Richard Jameson

Richard Jameson (c. 1953 – 10 January 2000), was a Northern Irish businessman and loyalist, who served as the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade. He was killed outside his Portadown home during a feud with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the breakaway organisation founded by former Mid-Ulster UVF commander Billy Wright after he and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were officially stood down by the Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) in August 1996.

Following Jameson's death, the feud between the UVF and LVF escalated into a series of retaliatory killings. These went on intermittently until the LVF disbanded in 2005.

Early life and paramilitary career Richard Jameson was born in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland to a Protestant Church of Ireland family in about 1953, one of five sons. He had a twin brother, Stuart. He was married to Moira by whom he had three children: Glen, Wayne and Kirsty. Jameson was a member of the Orange Order's Drumherriff Star of Erin LOL 8 Portadown district.

It is not known exactly when he became a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) nor the leader of its Mid-Ulster Brigade. The units of the Mid-Ulster Brigade that remained loyal to the Brigade Staff continued to operate and Jameson became commander. On the evening of 10 January 2000, Jameson returned from work and drove his Isuzu Trooper jeep into the driveway outside his home on the Derrylettiff Road near Portadown. Waiting in ambush, a single gunman suddenly approached from the passenger side of the parked jeep. Before Jameson could emerge from the vehicle and with the engine still running, the gunman opened fire through the window with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and shot Jameson five times in the head and chest. His assassin escaped to a nearby getaway car. Jameson was rushed to Craigavon Area Hospital but died of his wounds minutes after his arrival. The RUC immediately began a murder inquiry. Within hours of the killing, the UVF Brigade Staff convened an emergency meeting at "the Eagle", their headquarters on the Shankill Road, where they compiled a list of all those they believed had been involved in Jameson's death and planned their retaliation against the LVF.

Jameson's funeral was held on 13 January at the Tartaraghan Parish Church and attended by several thousand mourners including Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leaders David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson. Drumcree Orangeman Harold Gracey and Gary McMichael, the son of slain Ulster Defence Association (UDA) brigadier John McMichael, also attended as did local politicians representing the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The service was officiated by Reverend David Hilliard who spoke out against vengeance and described Jameson as a "man admired and loved by many" and who "had been so cruelly murdered". Jameson was buried in the adjacent churchyard.

Aftermath

Despite Reverend Hilliard's pleas and LVF leader Mark "Swinger" Fulton's claim that his organisation had had nothing to do with the shooting, the UVF/LVF feud intensified. In the immediate aftermath members of Jameson's family were filmed angrily defacing LVF murals in Portadown. However neither teenager was part of any paramilitary organisation and only Robb had tenuous links to the LVF. It was reported in the Belfast Telegraph that according to court hearings Robb had made disparaging remarks about Jameson's death. One of Jameson's brothers, Bobby was among the mourners at David McIlwaine's funeral. The West Belfast Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association, whose brigadier Johnny Adair was close to the LVF, briefly became involved in the feud after Adair attended Andrew Robb's funeral and joined LVF members at the Drumcree conflict. After the UVF tracked Jameson's killer down to the Oldpark area of Belfast and attempted to shoot him he was taken away under the protection of the West Belfast Brigade. The tit-for-tat killings went on intermittently until 2005 when the UVF made a final assault against the LVF, leaving four members dead and the LVF leadership with no alternative but to order its military units to permanently disband.

Richard Jameson's family have persistently denied that he was a UVF member. They maintain that he was a vigilante who was murdered in retaliation for the firm stand he had taken against drug dealing in the Portadown area. The late PUP leader David Ervine had expressed the same opinion the day after the killing by stating that "Mr. Jameson had been murdered by drug dealers masquerading as loyalists because he had been a bulwark in his community against dealers". It also emerged that for several days prior to his killing, he had been working at the Ballykinlar British Army base.