Billy Wright (loyalist) - Mid-Ulster UVF Commander

Mid-Ulster UVF Commander

Wright was re-arrested, along with a number of UVF operatives in the area on evidence provided by Clifford McKeown, a "supergrass" within the movement. Wright was charged with murder, attempted murder, and the possession of explosives. The cases, however ended without any major convictions after McKeown changed his mind and ceased giving evidence.

In the late-1980s, after a five year absence from the organisation, Wright resumed his UVF activities. This was in consequence of the November 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which angered loyalists because it gave the Irish Government an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government. There were constant raids by the RUC and British Army on his home in Portadown's Corcrain estate. Although he was arrested repeatedly on suspicion of murder and conspiracy, he never faced any charges.

Wright rapidly ascended to a position of prominence within the UVF ranks, eventually assuming leadership of the local Portadown unit. He became commander of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s, having taken over from Robin "the Jackal" Jackson, who had been the leader since July 1975. Jackson was implicated in the 1974 Dublin car bombings, the Miami Showband killings, and a series of sectarian attacks. Founded in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna, the Mid-Ulster Brigade operated mainly around the Portadown and Lurgan areas. It was a self-contained, semi-autonomous unit which maintained a considerable distance from the Brigade Staff in Belfast. Holding the rank of brigadier, Wright directed up to 20 sectarian killings, according to the Northern Ireland security forces, although he was never convicted in connection with any killing.

While most of Wright's unit's victims were Catholic civilians, some were republican paramilitaries. On 3 March 1991, the Mid-Ulster UVF shot and killed three Provisional IRA men, along with a middle-aged civilian, in an ambush outside Boyle's Bar in Cappagh, County Tyrone. Wright was widely blamed by nationalists and much of the press for having led this shooting attack. According to Paul Larkin in his book A Very British Jihad: collusion, conspiracy and cover-up in Northern Ireland, UVF members who had been present at Cappagh gave details of the operation, claiming that they were forced to drag Wright into the car as he had allegedly become so frenzied once he had started shooting that he didn't want to stop. British journalist Peter Taylor, however, stated in his book Loyalists that he had been told by reliable UVF sources that Wright was not involved. The RUC arrested Wright after the shootings. During the interrogation he provided the RUC with an alibi which had placed him in Dungannon when the Cappagh attack occurred, and the RUC confirmed this. Wright himself considered Cappagh to have been a successful UVF operation. The Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying, "I would look back and say that Cappagh was probably our best".

Because of the ruthlessness and efficiency of the attacks carried out by his unit, Wright struck fear into the nationalist and republican communities across Northern Ireland. The Cappagh killings in particular shattered the morale of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade as they had been boldly perpetrated by the Mid-Ulster UVF in a village which was a seemingly impenetrable IRA stronghold. Wright took personal credit for this, boasting that he and his Mid-Ulster unit had "put the East Tyrone Brigade of the IRA on the run" and "decimated" them. As a result he became a target for assassination by the IRA and also the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)'s leader Dominic McGlinchey. The IRA tried unsuccessfully to kill Wright on five different occasions; on 23 October 1992 they planted a bomb under his car, but he detected it after a report that a man had been seen crouching suspiciously beside the vehicle in West Street, Portadown.

In addition to being one of its leading military figures, Wright was initially caught up in the euphoria of the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) ceasefire, describing 13 October 1994 (the date of the announcement by Gusty Spence) as "the happiest day of my life". However he was also a political militant within the UVF, and soon he publicly disagreed with their leadership's calling of the ceasefire, being sceptical of the IRA's motives behind the Northern Ireland peace process.

It was also claimed by journalist Susan McKay in The Guardian, that Wright at this time ran a lucrative protection racket and was one of the most significant drug dealers in the Portadown area, primarily in ecstasy.