Former terror chief Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair says John Hume personally persuaded him and other top loyalists to join him on the path to peace.
Jailed for 16 years for directing terrorism, Adair was one of five UFF leaders to take part in top-level talks with the SDLP leader – while still serving a sentence in the Maze Prison.
The jailhouse summit came about after the veteran nationalist politician learned UFF prisoners had voted to end their ceasefire.
But after a full and frank discussion with Hume, the UFF men reversed an earlier decision return to violence.
Now based in Scotland, the former UDA brigadier for West Belfast spoke for the first this week about his respect for John Hume, who passed away last August and has been hailed as perhaps the greatest ever Irish person.