John McKeague

John McKeague
McKeague in a BBC interview in 1976
Born1930
Bushmills, County Antrim
Died29 January 1982 (aged 51–52)
Albertbridge Road, Belfast
Cause of deathGunshot wounds
NationalityBritish
OccupationShopkeeper
Notable workLoyalist Song Book
TitleLeader of the Red Hand Commando
Term1972–1973
Predecessornew position
SuccessorWinston Churchill Rea
Political partyProtestant Unionist Party
Ulster Independence Association
MovementUlster Protestant Volunteers
Shankill Defence Association
Red Hand Commando

John Dunlop McKeague[1] (1930[1] – 29 January 1982) was a Northern Irish loyalist and one of the founding members of the paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando in 1970.[2][3] A number of authors on the Troubles in Northern Ireland have accused McKeague, a homosexual paederast, of involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal but he was never convicted.[4] He was shot dead by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Belfast in January 1982.[5]

  1. ^ a b WD Flackes & Sydney Elliott, Northern Ireland A Political Directory 1968–1993, The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 222
  2. ^ "Northern Ireland – development of loyalism". Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2006.
  3. ^ Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, p. 200
  4. ^ Henry McDonald, The Observer, 13 August 2000, "Rough justice for Ulster's 'paedophiles'" Archived 22 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Revised and Updated Extracts from Malcolm Sutton data at CAIN website". Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2006.