Former UDA Leader Andy Tyrie Dies Aged 80

Andy Tyrie, former leader of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group responsible for hundreds of sectarian killings during the Troubles, has died in his 80s. Tyrie led the UDA from 1973 until 1988 when he resigned following a car bomb attack against him, and later became a supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, advocating for political engagement and reconciliation within loyalism. Despite his leadership during violent times, Tyrie opposed sectarian murder and emphasized confronting the IRA, and he was involved in organizing secret talks between the UDA and IRA decades earlier. He was a key figure in the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike which helped collapse the Sunningdale Agreement’s power-sharing government. Tyrie’s legacy is recognized in the Loyalist Conflict Museum in east Belfast, originally named the Andy Tyrie Interpretive Centre, and he was regarded by some as both a product of his turbulent era and a leader ahead of his time in advocating tolerance and peace. Tributes highlighted his complex role as a once-controversial figure who later championed reconciliation and issues affecting working-class loyalist communities.