FROM IAN LUNDY IN BELFAST

THE ROW emerging among Ulster Defence Association members in Co. Antrim over a wall mural in Rathcoole, has led to the extraordinary disclosure that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was, for much of her later adult life, a senior UDA commander.

“I remember when she signed on,” says Sammy Sam, a veteran UDA volunteer, who says he was there the night the Queen took the oath in Sandy Row, Belfast. “It was strange because she was in essence swearing loyalty to herself, but she was anxious to do her bit. The Fenians were at the gates and the Union was about to fall. I won’t give details but the Queen did her bit for God and Ulster. Quis Separabit.”

It is understood that Her Majesty was very active during the worst days of the Troubles and actually led several delegations that tried to search for a more peaceful way of dealing with the conflict that had emerged in Northern Ireland. “She became central to the UDA’s political strategy,” explained a former UDA hitman from his home in Surrey. “She was close to old John McMichael in the 80s. When he was assassinated, that hurt her more than Lord Mountbatten’s killing, I think. She almost gave up. But she was a trooper. I think it’s good that she’s recognized with a wall mural. How many more trigger men do we need on our gable ends?”

Andy, who withheld his surname as former comradse have a a contract out on his life, said from his hiding place in Scotland: “People who wonder why she was so pleasant when she met Martin McGuinness that time he asked her how she was, don’t realize that she had met him before, in a pub in Cavan, in the early 1970s, when they were each part of delegations trying to arrange a general ceasefire. They were the only ones not drinking – McGuinness was a teetotaler – and so while the others got roaring drunk, HM – as she was known – and Martin discussed horses and cricket – he loved cricket.”

It’s believed that the Queen withdrew from the UDA after the Good Friday Agreement. “She wasn’t happy with all that,” a senior UDA source explained. “Remember, she was the Union, so to speak. Surrendering all those concessions to the Fenians, that had to hurt. She never resisted it but she did not feel she could openly support it in her UDA capacity. But you’d never have guessed it, because she played the monarch role perfectly, even going to Dublin and making small talk with the Free State. That took courage. What a lady. Proud to call her my comrade.”