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{{Short description|Ulster loyalist (born 1963)}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox military person
|name = Mo Courtney
|birth_name = William Samuel Courtney
|other_names
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|battles_label = Conflict▼
▲|unit =C Company, 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, [[UDA West Belfast Brigade|West Belfast Brigade]]
▲|battles_label= Conflict
}}▼
▲|spouse =
▲|children =
▲|}}'''William Samuel "Mo" Courtney''' (born 8 July 1963)<ref>Full name and date of birth are taken from police mugshots as pictured in David Lister & Hugh Jordan, ''Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C' Company'', Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2004</ref> was an [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA) activist. He was a leading figure in [[Johnny Adair]]'s C Company, one of the most active sections of the UDA, before later falling out with Adair and serving as [[UDA West Belfast Brigade|West Belfast]] brigadier.
==Early years==
Courtney was born in [[Belfast]] in July 1963.<ref name="Mad56">David Lister & Hugh Jordan, ''Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C' Company'', Mainstream, 2004, p. 56</ref>
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Courtney was part in a gang of teenagers from [[Belfast]]'s [[Shankill Road]] and nearby districts who spent their days near the [[Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes|Buffs Club]] on Century Street in the nearby Oldpark district. This gang included [[Johnny Adair|Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair]] with whom Courtney formed a friendship.<ref>Lister & Jordan, ''Mad Dog'', pp.
Courtney had a reputation as something of a petty thief and even suffered a [[punishment beating]] from more senior members of the UDA for a spate of burglaries on the Shankill.<ref name="Mad56"/> However Courtney was taken away from these habits by [[William "Winkie" Dodds]], an old family friend of the Courtneys who was five years older than Mo. Initially recruiting just Courtney, before also adding Adair and others from Oldpark, Dodds trained the youngsters in weapons use
==UDA activity==
Courtney was soon sent out as a gunman and was allegedly active in killing by around 1987.<ref>Lister & Jordan, ''Mad Dog'', p. 59</ref> During the 1980s he headed an Active Service Unit (ASU) of the UDA in West Belfast.<ref name="taylor204">Peter Taylor, ''Loyalists'', Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 204</ref> He was questioned in regards to the 1989 murder of [[Pat Finucane (solicitor)|Pat Finucane]] in 2002.<ref name="UDA377">Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, ''UDA
During the late 1980s, Courtney was part of a movement within the UDA that became frustrated with the directions being taken by the UDA leadership. He argued that too little was being done by the movement in terms of killing [[Irish republicanism|republicans]] as the leaders were too happy to sit back and become rich from extortion and racketeering. Courtney was soon involved in conspiracies to overthrow the UDA leadership.<ref name="taylor204205">Taylor, ''Loyalists'', pp.
Courtney was jailed in 1991 for robbery, theft and hijacking, and soon became a leading figure within the [[Maze prison]]. Along with Adair and [[Michael Stone (loyalist)|Michael Stone]], he met [[Democratic Unionist Party]] (DUP) politician and then [[Lord Mayor of Belfast]], Rev [[Eric Smyth]] in the prison to discuss the possibility of a future prisoner release scheme.<ref>[http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2003/jan30_adair_lieutenant_shifts_sides.php Adair's lieutenant shifts sides to UDA]</ref>
He gained a reputation as a fearsome fighter and took a leading role in the battles with the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF) during the internecine [[loyalist feud]] between Adair's men and the UVF in 2000.<ref name="UDA377"/> On 19 August 2000 when the feud broke out fully during the "loyalist day of culture" held on the Shankill Road, Courtney was identified as one of three UDA gunmen who shot at UVF members who had barricaded themselves in the "Rex Bar". Three people were injured in the gun attack with others wounded from a series of physical attacks by C Company members.<ref>Lister & Jordan, ''Mad Dog'', pp.
In the 1990s he was the subject on an interview by British journalist [[Peter Taylor (journalist)|Peter Taylor]] for his televised documentary and book ''Loyalists''. During the interview he recounted his time as a gunman in the late 1980s when he was "on the go seven days a week" and "couldn't even afford a pint".<ref name="taylor204205"/>
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==Alan McCullough==
Courtney regained his influence within the UDA and replaced [[Jackie Thompson (loyalist)|"Fat Jackie" Thompson]] as brigadier of the West Belfast UDA.<ref name="Mad335">Lister & Jordan, ''Mad Dog'', p. 335</ref> As a result, it was he that [[Alan McCullough (loyalist)|Alan McCullough]], who had fled to England with Adair, phoned in mid-2003 seeking permission to return to the Shankill having grown tired of life in exile in [[Bolton]]. McCullough promised Courtney to tell him the whereabouts of a huge haul of drugs stashed by C Company as well as the address of Gina Adair, whose house McCullough even shot at
Courtney, along with [[Ihab Shoukri]], was arrested and charged with the murder of McCullough a few days later.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, ''UDA'', p. 394</ref> He had been discovered in [[Carrickfergus]] where he had gone into hiding.<ref>{{cite web |title=Finucane suspect charged over UDA feud killing |date=15 June 2003 |website=[
Following his release, the Court of Appeal passed judgement that his acquittal had been unsound and ordered a retrial. Not long after this, in January 2007, Courtney was the victim of a savage attack on the Shankill Road by an old UVF rival.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20070128/ai_n17159940/?tag=content;col1 Mo Attacked]</ref>
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==Subsequent activity==
Courtney has continued to be linked to the Finucane murder and in 2007, whilst serving his sentence for his involvement in McCullough's death, he was named as one of the two gunmen to kill Finucane in an [[affidavit]] filed in a Belfast court by [[Metropolitan Police]] officer Detective Chief Inspector Graham Taylor, who was at the time heading the investigation into the killing.<ref>[http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/News_of_the_World/arts2007/apr22_Courtney_killed_Finucane__MBreen.php Courtney 'killed Finucane']</ref>
Courtney was released from prison and returned to his home in the Glencairn area to the north of the Shankill. However, in 2013 Courtney was convicted of the assault of Tracey Coulter at the offices of the Lower Shankill Community Association. According to court reports Coulter had gone to the offices
===North Belfast feud===
Beginning in 2013 and continuing into the following year, a [[loyalist feud]] broke out within the UDA North Belfast Brigade between the supporters of its leader [[John Bunting (loyalist)|John Bunting]] and a dissident tendency based in [[Tigers Bay]] who sought to oust Bunting and install Robert Molyneaux as a replacement.<ref name="belfasttelegraph.co.uk">[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/uda-feud-escalates-over-bid-to-oust-north-belfast-brigadier-john-bunting-29821218.html UDA feud escalates over bid to oust north Belfast 'brigadier' John Bunting]</ref> From the start Bunting, as well as fellow brigadiers [[Jackie McDonald]] and [[Jimmy Birch]], stated that elements within the West Belfast Brigade were closely involved with the dissidents and as a result the West Belfast Brigade split from the rest of the UDA.<ref
Courtney was widely reported as one of the leading figures in the conspiracy and in early 2014 UDA leaders approached [[Matt Kincaid]], offering him the chance to re-integrate the West Belfast Brigade with the wider UDA if he expelled Courtney and Jim Spence. Kincaid rejected the proposal however, opting instead to support Courtney and Spence.<ref>{{Cite news |last= Barnes |title= UDA Chiefs' Unity Talks Are a Flop |newspaper= [[Belfast Telegraph]] {{Subscription required
==References==
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[[Category:1963 births]]
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[[Category:UDA C Company members]]
[[Category:Loyalists imprisoned during the Northern Ireland conflict]]
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