Billy Hanna

Hanna was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland in about 1929, and brought up as a Protestant.

According to journalist David McKittrick in his book Lost Lives, Hanna, at an early age became "obsessed with guns and military paraphernalia in general".

He began his military career in the British Army, serving in the Royal Ulster Rifles where he held the rank of lance-corporal.

He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry during the Korean War.

After Hanna left the regular Army, he joined the North Irish Militia, Territorial Army unit (TA) and later the Ulster Special Constabulary, commonly known as the B Specials, which was a reserve police force in Northern Ireland.

In the late 1960s, the violent religious and political conflict known as the Troubles broke out in Northern Ireland.

Many people from both sides of the religious/political divide were caught up in the violence that ensued.

When the latter was disbanded in 1970, he joined the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), a locally recruited infantry regiment of the British Army, as a part-time member.

Upon their disbandment in May 1970, he then became a part-time member of the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

He would have been fast tracked on a refresher course to sharpen up his military skills, and would have been part of the UDR's front line of experienced soldiers when the regiment began duties in 1970.

In the regimental history of the UDR the author commented on men like him and (referring to another individual) suggested that, "he may have regarded himself as a true blue loyalist but had so little understanding of the meaning of loyalty that he would betray his regiment and his comrades....."

Hanna was no exception as attacks waged by the Provisional IRA escalated in the early 1970s, and many Ulster loyalists in Northern Ireland, feeling that their status was being threatened and the state response insufficient, sought to retaliate with illegal violence by joining one of the two main loyalist paramilitary organisations, the legal UDA or the illegal UVF.

Hanna's Mid-Ulster unit was part of the group of loyalist extremists known as the Glenanne gang, comprising members of the RUC, UDR, UDA as well as the UVF, which carried out sectarian attacks in the 1970s in the area of south Armagh and mid-Ulster referred to as the "murder triangle".

The gang was allegedly controlled by the RUC Special Branch and/or British Military Intelligence.

He was in 2 UDR's C (Lurgan) Company before it became C Company 11th Battalion Ulster Defence Regiment (C Coy, 11 UDR) in 1972.

He served as a permanent staff instructor (PSI), holding the rank of sergeant, although he was for a time weapons instructor at 2 UDR's base in Gough Barracks in Armagh.

According to David McKittrick and UDR historian John Potter, Hanna was dismissed from the UDR after serving two years as a sergeant "for UVF activity", however, authors Malcolm Sutton and Martin Dillon suggested he was still a member of the regiment at the time of his death.

His brother Gordon served as a full-time member of the UDR.

Members of militant groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) managed to join the UDR despite the vetting process.

Their purpose in doing so was to obtain weapons, training and intelligence.

Vetting procedures were carried out jointly by British military intelligence and the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Special Branch and if no intelligence was found to suggest unsuitability individuals were passed for recruitment and would remain as soldiers until the commanding officer was provided with intelligence enabling him to remove soldiers with paramilitary links or sympathies.

With his previous military experience and decoration for bravery, Hanna was just the type of recruit needed.

According to Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Patrol Group (RUC) officer John Weir, Hanna was a leader of one of the two UVF units that planned and carried out the Dublin car bombings on 17 May 1974, which killed 26 people.

Former British soldier and psychological warfare operative Colin Wallace suggested that Hanna had been the principal organiser of the Dublin attacks.

Journalist Joe Tiernan confirmed this and stated that he had also directed the Monaghan bombing which occurred that same evening and claimed an additional seven lives.

A Garda Síochána document dating from 1974 to 1975 revealed that the Republic's police knew Hanna was the Officer Commanding (OC) of the Mid-Ulster Brigade's Lurgan unit.

Tiernan alleged that Hanna personally recruited and trained young men from the Lurgan and Portadown areas who were "prepared to defend Ulster at any cost".

Directed by Hanna, the brigade became the most lethal loyalist paramilitary group operating in mid-Ulster.

He then began carrying out bank and post office robberies, and intimidated local businessmen into paying protection money to the Mid-Ulster UVF.

William Henry Wilson Hanna MM (c. 1929 – 27 July 1975 ) was a high-ranking Ulster loyalist who founded and led the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) until he was killed, allegedly by Robin Jackson, who took over command of the brigade.

Hanna had been awarded the Military Medal for gallantry while serving with the British Army's Royal Ulster Rifles in the Korean War.

He then joined the Territorial Army and later the Ulster Special Constabulary.

Up until his death in 1975, Hanna was the leader of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF, having established the brigade and set up the first unit in his home town of Lurgan in 1972.

Hanna, who held the rank of brigadier, appointed himself commander and his leadership was endorsed by the UVF's supreme commander Gusty Spence.

On 23 October of that same year, an armed UVF gang raided King's Park camp, a UDR/Territorial Army depot in Lurgan, and stole a large cache of sophisticated guns and ammunition.

Hanna was the depot's guard commander when the raid took place.

A member of the UVF's Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) on the Shankill Road, Hanna was described by journalist Joe Tiernan as having been a "brilliant strategist and an able leader".

Hanna's place on the Brigade Staff was remarkable in itself because since the formation of the modern UVF by Gusty Spence, almost all of the UVF Brigade Staff members have been from the Shankill Road or the neighbouring Woodvale area to the west.

Hanna, a native of Lurgan, was one of the few exceptions.

He held the rank of sergeant in C (Lurgan) Company, 11th Battalion UDR and served as a permanent staff instructor (PSI).