Jackie McDonald welcomes President Mary McAleese to Taughmonagh Primary School Mary and Martin, back in 1970, soon after they first met (left inset)

No one needs Google Earth to find Sandy Row. There it is right beside Day's Hotel, "Northern Ireland's largest hotel with 250 en-suite bedrooms… located right in the heart of Belfast City." A huge mural shows the way. "You Are Now Entering Loyalist Sandy Row, Heartland of South Belfast Ulster Freedom Fighters, Quis Separabit," it says, with its two red hands and its two red fists. As you traverse the heartland, you will come across further murals. One of "George Best 1940 to 2005." Another of Robert Dougan, "Murdered by enemies 10 February, 1998. In proud memory of our fallen comrade. Gone but not forgotten. Quis Separabit." The letters UDA and UFF are inscribed alongside.


None of this prepares you for the sight at the top of the stairs as you enter the McMichael Centre in the very centre of this loyalist heartland. For there you will see a collage of photographs of President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin with what turns out to be residents of the area on their visits to Áras an Uachtaráin. There is even one taken in the Council of State room posed in front of probably the most famous painting in Áras an Uachtaráin. By Simon Coleman RHA, it is of the first meeting of a Council of State, the President's advisory body, presided over by President Douglas Hyde in 1940.


Jackie McDonald is friendliness itself. It seems abrupt to start with the obvious question, but it must be done. "Are you brigadier of the UDA?" To which he replies "allegedly." He is candid about his past.


"I got 10 years for blackmail, extortion and threats to kill, providing money for the UDA war chest. I went in, in 1989 and was out in 1994." He now works full-time as an organiser at the McMichael centre, catering mainly for ex-prisoners and doing community work with the Prisoners' Enterprise Project and the Community Foundation, Northern Ireland.


The centre is named after John McMichael, a leading figure in the UDA, who stood unsuccessfully for the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party in a south Belfast by-election in 1981 and remained leader of the party until his death. He was killed in a car bomb in what was believed to have been a UDA inside job in 1987. His son, Gary, then tried to build up the party as the political wing of the UDA, but following its collapse he dropped out of politics.


Jackie McDonald's first contact with President Mary and Martin McAleese was organised through his solicitor of 30 years, Denis Moloney, who is a long-time friend of the McAleeses and a member of the current Council of State in the Republic. It was December 2002. "I was going to Scotland to a Rangers match with friends and called to see Denis on the way to the boat when Denis asked me whether I would like to have a chat with Martin. He sorted it out there and then. He called Martin and passed the phone to me and we started talking as if we'd known each other forever." They agreed to keep in contact.


There was a major internal loyalist feud going on at the time, involving the Johnny Adair faction. On 5 June 2003, a body found in a shallow grave on the outskirts of north Belfast was believed to be that of loyalist and close Adair associate Alan McCullough (21). He had been missing since the Wednesday of the previous week after he returned to Belfast from England, believing UDA leaders had granted him a reprieve after his siding with Adair in the feud. The BBC received a call from the UDA claiming that it had killed McCullough after linking him with the murder of John Gregg, one of the UDA's most senior figures and the so-called brigadier of the organisation in south-east Antrim.


Gregg was killed at Belfast docks in February 2003, after returning from a Rangers game in Glasgow, by Adair's 'C-company' of which Alan McCullough was a senior member. His (Alan McCullough's) body had been found in the command area of murdered John Gregg, giving weight to reports that he was handed over by UDA elements in the Shankill to Gregg's local associates.


Alan McCullough's father, UDA man William 'Bucky' McCullough, was murdered in 1981. He was shot dead by the INLA, but is believed to have been set up by another UDA leader, Jim Craig, who in turn was murdered by his own organisation in 1988. Craig was blamed for setting up UDA leader John McMichael for murder.


The events leading to Alan McCullough's death began after the killing of Gregg in February 2003. He then fled to Britain with Adair's wife, Gina, and about 20 other loyalists who sided with Adair. Though Adair was already back in prison at that stage, taken by police in January during the height of the murderous dispute between the lower Shankill
'C-company' of the UDA and the UDA leadership, nonetheless, the UDA was convinced that Adair had orchestrated Gregg's murder.


Drive-by shooting


Alan McCullough hated life in England and made several overtures to the UDA to be allowed to return to Belfast. It was reported that, as part of a deal, he switched sides and gave the UDA information about where Adair's associates were living. This is believed also to have led to a drive-by shooting on a house in Brighton where Gina Adair was staying.


That is the world into which Martin McAleese made an entrance on 23 February, 2003.


He met Jackie McDonald at the Taughmonagh social club in south Belfast, believed to be the headquarters of the UDA in that area. "It was very brave of him in the circumstances. We were all under threat," comments Jackie McDonald. Martin was accompanied by his driver "and the PSNI were hanging about the place because of the threats." There would be no PSNI presence at any future meetings involving Martin McAleese, Jackie McDonald and his associates. Martin McAleese requested this, as a gesture of trust. He and Jackie McDonald went into the back room at the social club that first time they met, and they talked.


It was the beginning of an extraordinary friendship. Martin said that if there was going to be a new future for the island of Ireland, every part of every single community had to be involved, or at least must be invited to take part, and that this included loyalists as well.


They must take risks on each other, he said, and that if you want to make a change, you must be in an uncomfortable place. You must have the odd sleepless night; otherwise you are not making progress. When Jackie commented on the risk he [Martin] was taking, Martin responded that Jackie and his associates were taking an even bigger risk. That they could be accused of betrayal or fraternising with the enemy, and in a paramilitary environment where the consequences could be brutal.


They talked about the future and the future of their children. Martin McAleese promised to do whatever he could to help.


There was a visa problem when Jackie McDonald wanted to attend another Rangers match at Easter 2003. So it was arranged that he could have an Irish passport. He needed it in a rush, so southern intermediaries had to collect his application form in Belfast and bring it to Dublin for speedy processing.


On 28 April 2003, Jackie McDonald came to Dublin with 60 people from loyalist Belfast. There were two busloads, one big, one small.


"I brought Mary a bunch of flowers, champagne, a box of chocolates, an Ulster flag and a Rangers scarf. It was for her father. It was a wind-up because her father is a Celtic man." By all accounts, the President was very emotional about the gesture. The scarf was subsequently given to her father. A strong nationalist republican, that Rangers scarf is said to be one of his most cherished possessions.


Tense beginnings


They were treated to lunch in Áras an Uachtaráin. "Martin and Mary entertained everyone. We were a bit apprehensive going down but on the way back it was 'when are we going down again?'" he says. From the Áras, they were taken to Farmleigh House and it was there that Martin presented him with his Irish passport. It was there too that it was agreed that Martin would meet with Jackie McDonald's associates.


They met at the Stormont Hotel on 21 May: Martin McAleese, Denis Moloney, Jackie McDonald and his associates. It was tense at the beginning. There was no small talk and Jackie's associates were not friendly. But they sat down and Martin McAleese spoke about his own background in the city and the President's background there, too. He was very open and frank. He emphasised that there was no pressure on anyone, that his and the President's only interest, in the context, was in the place where they were born and came from. They wanted to do something to help change things for the future. He was also very frank about being a Catholic and a nationalist and about where they came from, politically and religion-wise.


And the men talked about lack of education in Loyalist communities. One man spoke of a young lad in his community who was the first in living memory to get the 11-plus. The youngster and his parents were so ashamed of it that they didn't talk about it. It just went to show the lack of education in those areas. That young man would have been the butt of ridicule – the pansy, the softie – where his peers or the paramilitaries were concerned.


That meeting went on for over two-and-a-half hours. It was agreed that there would be a follow-up. Before the meeting ended Jackie McDonald said, "Martin, there is talk about whether Mary will stand again next year. Tell her from us, we want her to stand." Martin McAleese, apparently, was completely taken aback.


Soon afterwards, a golf outing was arranged at the K Club in Kildare with
Martin McAleese, some of his business friends and Jackie McDonald.


At a meal afterwards he was presented with a cheque for stg£19,641 for the
Dunmurray Football Club. It has been used to update its training facilities. Martin McAleese's friends also raised money for other clubs in Belfast and in republican areas as well.


"They are very, very friendly people," he says. Jackie has met them many times since. He explained how people in his community couldn't accept money from the Irish government, that "it is too sensitive." Which was why "we very, very much appreciate what Martin has done for so many loyalist areas in Northern Ireland through organising some sort of sponsorship. Martin is a frequent visitor. He helped introduce us to Bertie, who was very helpful. Martin has made it easier for others to talk to us, simply by extending the hand of friendship."


And busloads of loyalists have been to Dublin again. In June 2003, a group attended a workshop in the House of Lords arts centre in Foster Place, hosted by Laurence Crowley, then governor of the Bank of Ireland.


Most bizarre of all was the occasion when a busload of loyalists and republicans from Belfast were escorted through the Dublin traffic to Áras an Uachtaráin by police outriders. "The republicans and loyalists were hanging out the windows with their mobile phones," he says. "It was the first time that republicans and loyalists were together that the sirens sounded and no one ran!"


The hand of friendship


"Martin extended the hand of friendship. He said 'a hand up is not a hand out.' He stayed with us when things were bad and so did the President. They were very, very helpful. They have encouraged us when we needed it and they explained different angles. That's why we hoped she would go forward again. It would've fallen flat if Mary hadn't carried on. We told Mary that we hoped she would go for a second term. And when she did and I was invited to the inauguration, I said I didn't want to get her into bother. But she said: 'You' re coming to the inauguration. You are my friend.'


"At the inauguration lunch in the Áras, Martin asked, 'Do you have any preference where you sit?' I hadn't, so he brought me over as his guest to the same table as Denis Moloney, Martin McGuinness, Dermot Ahern (then minister for foreign affairs) and Fr Alec Reid. I had a good conversation with Dermot. He was going to Yasser Arafat's funeral. And later on Bertie was standing on his own and he said, 'Hello Jackie.' His whole approach was friendly. He was not stand-offish in any way. He understood where the loyalists were coming from [over decommissioning] and how they were under pressure, too. The contact helped. A lot up here are very wary of supporting people like myself, but because of Bertie and the President, it has made it easier for others to talk to me."


Book Details


Extracted with the permission of the publisher, The O'Brien Press, from 'First Citizen' by Patsy McGarry, price €29.99/£23.99 hardback. Available from booksellers nationwide