Mixed emotion surrounding Adair

Johnny Adair was jailed for directing terrorism

By Dennis Murray BBC Ireland correspondent

Northern Ireland, against appearances, is full of contradictions.

One of those is that people who are totally opposed to violence have, what has become known as, a "sneaking regard" for the hard men - but only the hard men on their side of the divide.

A nationalist friend and I once fell out after her assertion that there was one thing you could say for the IRA: "They never tell lies."

John Reid opposed Adair's release on parole

My view was that she was probably right, apart from the occasions when it suited them.

So, on the flip side of that principle, there are confused opinions about Johnny Adair, released from prison, after finishing out his jail term for directing acts of terrorism, the first paramilitary ever to be so sentenced.

And while the "sneaking regarders" on his side of the divide might be appalled by what he is rumoured to have been involved in, his tattoos, and his general hard man demeanour, there is still a notion floating in the background that really, his only crime was loyalty.

Johnny Adair has a fearsome reputation as one of the main leaders of the largest loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association.

He was dubbed "Mad Dog" by the media, a nickname that one doubts has ever been used to his face.

Feud

He was initially released from prison (in 1999), like so many others, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

But he was re-arrested in August the following year after a bitter feud between the UDA, and the other main loyalist group, the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Seven men were murdered during the feud and the authorities believed that Johnny Adair had breached the terms of what is technically known as his licence - effectively, the terms of his parole.

On his release on Wednesday, his spokesman John White, told reporters that loyalists had been angered and embittered when he was put back in jail.

Force for peace

But he wanted to reassure the Catholic community that it had nothing to fear from Johnny Adair - on the contrary, he would be "a positive force for peace".

What he will do with his future is unclear, but the notion of a "Mad Dog" as a peacemaker is an idea of which, frankly, many people on both sides of the community here will take some persuading.

There was a crowd of about a hundred flag-waving fellow members of the UDA to greet him as he stepped out of a prison van - a crowd that included all the main leaders of the group, in a public show of unity.

And there was not a "sneaking regarder" among them. To them, Johnny Adair is a loyalist icon.