John Gregg (UDA)

John Gregg
John "Grugg" Gregg in 1990
Birth name	John Gregg
Nickname(s)	"Grugg", "The Reaper"
Born	1957
Died	1 February 2003 (aged 45–46) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Buried	Carnmoney Cemetery
Allegiance	Ulster Defence Association
Service/branch	UDA South East Antrim Brigade
Years of service	1971–2003
Rank	Brigadier
Conflict	The Troubles
Relations	Stuart Gregg (son)

John Gregg (1957 – 1 February 2003) was a senior member of the UDA/UFF loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland. In 1984, Gregg seriously wounded Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in an assassination attempt. From the 1990s until his shooting death in 2003 by rival associates, Gregg served as brigadier of the UDA's South East Antrim Brigade. Widely known as a man with a fearsome reputation, Gregg was considered a "hawk" in some loyalist circles. Such a tabloid media critique is countered by some UDA linked academic voices who provide evidence of many progressive, or so-called, "dove" initiatives, moves which were countered by the state..

Gregg was born in 1957 and raised in a Protestant family from the Tigers Bay area of North Belfast. Gregg when explaining his family background, revealed that his father, regarded as a quiet man, had trust in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army but joined the loyalist vigilante groups set up around the start of the Troubles ostensibly to protect the Protestant community from attacks by republicans. His own earliest memory of the Troubles was the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marches in Derry, a movement to which Gregg and his family were strongly opposed.

Gregg joined the Ulster Young Militants (UYM), the youth wing of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) at the age of 14. He spent six months in jail for rioting in 1977. He later became part of the UDA South East Antrim Brigade. Members of this brigade were believed to be behind the killings of Catholic postman Danny McColgan, Protestant teenager Gavin Brett and Trevor Lowry (the latter kicked to death in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic), and a spate of pipe bomb attacks on the homes of Catholics.