Eddie Sayers

Who is Eddie Sayers?

Eddie Sayers is a former Northern Irish loyalist who served as brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association's Mid Ulster Brigade in the 1980s.

Sayers ran a small business in Omagh, County Tyrone, and became involved in unionist politics, joining Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party. He stood for the party in Mid Ulster at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1973, taking 4,454 first-preference votes, but narrowly missed election.

In the late 1970s, Sayers left the DUP and became active in the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association. He was quickly appointed Brigadier of its Mid Ulster Brigade. He stood for election to Omagh District Council in 1981, as an independent unionist, but came bottom of the poll, with only 74 votes. He also ran Borderline Security, which acted as a front for the UDA. Within the UDA he became noted as a close comrade of overall leader Andy Tyrie.

In 1987, the investigative journalist Roger Cook filmed Sayers attempting to extort money from a reporter posing as a businessman. This was broadcast the following year as an episode of The Cook Report, and was considered extremely embarrassing by the UDA, not least because it showed Sayers struggling with basic arithmetic. In the immediate aftermath of the broadcast the UDA announced that Sayers had been removed from his position, although in fact he remained as Brigadier in Mid-Ulster until he was arrested sometime later. He was tried at Belfast Crown Court in 1989, and sentenced to ten years in prison.