Jackie Mahood (born c. 1954) is a Northern Irish former loyalist activist with both the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). He later split from these groups and became associated with the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), founded in 1996 by Billy Wright. Family Mahood was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of the three children of John Alexander and Sarah Mahood. He has a sister, Sandra and a deceased brother, Bobby. Mahood was brought up a Protestant in Ainsworth Avenue, a street that marks the dividing line between two staunchly loyalist areas of the upper Shankill Road and Woodvale Road. However, Ainsworth Avenue had a significant Catholic minority population and linked directly to the mainly Catholic Springfield Road until the early years of the Troubles when the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) erected temporary barricades which were later replaced with peace lines. He is married to Rae, by whom he has three children. His father, a member of the Orange Order, died in January 2008. UVF and PUP activity A member of the UVF, Mahood was sentenced to 14 years in 1975 for wounding with a firearm during a gun attack on a pub and possession of an illegal gun. Like a number of his contemporaries, Mahood joined the PUP after serving time in prison for offences related to his membership of the UVF. Following his release from prison, Mahood returned to the UVF and served as commander in north Belfast in the mid-1990s. Following the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) ceasefire of 1994, Mahood was part of the first PUP delegation to hold talks with representatives of the British government. Mahood was on poor terms with David Ervine, who feared the growth of the hawkish Billy Wright and his allies. Ervine threatened to resign from the talks team over the inclusion of Mahood. Mahood eventually left the PUP after becoming disillusioned with the Belfast Agreement. Dissident loyalist Although based in Belfast, Mahood was close to UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Billy Wright and helped to establish the LVF in 1996 after Wright and his Portadown unit were stood down by the UVF Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) in August of that year. According to David Ervine, Mahood had acted as the liaison between the Brigade Staff and Wright; in this capacity he agitated for Wright to be accepted as the UVF's chief strategist just before the split, although