There have been recent rising tensions between the UDA and UVF in the Tigers Bay and Shore Road districts\n<\/p>\n
A band parade dedicated to dead teenager Glen Branagh \u2013 a relative of top actor Sir Kenneth Branagh \u2013 passed off peacefully despite recent rising tensions between the UDA and UVF in the Tigers Bay and Shore Road districts.<\/p>\n
Glen \u2018Spacer\u2019 Branagh (16) was killed instantly when a blast bomb he was preparing to throw exploded during sectarian rioting on North Queen Street on November 11 2001.<\/p>\n
He was a member of the Ulster Young Militants, the UDA\u2019s youth wing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Glen Hugh Branagh, who died on during rioting at Tiger’s Bay in north Belfast, was a member of the youth wing of the Ulster Defence Association.<\/p>\n
Last Sat, UDA-linked loyalists gathered in Tigers Bay for an annual band parade held in his honour.<\/p>\n
But the parade was also viewed by local UDA veterans as a barometer of the organisation\u2019s declining support among residents.<\/p>\n
Tigers Bay has long been a UDA stronghold but Shankill Road-based UVF are trying to take it over, sources told the Sunday World.<\/p>\n
A well-placed UDA source told us: \u201cIt is no secret that UDA membership in north Belfast is diminished and has been declining for a number of years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tiger’s Bay in north Belfast<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – Thursday, October 30 <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a natural development. And as the Troubles become little more than a folk memory, local people don\u2019t see any point of young people running the risk of police harassment and jail sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut every summer a row develops over the siting of the community bonfire which has been a feature in Tigers Bay for at least 100 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cUVF leaders, including the now discredited \u2018Winkie\u2019 Irvine, arrived down from the Shankill with a blueprint of how they wanted things carried out over the 12th holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was clear the UVF saw the UDA in Tigers Bay as a depleted and weakened organisation and local people, rightly or wrongly, saw it as a UVF takeover.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, who are they to arrive down here from the Shankill to start telling us how to run our own community?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obvious local people are going to kick back against that sort of thing,\u201d said the veteran loyalist, who at the height of the Troubles had served a jail sentence for UDA activities.<\/p>\n
![\"Memorial](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/eb17087d-20bd-44d0-bba5-f446f3954c4a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Memorial plaque for Glen Hugh Branagh<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe Shankill UVF is viewed in this area as an \u2018on-message\u2019 government grant-funded organisation, but despite their best efforts, they don\u2019t speak for the people of Tigers Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the build-up to last weekend\u2019s Glen Branagh Memorial Parade, UDA murals in the area were given a fresh coat of paint.<\/p>\n
Kerb stones along the Edlington Street entrance to Tigers Bay were painted red, white and blue.<\/p>\n
It is being seen locally as the UDA reasserting itself to show it still has influence in the hardcore loyalist area.<\/p>\n
\u2018Spacer\u2019 Branagh was \u2013 amazingly for a loyalist \u2013 a supporter of Glasgow Celtic, and the club\u2019s badge features on plaque near the spot where he was killed, along with the badge of his other favourite club, Liverpool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There have been recent rising tensions between the UDA and UVF in the Tigers Bay and Shore Road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-155090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115468335009152791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}