Although it was initially suspected that the killing of the extreme loyalist figure and suspected drug dealer, Frankie Curry, on St Patrick's Day was retaliation for the killing two days earlier of the solicitor Ms Rosemary Nelson or because of a row he had had with the Ulster Volunteer Force's ceasefire, it was beginning to emerge yesterday that his death may have been as a result of a personal row.

Curry was a troublesome figure and was fomenting opposition to pro-ceasefire paramilitaries, particularly in the loyalist heartland of the Shankill Road.

He had also been responsible for setting up and recruiting disaffected loyalists to his splinter group, the Red Hand Defenders, who were responsible for Tuesday's killing of the solicitor.

According to loyalist sources in west Belfast, Curry had also made fairly widespread threats, including some directed against members of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party.

Loyalist sources in Belfast said yesterday his death has pointed up the tensions within their community which they feel are increasing.

The PUP's main spokesman, David Ervine, has been increasingly expressing concern about the lack of political movement at Stormont, partly, it is understood, because he and his party colleagues were keenly concerned at the dangers arising from loyalist dissenters.

He has pointed out several times that, while there has been considerable political and media interest in the internal pressures within republicanism, there has been very little media interest in the parallel developments within loyalism.

In the past year pressures have been building within loyalism as the extremes have sought to undermine the political progress in the North which they see as a sell-out to republicanism and an extension of Irish Government power and influence in the North.

Curry and his associates, particularly another dissident loyalist paramilitary figure in north Belfast, and an extreme evangelical clerical figure, have been principally responsible for stirring opposition to the pro-agreement stance of the loyalist leaders.

Although born in the Shankill and the nephew of the loyalist folk hero and founder of the modern UVF, Gusty Spence, it is understood he was under a threat that if he returned to the area he would be shot.

He returned last Sunday, at about the same time that members of the Red Hand Defenders were giving an interview to a journalist in the area. Shortly afterwards he was walking towards his mother's house in the lower Shankill, passing a social club frequented by paramilitary figures, when a young gunman approached him.

Suspicion quickly focused on the Ulster Volunteer Force, but this group has strongly denied any involvement.

THE UVF had probably the best record of any paramilitary group in the North in sticking to its ceasefire, although it had planted a bomb outside the Sinn Fein offices in Monaghan town after the IRA broke its first ceasefire by bombing Canary Wharf in February 1996.

Like the IRA, the UVF is against decommissioning weapons. Figures close to the organisation point out that if weapons were handed in now, it would only encourage figures like Curry to increase their violence. Its rank-and-file membership is dead set against decommissioning, according to the sources.

After the St Patrick's Day killing, Curry's associates issued more threats to pro-agreement figures, but loyalist sources are sceptical about the group's ability to grow to a position where it could challenge the UVF, which is the only loyalist terrorist organisation to remain active, trained and not organisationally involved in drugs crimes.

By contrast, the other main loyalist group, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), is believed to have fragmented into what are virtually neighbourhood gangs, several of which are said to be involved in drugs.

However, as the UVF has sought to maintain its strength and stability in the loyalist community, it is expected to have increasing problems as issues, the most obvious being the expected annual Drumcree standoff, approach.

The UVF re-established its position as the dominant loyalist paramilitary group in north Armagh late last year when the Loyalist Volunteer Force, the dissident group led by the local figure Billy Wright, disbanded and agreed to hand in weapons in order to gain early release from prison for about 30 of its members.

However, having re-established itself in Portadown, and in its efforts to keep dissent at bay, the UVF leadership may find itself drawn into the annual Drumcree imbroglio.

The UVF supports the Orangemen's demand to walk down Garvaghy Road. But it also played a significant role in supporting Orangemen who called off the other controversial march down the Ormeau Road in 1997 when a march was allowed down Garvaghy. UVF figures actually faced down local loyalists who were confronting and threatening the Ballynafeigh Orangemen as they called off their march.

IF IT wishes to keep the support of the majority loyalist community - which supports the Drumcree Orangemen - the UVF will almost certainly have to take a strong position on the issue. The drift of the UVF into involvement in Drumcree is fraught with dangers.

This year, matters in Drumcree and Garvaghy Road will be greatly exacerbated by the Red Hand Defenders' murder of Ms Nelson, who had championed the Catholic residents' opposition to the march. Catholics will be more determined than ever to stop the march.

Loyalist and security sources in the North are already beginning to predict that in the absence of a secure political situation and agreement between the Orangemen and Catholic residents, this year's Drumcree could be extremely difficult to police.