Stephen McKeag (1 April 1970 – 24 September 2000), nicknamed Top Gun, was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary and a Commander of the Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) 'C' Company in the 1990s. He is responsible for many killings of Catholics and Irish republicans. Although most of his operations took place from the Shankill Road in Belfast, McKeag was actually a native of the lower Oldpark Road in the north of the city.
Early years As a youth, McKeag's first group affiliation was with the neo-nazi white power skinhead gangs that existed on the Shankill and which were co-opted into the UDA's youth wing Ulster Young Militants. McKeag then later became a born-again Christian and married young to a woman named Alison. His active interest in Christianity would diminish as he became more involved in the UDA, whilst his marriage also broke up. Along with Johnny Adair and other younger figures, McKeag helped to fill the power vacuum left in the UDA by the deaths of John McMichael and Jim Craig and the departures of Andy Tyrie and Tommy Lyttle.
Killings McKeag became involved in 'C' Company of the lower Shankill – the most active unit of the UDA – around 1989, heading his own section of the company which was a hit squad (other sections concentrating on drug-dealing, money laundering and similar activities). According to Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, the UDA gave an annual "Volunteer of the Year" award to the organisation's top hitman. The award, presented on the Shankill Road and usually consisting of a trophy in the form of a model gun and plaque made by loyalists prisoners, was dominated by McKeag from 1990 onwards and helped to ensure that he became known as "Top Gun" both to his UDA comrades and his republican opponents. In all, the RUC estimated that McKeag was responsible for at least 12 killings of mostly innocent Catholic civilians, although the figure was placed higher by a number of his former paramilitary associates. One of McKeag's earliest attacks occurred on 11 March 1990 when he shot and killed Eamon Quinn outside his Kashmir Road home in the Clonard district of the Falls Road, beginning a long campaign of sectarian killings by the UDA. On 31 July he was behind a similar attack on the Springfield Road, where Catholic John Judge was killed after being shot five times by McKeag and his unit. This was followed on 16 October by the killing of Dermot McGuinness in Rosapena Street in north Belfast. Another victim was Seamus Sullivan, the son of former Belfast City Council member Jim Sullivan of the Workers' Party, killed on 4 September 1991 at the council depot on Springfield Avenue where he worked. Lawrence Murchan, a shopkeeper who was killed by McKeag and his unit on St James's Road on 28 September was the 2000th person to be killed during The Troubles. This was followed on 22 December by an attack on the Devenish Arms in Finaghy, resulting in the death of civil servant Aidan Wallace and wounding an 8-year-old boy who lost an eye.
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