claimed that when he went to the Inner Council to appeal to them to respect the ceasefire they told him the UDA was not involved in any of the attacks, even though they were actually being carried out by UDA members. Leaving politics Although still a local councillor, McMichael's influence began to wane after the failure of 1998 and with the movement of Johnny Adair towards the Loyalist Volunteer Force and the resulting loyalist feud, he became an increasingly peripheral figure along with the UDP as a whole. As elements within the UDA returned to violence in 1999, using the Red Hand Defenders cover name, McMichael was largely in the dark as to whether or not the UDA were involved. He entered virtual political retirement, concentrating instead on writing a column for Ireland on Sunday and publishing his autobiography, An Ulster Voice, in 1999. He did emerge briefly for negotiations with David Ervine aimed at ending the feuds, although these came to nothing. He was appointed to the Civic Forum for Northern Ireland, but McMichael's career in politics was effectively ended by the collapse of the UDP in 2001. McMichael did not take any role in the Ulster Political Research Group, which assumed the UDP's role as political arm of the UDA, albeit without being a political party. He continued to sit on Lisburn City Council as an independent and did not seek re-election in 2005. He is no longer involved in electoral politics. In 1998 McMichael started a Lisburn-based Community Organisation, ASCERT – Action on Substances through Community Education and Related Training, aimed at addressing the drug and alcohol issues in the local communities. Working with communities across the Eastern Health Board area ASCERT built a strong reputation as a leader in the delivery of drug and alcohol training programmes. On retiring from politics McMichael became the full-time Director of ASCERT and has nurtured the organisation into the forefront of drug and alcohol training, education, support and youth treatment work in Northern Ireland today. References 1969 births Living people Members of Lisburn City Council Leaders of political parties in Northern Ireland Members of the Northern Ireland Forum Politicians from Northern Ireland Ulster Democratic Party politicians People from Lisburn