The appearance on Drumcree hill of one of the North's most notorious loyalists, the former UDA prisoner Johnny Adair, on Monday night and the Ulster Freedom Fighters' show of strength have set alarm bells ringing in political circles in both Britain and the North.
The British Conservative Shadow Northern Secretary, Mr Andrew Mackay, yesterday described Adair as a "very dangerous man" who should never have been released from prison. "At the time he was released I said the government was wrong and now there is ample evidence that [Northern Secretary] Peter Mandelson should put him back behind bars where he belongs," Mr Mackay said.
Adair (35), nicknamed "Mad Dog" for his role in directing violence in the early 1990s, was released in September from the high-security Maze Prison under the Belfast Agreement's early release scheme. Since then, he is believed to have again become a leading loyalist figure on Shankill Road in west Belfast.
Commander in the Maze of the UDA/UFF, Adair was released after serving four years of a 16-year term imposed in September 1995 after becoming the first man in the North to be convicted of directing terrorism.
At his trial, at which he pleaded guilty, the prosecutor, Mr Pat Lynch, described Adair as "dedicated to his cause, which was nakedly sectarian in its hatred of those it regarded as militant republicans, among whom he had lumped almost the entire Catholic population".
At the time of his release, the then Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, was reported to have had strong objections. It is understood she challenged the Sentence Review Commission's preliminary decision to release Adair but withdrew her objection after complaints by the Ulster Democratic Party, the UFF's political representatives, that no individual prisoner should be discriminated against.
The Belfast Agreement stipulates that if the Northern Secretary is "sufficiently concerned" that a released prisoner had broken his release conditions by "commissioning, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism" he can revoke his licence.
Adair has made no secret of his friendship with leading Loyalist Volunteer Force figures in Portadown and has been speaking on behalf of both the LVF and the UFF during a recent internal loyalist dispute. Yesterday he called on protesters to "stay clear of violence" and said he intended to return to Drumcree Hill before Sunday's banned Orange Order parade.