Charles Harding Smith - Feud

Feud

Tyrie had not proven to be the puppet that Smith had hoped and he had consolidated his power through his close involvement with Glenn Barr and the Ulster Workers Council during the strike of May 1974, an event that had helped to give real credence to Tyrie's leadership abilities. Fearing the growing power of Tyrie, Smith criticized the UDA leader for sending a delegation to Libya to meet Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was a hate figure for many loyalists due to his well documented arming of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Smith, who had known about the trip in advance but had raised no objections, verbally attacked Tyrie over the Libya debacle in a meeting of the Inner Council in December 1974 before declaring the following January that he intended to split his West Belfast Brigade from the rest of the UDA.

Two weeks after announcing the schism Smith was attending a meeting at the West Belfast UDA's headquarters with Tommy Lyttle when he noticed a sniper on a nearby roof. Smith, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, opened his coat as if to challenge the sniper to fire but was seriously wounded when the sniper did shoot twice, hitting him both times with armour-piercing bullets. With Smith in hospital Tyrie called a meeting of the leading figures in the Shankill UDA and managed to convince Lyttle and other leading figures that Smith was too divisive a figure to remain in charge.

Smith was out of hospital after only two weeks and declared himself to back in charge of the Shankill but before long he had fallen afoul of a number of important people. Two Shankill UDA members had been interned on the basis of evidence that rumours suggested had come from Smith whilst he had also clashed with the local UVF after suggesting that they merge but only on the basis that he would be in control. He also began to make threats against Barr and Chicken, two popular members who were leading figures on the UDA's political side. Smith called a meeting of his commanders but in an arranged stunt a gunman burst in and, as his commanders ducked under the table, shot him twice in the chest. The gunman walked up to the injured Smith and prepared to shoot him in the head but the gun jammed and he again survived an attempt on his life.