1. John "Jackie" McDonald was born on 2 August 1947 and is a Northern Irish loyalist and the incumbent Ulster Defence Association brigadier for South Belfast, having been promoted to the rank by former UDA commander Andy Tyrie in 1988, following John McMichael's killing by the Provisional IRA in December 1987.
Jackie McDonald is a member of the organisation's Inner Council and the spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group, the UDA's political advisory body.
Jackie McDonald joined the UDA in 1972 about a year after it was formed in Belfast as an umbrella organisation for loyalist vigilante groups.
Jackie McDonald was a member of the Taughmonagh C Battalion South Belfast Brigade.
Jackie McDonald was already a senior UDA member when he played a part in the Ulster Workers Council Strike, helping people on his south Belfast housing estate obtain food, medicine, transport and other necessities during the general strike which had brought Northern Ireland to a standstill in May 1974.
When receiving his social security payments during the strike, Jackie McDonald received a military salute from his boss when he walked into the latter's office wearing his complete UDA combat uniform.
Jackie McDonald subsequently assumed command of McMichael's South Belfast brigade having previously served as his second-in-command.
Jackie McDonald did not want a war with the UVF and, according to authors Henry Jackie McDonald and Jim Cusack, ultimately negotiated a settlement whereby the killer would be housed on the edge of Taugmonagh and told to keep a low profile.
Nonetheless Jackie McDonald did not advocate a return to armed struggle and in late 1999 when it became clear that a feud between the UVF and LVF was about to begin he joined fellow brigadiers McFarland, Gregg and Jim Gray in announcing that the UDA would not be getting involved.
Jackie McDonald grew further apart from Adair as the year 2000 progressed.
Jackie McDonald had grown weary of seeing the mainstream unionist parties seek to ally themselves to loyalist paramilitaries when it was expedient only to sever any links as soon as the relationship no longer suited them.
Jackie McDonald was one of a number of brigadiers to accept Adair's invitation to a "Loyalist Day of Culture" on the Shankill Road on 19 August 2000 but was shocked to find that C Company had used the day to drive UVF members and their families from the road, even attacking the homes of such UVF "elder statesmen" as Gusty Spence and Winston Churchill Rea.
Jackie McDonald however retained his earlier attitude towards feuding with the C Company UDA, and along with McFarland and Gray, told his men to leave the Shankill that evening.
Jackie McDonald promptly contacted his opposite number in the South Belfast UVF and concluded a pact that their members would not attack each other.
Nonetheless when Adair was released from prison on 15 May 2002, Jackie McDonald, arguing that he deserved a second chance and hoping that his return to prison may have mellowed him, was one of the brigadiers to appear at Adair's Boundary Way home and welcome him back in front of the television cameras.
When Jackie McDonald was told about this second meeting he secured agreement with the other brigadiers that Adair should be expelled from the UDA.
Tension simmered for the next few months with little real fighting although Jackie McDonald threw a ring of steel around his Taughmonagh stronghold and even obtained an air raid siren to be sounded if any C Company members attempted to enter the estate.
The killing of John Gregg and his associate Rab Carson by C Company in Sailortown on 1 February 2003 however finally led to a showdown, with Jackie McDonald taking charge of the anti-Adair faction.
Jackie McDonald quickly got word to A and B Company of the West Belfast UDA, covering the Highfield estate and Woodvale areas of the Greater Shankill and nominally under Adair's command, that Adair was to be removed and secured the loyalty of these two groups.
Jackie McDonald told them to set up an office on the Shankill's Heather Street Social Club as a safe house where members of C Company could defect back to the mainstream UDA.
Several weeks later Jackie McDonald organised a "battle of the bands" at which he made it clear that unity had been re-established.
Jackie McDonald remains a member of the UDA's Inner Council and is the spokesman for its political advisory body, the Ulster Political Research Group.
Jackie McDonald has in recent years turned his attention to community-building activities and helping former loyalist prisoners as a full-time organiser of the John McMichael Centre in Belfast's Sandy Row district, named after his deceased friend and former comrade.
Jackie McDonald criticised republicans and Sinn Fein for manipulating the parades issue.
Jackie McDonald met Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in person for the first time in June 2010, although the two had spoken previously over the telephone.
On 18 May 2011, Jackie McDonald led a delegation of UDA brigadiers to the ceremony at the Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, Dublin where Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath during her three-day visit to the Republic of Ireland.
Jackie McDonald, who said he was proud and felt honoured to have participated in the event made the following statements to the Irish Times:.
Jackie McDonald cited the excess consumption of alcohol by followers and supporters of the parades in Belfast causing violence on occasions.
Jackie McDonald noted that if the parades had an outward route only without having a return route the potential for disorder would be decreased.
Jackie McDonald is the most senior UDA brigadier, and author Jon Moran credits him with restoring order to the organisation due to his prominent role in bringing about the downfall of Johnny Adair.
Jackie McDonald confirmed this is an interview with Ian S Wood: "We do take as hard a line as we can in South Belfast".