McQuiston was born and raised in west Belfast 's staunchly loyalist and Protestant Shankill Road area . Billy McQuiston joined the junior wing of the UDA immediately after the 1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing , with his decision also influenced by his father having been UDA commander in the area at the time . He recalls : " The area I came from , the family that I came from and the activity that was going on in that area , I do n’t think I really had any other choice . " He was almost 15 at the time the bomb exploded on a Saturday afternoon in the heart of the Shankill , which was crowded with shoppers . The bomb killed two adult men and two babies . McQuiston was with a friend and they were on their way to the city centre ; the boys rushed to the scene and saw the bodies of the infants as they were brought out of the rubble , wrapped in sheets . The following evening he and several friends attended a meeting of the local UDA . One at a time , the teenaged boys were brought into a room by two men wearing hoods . McQuiston faced three men seated at a table on which rested a Bible , gun and an Ulster Banner . After being asked his motive for wishing to join the UDA , he repeated an oath with one hand upon the Bible and the other the gun , and was duly sworn in as a member of the " Ulster Young Militants " ( UYM ) , the junior wing of the UDA
1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing
1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing
Billy McQuiston