Billy McQuiston

William Billy McQuiston, also known as Twister, is a former loyalist, who was a highranking member of the Ulster Defence Association . Leader of the organisations A Company, Highfield, West Belfast Brigade, McQuiston spent more thanyears in the Maze Prison outside Lisburn for possession of weapons. He is now a community activist, often working with former members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in West Belfasts troubled interface areas where adjoining loyalist and republican communities occasionally clash.

McQuiston was born and raised in west Belfasts staunchly loyalist and Protestant Shankill Road area. Billy McQuiston joined the junior wing of the UDA immediately after the bomb in the Balmoral Showrooms onDecember 1971 with his decision also influenced by his father having been UDA commander in the area at the time. He recalls The area I came from, the family that I came from and the activity that was going on in that area, I dont think I really had any other choice. He was almostat the time the bomb exploded on a Saturday afternoon in the heart of the Shankill, which was crowded with shoppers. The bomb killed two adult men and two babies. McQuiston was with a friend and they were on their way to the city centre the boys rushed to the scene and saw the bodies of the infants as they were brought out of the rubble, wrapped in sheets. The following evening he and several friends attended a meeting of the local UDA. One at a time, the teenaged boys were brought into a room by two

Source: Wikipedia