentified rioter, resulting in the death Constable Frankie O'Reilly, an RUC officer. O'Reilly, a Catholic
by birth but a convert to Presbyterianism
, was the first victim of the RHD that Curry had founded and a second followed on Hallowe'een as Catholic Brian Service was shot on Alliance Avenue, a street that divides the republican Ardoyne
area from the loyalist Upper Ardoyne. An attack on a Catholic bar on the outskirts of West Belfast was carried out that same week after Curry had encouraged dissident gunmen to do so, although this attack resulted in no fatalities. Curry returned to prison in early 1999, serving a short spell in Magilligan
for failing to pay fines related to driving before being released on 15 March that same year.
who were friends of "Wassy" Paul swooped on Curry on the Shankill Road and shot him dead as he left the Shankill Community Centre. His body was found behind the Pony Trotting Supporters Sports and Social Club with several bullet wounds to the back of the head. Although he had earlier relocated to Portadown Curry's mother remained on the Shankill and he had been in the area to visit her that day. Curry was 45 at the time of his murder.
Curry's death saw an angry reaction from both the UDA's B Company on the Shankill and the LVF, with a death threat issued against McDonald and Cusack by LVF founder Jackie Mahood and his dissident UDA allies due to their reporting of Curry's involvement in bomb-making, an issue that his loyalist supporters felt was the crucial factor in the decision to murder Curry. For its part the Red Hand Defenders issued a statement which blamed the killing on the UVF and threatened retaliation, although Gusty Spence, by then a leading figure in the Progressive Unionist Party, quickly denied the claims that it was a UVF attack, a sentiment echoed by Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine
. The murder was also condemned by Ulster Democratic Party activist John White
who said "it's disgraceful that a man who dedicated his life to the loyalist cause should be cut down like this by people who call themselves loyalists". Curry was close to White and had hoped to see him on the day of his killing in order that White might help him with some job applications.
White would claim at Curry's funeral that the killing had been sanctioned by a major loyalist paramilitary group. By early 2000 the murder of Curry, as well as attempts by the UVF to kill Mahood, McClinton and Orange Volunteers
founder and associate of Curry Clifford Peeples
prompted Johnny Adair
, to whom White was close, to throw the full weight of the Shankill UDA behind the dissident campaign.
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
who was involved with a number of paramilitary groups during his long career. A critic of the Northern Ireland peace process
Northern Ireland peace process
The peace process, when discussing the history of Northern Ireland, is often considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast Agreement, and subsequent political developments.-Towards a...
, Curry was killed during a loyalist feud
Loyalist feud
A loyalist feud refers to any of the sporadic feuds which have erupted almost routinely between Northern Ireland's various loyalist paramilitary groups since they were founded shortly before and after the religious/political conflict known as The Troubles broke out in the late 1960s...
.
UVF and RHC
A native of BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
's Shankill Road and a nephew of Gusty Spence
Gusty Spence
Augustus Andrew "Gusty" Spence was a leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force and a leading loyalist politician. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade but later renounced violence and joined the Progressive Unionist...
, Curry became involved in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) at an early age, claiming that he had helped conceal guns in the aftermath of the June 1966 murder of Catholic Peter Ward by Spence, Robert Williamson and Hugh McClean in the Malvern Arms bar on the Shankill.
Curry's reputation within the UVF soon grew and in 1972 at the age of 17, he was a central figure in the plot to break his uncle Gusty Spence out of the Maze Prison. Curry was driving Spence back to prison after a period of leave when their car was stopped by a UVF patrol and Spence was abducted. In fact both Curry and Spence were closely involved in planning and executing the supposed kidnapping. Curry knew in advance the Springmartin Road location on which the event was to take place and had been told specially by the UVF leadership to drive Spence that day.
Curry operated as part of the UVF's elite Red Hand Commando (RHC) and was said to have been responsible for at least twelve of the killings claimed by the RHC. Curry himself would claim to have been involved in at least 16 deaths and had even described himself as a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. Henry McDonald
Henry McDonald (writer)
Henry McDonald is a writer and is the Irish editor for The Observer, the sister paper of The Guardian.McDonald has written extensively about The Troubles, its precedents, its consequences, its demographics, and such. He was born in the nationalist Markets area of Belfast and attended St. Malachy's...
and Jim Cusack have claimed that Curry suffered from severe mood swing
Mood swing
-Associated disorders:Mood swings are commonly associated with mood disorders including bipolar disorder and depression. In patients with cases of bipolar disorder, the patient experiences serious mood swings that last for days or even weeks...
s as well as an addiction to morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
-based painkillers. He also spent time in prison for his loyalist
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
activity and during one spell in 1986 he went on hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
over conditions, shedding two stone in weight and being hospitalised before ending his protest.
Dissident activity
On 28 August 1996 the UDA's South Belfast brigadier Alex KerrAlex Kerr (loyalist)
Alex Kerr is a Northern Irish former loyalist paramilitary. Kerr was a brigadier in the Ulster Defence Association before becoming one of the two founders of the Loyalist Volunteer Force . He is no longer active in loyalism....
and head of the Portadown
Portadown
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...
UVF Billy Wright
Billy Wright (loyalist)
William Stephen "Billy" Wright was a prominent Ulster loyalist during the period of violent religious/political conflict known as "The Troubles". He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1975 and became commander of its Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s...
were expelled from the Combined Loyalist Military Command
Combined Loyalist Military Command
The Combined Loyalist Military Command was an umbrella body for loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s, recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee....
and ordered to leave Northern Ireland after the pair had lent their support to a campaign against the Belfast Agreement
Belfast Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement , sometimes called the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process...
in general and the Progressive Unionist Party
Progressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...
and Ulster Democratic Party
Ulster Democratic Party
The Ulster Democratic Party was a small loyalist political party in Northern Ireland. It was established in June 1981 as the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party by the Ulster Defence Association to replace their New Ulster Political Research Group...
in particular that was being led by former UDA hitman and Ulster Independence Movement
Ulster Independence Movement
The Ulster Independence Movement was an Ulster nationalist political party founded on 17 November 1988. The group emerged from the Ulster Clubs, after a series of 15 public meetings across Northern Ireland...
member Pastor Kenny McClinton
Kenny McClinton
Kenneth McClinton is a Northern Irish pastor and sometime political activist. During his early years McClinton was an active member of the Ulster Defence Association...
.
However Curry admired Wright and his Mid-Ulster UVF dissidents and had forged close links with the group, which would soon re-emerge as the Loyalist Volunteer Force
Loyalist Volunteer Force
The Loyalist Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and the Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force's Mid-Ulster Brigade was stood down by the UVF leadership. He had been the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. The...
(LVF), in the run-up to the Drumcree conflict
Drumcree conflict
The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is an ongoing dispute over a yearly parade in the town of Portadown, Northern Ireland. The dispute is between the Orange Order and local residents. The residents are currently represented by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition ; before 1995 they were...
of 1996. A photograph showing Curry embracing Wright at a 1996 Portadown
Portadown
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...
rally in support of "King Rat" was published at this time. Curry's involvement with Wright saw him expelled from the RHC and ordered to stand down by the Shankill UVF. Curry however, who also had some skill as a bomb maker, ignored the orders and offered his services to any loyalist paramilitary group that felt it could use him.
Curry began to use the term 'Red Hand Defenders
Red Hand Defenders
The Red Hand Defenders is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1998 by loyalists who opposed the Belfast Agreement and the loyalist ceasefires. Its members were drawn mostly from the Ulster Defence Association and Loyalist Volunteer Force...
' in late 1996 as a means of allowing loyalists on ceasefire to continue their activity. Publicly however Curry consistently denied any involvement in the RHD as well as any links to the LVF, claims that were regularly published in the press. Curry soon fell in with a group of dissidents within the West Belfast UDA and constructed a number of car bombs for them, including one that detonated under the car of Eddie Copeland
Eddie Copeland
Eddie Copeland is a prominent Irish republican from Belfast, Northern Ireland.Copeland joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army after the fatal shooting of his father by the British Army. John Copeland died on 31 October 1971, two days after being shot near his home in Strathroy Park in Ardoyne...
on 22 December 1996, seriously injuring the Provisional IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
leader. A further car bomb Curry made for the UDA was used to kill Glen Greer on 25 October 1997 outside his Bangor
Bangor, County Down
Bangor is a large town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a seaside resort on the southern side of Belfast Lough and within the Belfast Metropolitan Area. Bangor Marina is one of the largest in Ireland, and holds Blue Flag status...
home. Greer, who had been a UDA member in the Kilcooley estate
Kilcooley estate
Kilcooley estate is a housing estate owned by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive on the outskirts of Bangor, Northern Ireland. There is a high level of Protestant People within the area and it has strong links with loyalism.- History :...
, had long been under threat due to allegations that he had worked as an informer for the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
. McDonald and Cusack have also claimed that Curry personally shot and killed William "Wassy" Paul, a former UVF member killed on 3 July 1998 in what police believed to be part of feud over drugs. The two had a long-running personal enmity and Curry would confess being the murderer shortly before his own death the following year.
Curry also continued his links with the LVF and on 5 September 1998 a pipe bomb he manufactured was brought to Drumcree by Muriel Landree, a close ally of Billy Wright, before being lobbed by an unidentified rioter, resulting in the death Constable Frankie O'Reilly, an RUC officer. O'Reilly, a Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
by birth but a convert to Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
, was the first victim of the RHD that Curry had founded and a second followed on Hallowe'een as Catholic Brian Service was shot on Alliance Avenue, a street that divides the republican Ardoyne
Ardoyne
Ardoyne is an Irish nationalist, working class and mainly Catholic district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It gained notoriety due to the large number of incidents during "The Troubles". It is home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants...
area from the loyalist Upper Ardoyne. An attack on a Catholic bar on the outskirts of West Belfast was carried out that same week after Curry had encouraged dissident gunmen to do so, although this attack resulted in no fatalities. Curry returned to prison in early 1999, serving a short spell in Magilligan
Magilligan (HM Prison)
Magilligan Prison is a prison run by the Northern Ireland Prison Service situated near Limavady, County Londonderry. It was first opened in May 1972 and comprised eight Nissen huts on the site of an army camp...
for failing to pay fines related to driving before being released on 15 March that same year.
Death and aftermath
Curry's activity, and in particular his association with dissident elements within the UDA, had made him an unpopular figure with the leadership of that group whilst, despite his link to Gusty Spence and his history within the movement, the UVF had washed their hands of him. On 17 March 1999 a group of UDA members from north DownNorth Down
North Down can refer to:*North Down Borough Council in Northern Ireland.*North Down in Northern Ireland.*North Down in Northern Ireland....
who were friends of "Wassy" Paul swooped on Curry on the Shankill Road and shot him dead as he left the Shankill Community Centre. His body was found behind the Pony Trotting Supporters Sports and Social Club with several bullet wounds to the back of the head. Although he had earlier relocated to Portadown Curry's mother remained on the Shankill and he had been in the area to visit her that day. Curry was 45 at the time of his murder.
Curry's death saw an angry reaction from both the UDA's B Company on the Shankill and the LVF, with a death threat issued against McDonald and Cusack by LVF founder Jackie Mahood and his dissident UDA allies due to their reporting of Curry's involvement in bomb-making, an issue that his loyalist supporters felt was the crucial factor in the decision to murder Curry. For its part the Red Hand Defenders issued a statement which blamed the killing on the UVF and threatened retaliation, although Gusty Spence, by then a leading figure in the Progressive Unionist Party, quickly denied the claims that it was a UVF attack, a sentiment echoed by Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine
David Ervine
David Ervine was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party .-Biography:...
. The murder was also condemned by Ulster Democratic Party activist John White
John White (loyalist)
John White is a former leading loyalist in Northern Ireland. He was sometimes known by the nickname 'Coco'. White was a leading figure in the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and, following a prison sentence for murder, entered politics as a central figure in the Ulster Democratic...
who said "it's disgraceful that a man who dedicated his life to the loyalist cause should be cut down like this by people who call themselves loyalists". Curry was close to White and had hoped to see him on the day of his killing in order that White might help him with some job applications.
White would claim at Curry's funeral that the killing had been sanctioned by a major loyalist paramilitary group. By early 2000 the murder of Curry, as well as attempts by the UVF to kill Mahood, McClinton and Orange Volunteers
Orange Volunteers
The Orange Volunteers or Orange Volunteer Force is an Ulster loyalist and Protestant fundamentalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland.-Origins:...
founder and associate of Curry Clifford Peeples
Clifford Peeples
Clifford Peeples is a Northern Irish pastor who has been associated with Ulster loyalist activity...
prompted Johnny Adair
Johnny Adair
Jonathan Adair, better known as Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair is the former leader of the "C Company", 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, West Belfast Brigade of the "Ulster Freedom Fighters" . This was a cover name used by the Ulster Defence Association , an Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation...
, to whom White was close, to throw the full weight of the Shankill UDA behind the dissident campaign.