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Gay UDA Gunman comes clean.
I've always wondered if some of those who show some of the strongest homophobic reactions are doing so because they can't face the truth about themselves.
Freely Discuss.
Gay UDA gunman: 'I hid my true self'
Henry McDonald talks to ex-terrorist Sam 'Skelly' McCrory about his conversion from homophobic paramilitary hitman to gay rights campaigner
Henry McDonald
The Observer, Sunday October 5 2008
Article history
Shaven-headed and tattooed all over with skinhead emblems and the symbols of Ulster loyalism, Sam 'Skelly' McCrory was once regarded as one of the most dangerous terrorists in Western Europe.
He was the last commander of Ulster Defence Association inmates in the Maze prison and the closest confidant of Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair, who called him his 'top operator'.
McCrory was also one of two UDA leaders chosen to meet Mo Mowlam 10 years ago in her talks in the Maze aimed at salvaging the loyalist ceasefires.
But now McCrory has become the first paramilitary to publicly out himself as a gay man.
The 43-year-old has swapped a life dominated by direct involvement in UDA assassination squads in Northern Ireland for one of gay activism in Scotland.
In his first interview, McCrory has also claimed he was the unlikely inspiration for a novel written by one of his former foes - ex-Sinn Fein publicity director Danny Morrison.
'Even before I joined the UDA, I used to pretend I was homophobic.
I went along with the crowd who were then close to the National Front.
I hated Catholics, blacks, Jews and gays - even though I was gay myself.
I was hiding my true self.'
Speaking last week from exiled loyalist leader Adair's flat in Troon, west Scotland, McCrory insisted that a real-life incident involving him helped inspire Danny Morrison's novel On the Back of the Swallow.
'The first serious love of my life was Harry Cowan, who wrote me a letter from Scotland to Crumlin Road jail where I was being held on remand in the early Nineties on hijacking charges.
'A screw [prison officer] stole Harry's letter to me and posted it under a Provo prisoner's cell.
The idea was to cause a mix among the republican and loyalist inmates, to provoke the IRA men into slagging me about my gay lover in Scotland.
'Danny Morrison has a story in his book about being in a prison and a letter that other prisoners find.
Morrison writes sympathetically about this prisoner who is ridiculed for being gay.
That was based on a true incident involving me and a letter from Harry.
In the real-life incident the Provo read out Harry's words to me and that kept the tension going.
Morrison was in jail at the same time and must have heard about the story of the letter.'
The incident in the Victorian jail occurred in early 1991 and months after his release McCrory was back in custody.
McCrory admitted he and a UDA 'C' Company assassination squad were on their way to kill the then IRA commander of Belfast and his girlfriend, also a leading IRA figure in the city.
Although McCrory said his life has radically changed since, he insisted he had no regrets over what he did for the loyalist cause in the past.
'I was proud of what I did and I did it because we were under attack by violent republicanism.
The war now is over.
I have no problem with Sinn Fein being purely political and even being in government.
It's all for the sake of peace and my war is long, long over.
I don't even give Northern Ireland a thought now, not because I don't care, because there is no trouble over there.'
McCrory revealed that at the height of his career as one of Adair's most trusted gunmen he was having a secret affair with a male RUC officer in Holywood, Co Down.
'I used to lie to the rest of C Company that I was having a relationship with a policewoman.
Only Johnny knew it was a man.
The lads used to ask me "Who's that policewoman you are shagging?" I couldn't tell them it was a man, it was such a macho, homophobic culture.'
He denied that he used the relationship to obtain intelligence about republican suspects.
'I never asked him for any information even though he knew who I was and what I was up to.'
The ex-loyalist gunman said the peace process had allowed him to be himself.
He now attends Gay Pride rallies across Britain from Glasgow to Brighton, regularly visits Manchester's Gay Village and marches in gay rights demonstrations across the country.
Asked if he would march side by side with Irish republican gay rights activists, he said: 'I've already done that.
In fact I once met a gay guy here from a republican area in Belfast.
It wasn't until we were back in my hotel room he realised who I was.
He panicked but I put him right and told him not to worry.
'My past is the past and I make no apology for it.
I don't try to hide it in the gay community here in Scotland or anywhere else.
They knew I was a loyalist political prisoner in the Maze.'
Why had he decided to go public both about his sexuality and his career in the notorious UDA 'C' Company?
'There has been that much shit written about me over the last 10 years it was time to tell my side of the story.
I have been beaten over the head about my sexuality in private whispers from enemies in the UDA so it was time to go public about all those things.'
When the UDA divided in late 2002 and early 2003 over Adair's attempt to seize control of the organisation, McCrory sided with his old teenage pal whom he had known since they were members of the skinhead band Offensive Weapon in the early 1980s.
He has helped Adair out in his Scottish exile but is adamant the one-time loyalist icon should not settle back in Northern Ireland.
Both men remain under a UDA death sentence if they return for good to their former stronghold on Belfast's Shankill Road.
On Troon beach, with a gale blowing in across the Irish Sea and dark clouds gathering over Ailsa Craig, the giant rock visible along the horizon of this part of the Ayrshire coast, McCrory and Adair walked together.
As they ambled on the sea front they reminisced about their past lives as skinheads turned terrorists who brought Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war in 1993.
McCrory is about to star in a Channel 5 documentary series presented by Football Factory actor Danny Dyer.
Later as they walked along Troon's promenade with a slimmed down Adair complaining about the autumnal chill, McCrory reflected on the TV film of his life, turned to his old 'C' Company comrade and added: 'It was a lot of fun.'
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Swim fish! Swim!:
I've always wondered if some of those who show some of the strongest homophobic reactions are doing so because they can't face the truth about themselves.
Freely Discuss.
Gay UDA gunman: 'I hid my true self'
Henry McDonald talks to ex-terrorist Sam 'Skelly' McCrory about his conversion from homophobic paramilitary hitman to gay rights campaigner
Henry McDonald
The Observer, Sunday October 5 2008
Article history
Shaven-headed and tattooed all over with skinhead emblems and the symbols of Ulster loyalism, Sam 'Skelly' McCrory was once regarded as one of the most dangerous terrorists in Western Europe.
He was the last commander of Ulster Defence Association inmates in the Maze prison and the closest confidant of Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair, who called him his 'top operator'.
McCrory was also one of two UDA leaders chosen to meet Mo Mowlam 10 years ago in her talks in the Maze aimed at salvaging the loyalist ceasefires.
But now McCrory has become the first paramilitary to publicly out himself as a gay man.
The 43-year-old has swapped a life dominated by direct involvement in UDA assassination squads in Northern Ireland for one of gay activism in Scotland.
In his first interview, McCrory has also claimed he was the unlikely inspiration for a novel written by one of his former foes - ex-Sinn Fein publicity director Danny Morrison.
'Even before I joined the UDA, I used to pretend I was homophobic.
I went along with the crowd who were then close to the National Front.
I hated Catholics, blacks, Jews and gays - even though I was gay myself.
I was hiding my true self.'
Speaking last week from exiled loyalist leader Adair's flat in Troon, west Scotland, McCrory insisted that a real-life incident involving him helped inspire Danny Morrison's novel On the Back of the Swallow.
'The first serious love of my life was Harry Cowan, who wrote me a letter from Scotland to Crumlin Road jail where I was being held on remand in the early Nineties on hijacking charges.
'A screw [prison officer] stole Harry's letter to me and posted it under a Provo prisoner's cell.
The idea was to cause a mix among the republican and loyalist inmates, to provoke the IRA men into slagging me about my gay lover in Scotland.
'Danny Morrison has a story in his book about being in a prison and a letter that other prisoners find.
Morrison writes sympathetically about this prisoner who is ridiculed for being gay.
That was based on a true incident involving me and a letter from Harry.
In the real-life incident the Provo read out Harry's words to me and that kept the tension going.
Morrison was in jail at the same time and must have heard about the story of the letter.'
The incident in the Victorian jail occurred in early 1991 and months after his release McCrory was back in custody.
McCrory admitted he and a UDA 'C' Company assassination squad were on their way to kill the then IRA commander of Belfast and his girlfriend, also a leading IRA figure in the city.
Although McCrory said his life has radically changed since, he insisted he had no regrets over what he did for the loyalist cause in the past.
'I was proud of what I did and I did it because we were under attack by violent republicanism.
The war now is over.
I have no problem with Sinn Fein being purely political and even being in government.
It's all for the sake of peace and my war is long, long over.
I don't even give Northern Ireland a thought now, not because I don't care, because there is no trouble over there.'
McCrory revealed that at the height of his career as one of Adair's most trusted gunmen he was having a secret affair with a male RUC officer in Holywood, Co Down.
'I used to lie to the rest of C Company that I was having a relationship with a policewoman.
Only Johnny knew it was a man.
The lads used to ask me "Who's that policewoman you are shagging?" I couldn't tell them it was a man, it was such a macho, homophobic culture.'
He denied that he used the relationship to obtain intelligence about republican suspects.
'I never asked him for any information even though he knew who I was and what I was up to.'
The ex-loyalist gunman said the peace process had allowed him to be himself.
He now attends Gay Pride rallies across Britain from Glasgow to Brighton, regularly visits Manchester's Gay Village and marches in gay rights demonstrations across the country.
Asked if he would march side by side with Irish republican gay rights activists, he said: 'I've already done that.
In fact I once met a gay guy here from a republican area in Belfast.
It wasn't until we were back in my hotel room he realised who I was.
He panicked but I put him right and told him not to worry.
'My past is the past and I make no apology for it.
I don't try to hide it in the gay community here in Scotland or anywhere else.
They knew I was a loyalist political prisoner in the Maze.'
Why had he decided to go public both about his sexuality and his career in the notorious UDA 'C' Company?
'There has been that much shit written about me over the last 10 years it was time to tell my side of the story.
I have been beaten over the head about my sexuality in private whispers from enemies in the UDA so it was time to go public about all those things.'
When the UDA divided in late 2002 and early 2003 over Adair's attempt to seize control of the organisation, McCrory sided with his old teenage pal whom he had known since they were members of the skinhead band Offensive Weapon in the early 1980s.
He has helped Adair out in his Scottish exile but is adamant the one-time loyalist icon should not settle back in Northern Ireland.
Both men remain under a UDA death sentence if they return for good to their former stronghold on Belfast's Shankill Road.
On Troon beach, with a gale blowing in across the Irish Sea and dark clouds gathering over Ailsa Craig, the giant rock visible along the horizon of this part of the Ayrshire coast, McCrory and Adair walked together.
As they ambled on the sea front they reminisced about their past lives as skinheads turned terrorists who brought Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war in 1993.
McCrory is about to star in a Channel 5 documentary series presented by Football Factory actor Danny Dyer.
Later as they walked along Troon's promenade with a slimmed down Adair complaining about the autumnal chill, McCrory reflected on the TV film of his life, turned to his old 'C' Company comrade and added: 'It was a lot of fun.'
Bloody hell!
I don't know what else to say.
That must be a first.
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Gosh. almost sounds like a parody of an 80's "troubles" filem script.
Kind of hard to digest just how complex a story it is.
Homophobia in northern ireland was about the only thing that united republican and unionist alike!
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NB: Guess: just a suggestion but could you refrain from reposting the whole OP in your replies?
It tends to be unnecessary but also has the effect of making the first couple of posts an enormous scroll which can kind of kill a thread if the OP is very long.
Not having a go.
Just a suggestion ;)
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Nicky Crane is another name that springs to mind.
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Unbelievable. It is amazing how long and how well humans can hide and suppress their true nature.
Well, he didn't really suppress it, but he did a great job of hiding.
And yes, definitely, the most vile and spiteful gay-haters usually have same tendencies.
They are not necessarily 'gay', but usually have suppressed desires and fantasies they are not comfortable with, for whatever reason.
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In regard to Nicky Crane:
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Swim fish! Swim!:
In regard to Nicky Crane: Sorry, did an Alex there!
Nicola Vincenzio "Nicky" Crane (May 21, 1958 - December 8, 1993) was a British neo-Nazi skinhead activist with a reputation for violence.
He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993.
Born in Kent, Crane joined the British Movement (BM) in the late 1970s, and by 1980, he had become the BM organiser for Kent.
In 1980, he attacked a black family at a bus stop near Liverpool Street station.
For this act, he was convicted of unlawfully fighting and making an affray, and given a suspended sentence.
In 1981, he appeared as an iconic barechested skinhead, braces down, on the cover photograph of the Oi!
Compilation album Strength Thru Oi!
(due to his appearance, not his racist views);
With his Nazi tattoos partially airbrushed out.[1] This was chosen from a series of photos shot outside one of the entrances to the Woolwich foot tunnel under the Thames.
Never afraid of going before the camera, Crane was ever quick to pose topless or in one his trademark tight vests.
He also appeared on several T-shirts produced by the skinhead shop The Last Resort in Goulston Street, Aldgate during the 1980s, including the infamous "Action Man 80s" design, as well as on several of the shop's calenders, plus also on 'pirated' T-shirts produced by other retailers and was influential in popularising the grade-0 bald bonehead look amongst UK skinheads.
Also in 1981, he was convicted and jailed for four years for his role in a 1980 organised BM attack on a group of black youths arriving on a train at Woolwich Arsenal railway station.
He once led an attack on an anti-racist concert being held in Jubilee Gardens on London's south bank.
Pictures of him storming the stage where singer Hank Wangford was performing appeared in national newspapers but although Crane was clearly identifiable, no action was taken.
Released from jail in 1984, Crane soon began providing security for the white power band Skrewdriver, and remained associated with the band and its leader, Ian Stuart Donaldson, for the rest of the decade, even designing two of the band's album covers and writing the lyrics (and being the subject of) the track "Justice" on the LP "Hail the New Dawn." He was jailed again in 1986 for six months following a fight on an Underground train.
In 1987, he was instrumental in setting up the neo-Nazi network Blood and Honour with Donaldson.
During this time, Crane was leading a double life as an active homosexual, even serving as a steward at the London gay pride march in 1986 and was a regular at London gay clubs such as Heaven and Bolts and the Bell pub at King's Cross.[2]
At various times, Crane had worked as a bin man, bicycle courier, and a doorman at an S&M club.
He also appeared in the Psychic TV Unclean video and in amateur gay porn films while still a neo-Nazi activist.[3] In July 1992, Crane admitted his homosexuality on the Channel 4 programme Out.
He was immediately disowned by his Nazi associates, including Ian Stuart Donaldson, who said he felt "betrayed." The same month the UK newspaper The Sun ran an article on him entitled Nazi Nick is a Panzi and included a picture of Crane with his face snarling at camera, head shaved bald, braces worn over his bare torso, faded jeans, white-laced boots and brandishing an axe.
The article concluded with a Quote: from him, saying "It is all in the past, I've made a dramatic change."
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Swim fish! Swim!:
Sorry, did an Alex there!
God forbid...
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Interesting story.
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Brings collusion to a whole new level so he's gay big deal doesn't distract from the fact that he killed or ordered innocent people killed.
Since Halloween is coming up here is one of the most notorious UDA attacks (carried out by the paramilitary wing, the UFF) came in October 1993, when two UFF men attacked a restaurant called the Rising Sun in the predominantly Catholic village of Greysteel, County Derry, where two hundred people were celebrating Halloween.The two men entered, shouted "Trick or treat!" and opened fire.Eight people were killed and nineteen wounded.
This is known as the Greysteel massacre.
'I was proud of what I did and I did it because we were under attack byviolent republicanism.
The war now is over.
I have no problem with SinnFein being purely political and even being in government.
It's all forthe sake of peace and my war is long, long over.
I don't even giveNorthern Ireland a thought now, not because I don't care, because thereis no trouble over there.'
According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN project, the UDA/UFF was responsible for 259 killings during the Troubles.
208 of its victims were civilians (predominantly Catholics), 37 were other loyalist paramilitaries (including 30 of its own members), three were members of the security forces and eleven were republican paramilitaries.
Some believe that a number of these attacks were carried out with the assistance or complicity of the British Army and/or the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which the Stevens Enquiry appeared to add credence to, although the exact number of people murdered as a result of collusion, if any, has not been revealed.
The preferred modus operandi of the UDA was individual killings of select civilian targets in nationalist areas, rather than large-scale bomb or mortar attacks.
They killed eleven republican paramilitaries out of 259 and killed 26 more loyalist paramilitaries surely that says it all.
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I feel i must comment on why this thread was started in response to Colm's post above:
I was not in any way endorsing or supporting the UDA/UFF in anyway by posting this article.
The article was posted in reponse to some homophobia on another thread.
I thought the article gave some light on how some gay men suppress their sexual orientation in extreme ways.
I agree wholeheartedly with what Colm has pointed out.
I would take it further and say that when i hear people talking about state sponsored terrorism by the US and Israel i think none of them can hold a light to what the British government did in ULster in that they allowed the UDA, UVF and the UFF amongst others to murder catholics and terrorise communities for their own political advantage.
I believe they did this to get a a reaction out of the Republicans so that Thatcher and others could justify their bigoted policies.
To this i think Thatcher should have been criminally charged for this.
SO that they could operate the loyalists were allowed to fund their terrorism by drug dealing, pimping and extortion which, because they had no justifiable political platform to begin with, still continues to this day whereas it has evaporated within the the Republican side.
Johnny Adair and his gang are currently living not too far away from where i am and are heavily involved in the drug trade in Scotland.
Sadly the collusion between the British military and these neo-nazi thugs has never been properly investigated and nor is it likely too, despite the fact that they were responsible for the deaths of hundred of innocent people.
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Sorry just commenting on the tone of the piece didnt think you were in any way endorsing or supporting them!
Man oh man what pieces of work they are.
Just a note on collusion and just one of many but it is completely damning : The handlers from British Military Intelligence that 'ran' the infamous double agent 'Nelson' allowed him to import a shipment of arms from South Africa in 88' to protect his position in the UDA.
In the three years prior to the shipment the UDA/UFF are thought to have killed 3 people ,and wait for it, in the time between the landing and jan 1993 the Loyalist death squads accounted for the murder of 160 people, all of whom were killed with weapons from the SA shipment( including Michael Stones infamous cemetary rampage and the murder of solicitor Patrick Finucane but again mostly innocent people).
I reckon they tried to foment all out civil war with a veritable Vietnaminization of the conflict which is basically happening in Iraq at the moment haha divide and fecking conquer the old adage.
Have you ever heard of the Kincora Boys Home affair?
It involves Scotland and showed new depths of collusion.
"On Troon beach, with a gale blowing in across the Irish Sea and dark clouds gathering over Ailsa Craig, the giant rock visible along the horizon of this part of the Ayrshire coast, McCrory and Adair walked together.
As they ambled on the sea front they reminisced about their past lives as skinheads turned terrorists who brought Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war in 1993.
McCrory is about to star in a Channel 5 documentary series presented by Football Factory actor Danny Dyer.
Later as they walked along Troon's promenade with a slimmed down Adair complaining about the autumnal chill, McCrory reflected on the TV film of his life, turned to his old 'C' Company comrade and added: 'It was a lot of fun.' "
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From Hansard:
Ken Livingstone (for it is he)
Kincora Boys' Home
HC Deb 21 January 1991 vol 184 cc16-7W 16W
§Mr.
Livingstone To ask the Prime Minister (1) if he will review all official papers on the Kincora boys' home;
(2) if he will make a statement on the Kincora boys' home affair;
(3) if he will institute a new inquiry into events surrounding the Kincora boys' home.
17W
§The Prime Minister No.
§Mr.
Livingstone To ask the Prime Minister what representations he has received since taking office to the present date, concerning the Kincora boys' home.
§The Prime Minister None.
§Mr.
Livingstone To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy to obtain for the library of No.
10 Downing street a copy of the BBC2 "Public Eye" programme entitled "Kincora—An MI5 Connection" transmitted in June last year;
And if he will make a statement.
§The Prime Minister I have no plans to do so.
And that was that.
Part of the reason why i think the Tories should never be back in power.
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It would turn your stomach those poor young fellows.
Theres every likelihood that they'll get in next time, Labour have fallen so far from what they were and are a pale political pr shadow of what they once represented that it seems inevitable.
Anyways I'd agree with your original sentiment that militant gay bashers are probably all closet cases.
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