Jim Craig's large protection racket. In 1988, just after the death of UDA's South Belfast brigadier John McMichael, who was blown up in a booby-trap car bomb planted by the Provisional IRA outside his home in Lisburn, Supreme Commander Andy Tyrie promoted McDonald to the rank of brigadier. He subsequently assumed command of McMichael's South Belfast brigade having previously served as his second-in-command. Described by Peter Taylor as an "effective and popular commander", many people, however considered McDonald to have been one of Craig's "henchmen in the latter's profitable racketeering business." According to Steve Bruce Tyrie's appointment of McDonald as Brigadier helped to hasten Tyrie's own downfall due to the distaste with which McDonald was then regarded by a number of leading UDA figures. Due to his reputation as a racketeer and his close association with the widely disliked Craig and his equally loathed deputy and minder Artie Fee, a number of UDA modernisers, who were the chief critics of Tyrie, released statements to both the local media and BBC Newsnight condemning McDonald's appointment. McDonald admitted to Taylor: "Through not being able to get a job anywhere else and not being able to look after my own family and being part of the organisation that needed the money, eventually I did [join Craig] yes." The same year McDonald took over the South Belfast brigade, Andy Tyrie resigned as UDA commander and James Craig was put permanently out of the picture. The latter was shot dead in the "Bunch of Grapes" pub in east Belfast by two masked gunmen from the UDA (using their cover name "Ulster Freedom Fighters") in October 1988 for "treason". It was claimed by younger elements within the UDA that he had set up John McMichael to be targeted by the IRA. McDonald was arrested in 1989, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the Maze Prison for extortion, blackmail and intimidation in January 1990. Following his imprisonment he was replaced as brigadier by Alex Kerr. He was released in 1994. Return to power Returning to his role as brigadier after Kerr defected to the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) group which was founded by Billy Wright in 1996, McDonald found himself in 1997 facing the possibility of a loyalist feud with the local Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), with whom he had previously been on good terms. In June 1997, the son of murdered UDA man, James Curtis