Mo Courtney
| Mo Courtney | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | William Samuel Courtney |
| Born |
July 8, 1963 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Allegiance | Ulster Defence Association (UDA) |
| Rank | Brigadier |
| Unit | C Company, 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, West Belfast Brigade |
| Conflict | The Troubles |
William Samuel "Mo" Courtney (born 8 July 1963) was an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) activist. He was a leading figure in Johnny Adair's C Company, one of the most active sections of the UDA, before later falling out with Adair and serving as West Belfast brigadier.
Courtney was born in Belfast in July 1963.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Courtney was part in a gang of teenagers from Belfast's Shankill Road and nearby districts who spent their days near the Buffs Club on Century Street in the nearby Oldpark district. This gang included Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair with whom Courtney formed a friendship. The gang as a group had joined C8, one of around eighteen teams of 30 to 60 men that made up C Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, over a period of several months in 1984. Courtney and Adair became closer as the 1980s went on and on 23 November 1985 they attended the "Ulster Says No" rally against the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Belfast City Hall together. According to Courtney the signing of the Agreement saw a surge of recruits to the UDA in general and C Company in particular, leading to an upswing in violent activity.
Courtney had a reputation as something of a petty thief and even suffered a punishment beating from more senior members of the UDA for a spate of burglaries on the Shankill. However Courtney was taken away from these habits by William "Winkie" Dodds, an old family friend of the Courtneys who was five years older than Mo. Initially recruiting just Courtney, before also adding Adair and others from Oldpark, Dodds trained the youngsters in weapons use in order to prepare them for active service.
Courtney was soon sent out as a gunman and was allegedly active in killing by around 1987. During the 1980s he headed an Active Service Unit (ASU) of the UDA in West Belfast. He was questioned in regards to the 1989 murder of Pat Finucane in 2002.
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