secured agreement with the other brigadiers that Adair should be expelled from the UDA. Tension simmered for the next few months with little real fighting although McDonald threw a ring of steel around his Taughmonagh stronghold and even obtained an air raid siren to be sounded if any C Company members attempted to enter the estate. The killing of John Gregg and his associate Rab Carson by C Company in Sailortown on 1 February 2003 however finally led to a showdown, with McDonald taking charge of the anti-Adair faction. McDonald quickly got word to A and B Company of the West Belfast UDA, covering the Highfield estate and Woodvale areas of the Greater Shankill and nominally under Adair's command, that Adair was to be removed and secured the loyalty of these two groups. He also told them to set up an office on the Shankill's Heather Street Social Club as a safe house where members of C Company could defect back to the mainstream UDA. At around 1 a.m. on 6 February 2003, about 100 heavily armed UDA members invaded the lower Shankill and set upon the twenty or so members of C Company who had remained loyal to Adair. For his part Adair fled the scene with his family and his close ally John White, ending his spell in charge on the Shankill. Several weeks later McDonald organised a "battle of the bands" (competition between loyalist flute bands) at which he made it clear that unity had been re-established. He then received a standing ovation from those present as, marching behind a masked man carrying an AK 47, McDonald led the other five brigadiers onto the stage. When asked by Peter Taylor whether he had any regrets about his past involvements, McDonald replied: I have certainly. I would say without a shadow of doubt the worst thing that ever happened to South Belfast, John McMichael and myself especially, was that Jim Craig ever had anything to do with our organisation. Subsequent activity McDonald remains a member of the UDA's Inner Council and is also the spokesman for its political advisory body, the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG). Politically he always considered former Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) spokesman Davy Adams to be his main political advisor. He has in recent years turned his attention to community-building activities and helping former loyalist prisoners as a full-time organiser of the John McMichael