Andy Tyrie
| Andy Tyrie | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Andrew Tyrie 5 February 1940 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Brown Square School |
| Occupation | Gardener |
| Employer | Belfast City Council |
| Organization | Ulster Defence Association |
| Notable work | This is It (1982) |
| Title | Chairman of the UDA |
| Term | 1973-1988 |
| Predecessor | Charles Harding Smith and Jim Anderson |
| Successor | position abolished |
Andrew "Andy" Tyrie (born 5 February 1940) is an Ulster loyalist and served as commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during much of its early history. He took the place of Tommy Herron in 1973 when the latter was killed, and led the organisation until March 1988 when an attempt on his life forced him to resign his command.
Tyrie was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of the seven children of an ex-soldier and a part-time seamstress. He was brought up in a two-bedroomed house in the Shankill Road. He was educated at the local Brown Square school and found work as a gardener with Belfast City Council. Tyrie's family lived in both Ballymurphy and New Barnsley, but were forced out of both heavily Catholic areas in 1969. The family returned to the Shankill. Tyrie's surname is an ancient Scottish clan name; his ancestors migrated from Scotland to Ireland in the early days of the Ulster Plantation. They first went to Dublin, however, before settling permanently in Ulster.
Tyrie's first involvement with loyalist paramilitaries came in 1967 when he was sworn in as a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), although he did not stay long as he felt that the UVF was doing too little about Protestants being forced out of Catholic areas, such as his own family. He soon fell in behind John McKeague, initially following him in the Ulster Protestant Volunteers, before joining his Shankill Defence Association (SDA) upon its foundation in 1969. Tyrie's power base within the SDA grew and he was a relatively high-profile figure on the Shankill when it was absorbed by the UDA in 1971.
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