2017date: South East Antrim Brigade feud, The UDA divides its membership into six vaguely geographic areas which it labels "brigades" with the six commanders styled "Brigadiers". Southeastern Utah | State and Federal Parks | Visit Utah The gunmen shot dead six people and injured five. [25], Since 1964 and the formation of the Campaign for Social Justice, there had been a growing civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland, seeking to highlight discrimination against Catholics by the unionist government of Northern Ireland. Simmering tensions boiled over in a December 1999 incident involving LVF members and UVF Mid-Ulster brigadier Richard Jameson and his men at the Portadown F.C. Adair by this time had forged close links with the dissident LVF, a breakaway group to which the UVF was ardently opposed. It comprises high-ranking officers under a Chief of Staff or Brigadier-General. . When the Assets Recovery Agency won a High Court order to seize luxury homes belonging to ex-policeman Colin Robert Armstrong and his partner Geraldine Mallon in 2005, Alan McQuillan said "We have further alleged Armstrong has had links with the UVF and then the LVF following the split between those organisations." [38] Tiger's Bay had emerged as the stronghold of the anti-Bunting faction. Their weapons stock-piles are to be retained under the watch of the UVF leadership. A former high-profile leader of the UFF is Johnny Adair, who was released from prison in 2005 after serving two thirds of a 16-year sentence for directing terrorism on behalf of the organisation. He had been a prominent UVF member and was thought to have ordered or participated in about 20 killings. W Armagh wskanik ten wynosi 55,3% Unionistw / 44,7% Nacjonalistyczna. [106], In April 2021, riots erupted across Loyalist communities in Northern Ireland.[relevant? They managed to procure a large cache of weapons and ammunition including L1A1 Self-Loading Rifles, Browning pistols, and Sterling submachine guns. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks; it used the covername Ulster Freedom Fighters ( UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. . [162] It was around this time that Sunday World journalists Martin O'Hagan and Jim Campbell coined the term "rat pack" for the UVF's murderous mid-Ulster unit and, unable to identify Wright by name for legal reasons, they christened him "King Rat." [24] Harding Smith survived two separate shootings but crucially lost the support of other leading Shankill Road UDA figures and eventually left Belfast after being visited by North Belfast Brigadier Davy Payne, who warned him that he would not survive a third attack. They were blamed by the PSNI on members of the UVF, who also said UVF guns had been used to try to kill police officers. [citation needed]. The UVF very clearly have involvement in drug dealing, all forms of gangsterism, serious assaults, intimidation of the community. [120] They always signed their statements with the fictitious name "Captain William Johnston". The UVF leadership had sought and been given assurances that no LVF regalia would be displayed on the Shankill on the day of the procession. "They are holding local communities to ransom. The UDA's leadership were persuaded to call off their plan by a Protestant clergyman, who convinced them that the IRA were not involved. The new assessment says this is still the position and the IRA is in a much-reduced form and not recruiting or training. [34], On 12 August 1969, the "Battle of the Bogside" began in Derry. In October 1975, the UVF was undermined when soldiers and police swooped on houses in Belfast and East Antrim and arrested 26 men. Loyalist paramilitaries: Who are the groups in Northern Ireland? [156][157] Between 1979 and 1986, Canadian supporters supplied the UVF/UDA with 100 machine guns and thousands of rifles, grenade launchers, magnum revolvers, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. During the brawl Bunting was knocked unconscious and had his mobile phone stolen. In 1990, the UVF joined the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) and indicated its acceptance of moves towards peace. Security sources have previously said that with more than 2,000. [136] The UVF has also been involved in the extortion of legitimate businesses, although to a lesser extent than the UDA,[143] and was described in the fifth IMC report as being involved in organised crime. CAIN also states that republicans killed 15 UVF members, some of whom are suspected to have been set up for assassination by their colleagues. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during The Troubles. The South East Antrim UVF is being linked to a 100,000 cash and drugs haul seized in Carrickfergus. [22][23][24] Some members have also been found responsible for orchestrating a series of racist attacks. More militant members of the UVF who disagreed with the ceasefire, broke away to form the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), led by Billy Wright. Read about our approach to external linking. 2023 BBC. The Ulster Volunteer Force murdered more than 500 people during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It was banned by the government in June 1997 but it went on to murder a number of Catholics. Also shot up was the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) headquarters which faced the pub. Veteran anti-UVF campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son, Raymond Jr., a Protestant, was beaten to death by UVF men in 1997, estimates the UVF has killed more than thirty people since its 1994 ceasefire, most of them Protestants. It was alleged that Colin Armstrong had links to both drugs and loyalist terrorists. After Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume revealed he had been informed of the aborted attacks, UDA chairman Andy Tyrie conceded that had been the UDA's intention but denied the group had planned shoot one hostage a day until the two missing UDA men were released. [126][127] The UVF did not return to regular bombings until the early 1990s when it obtained a quantity of the mining explosive Powergel. [163] Loyalists in Portadown such as Bobby Jameson have stated that the LVF (the Mid-Ulster Brigade that broke away from the main UVF - and led by Billy Wright) was not a 'loyalist organisation but a drugs organisation causing misery in Portadown. In March and April that year, UVF and UPV members bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, blaming them on the dormant IRA and elements of the civil rights movement. The men were tried, and in March 1977 were sentenced to an average of twenty-five years each.[56][57]. The group also carried out attacks in the Republic of Ireland from 1969 onward. View 13 homes for sale in South Rim, UT at a median listing home price of $627,000. Southeastern Utah is anchored by Arches and Canyonlands national parks, and the active tourism basecamps of Moab and Green River.. Further south, travelers can explore the vast stretch of land known as Bears Ears county, which includes active and ancient Native American communities and historic sites, such as Monument Valley and Hovenweep. A vicious attack on a leading UVF man by a hated South East Antrim UDA figure has caused serious tension between the rival loyalist groups. It would continue these tactics for the rest of its campaign. In October 1994, alongside the UDA and UVF, the group was part of the combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire. Until recent years,[16] it was noted for secrecy and a policy of limited, selective membership. The last victims were John 'Grug' Gregg (noted for a failed attempt on the life of Gerry Adams) and Robert Carson, another Loyalist. [53] Two men were subsequently charged with the murder. Briefings, obtained by BBC NI's Spotlight programme, cover all the paramilitary groups and are based on PSNI and MI5 intelligence. In June, nine UVF members were convicted of the attacks. [113], The UVF's stated goal was to combat Irish republicanism particularly the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and maintain Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom. Assistant chief constable Drew Harris in a statement said "The UVF are subject to an organised crime investigation as an organised crime group. This was followed by another pub fight in North Belfast in March and this time the UVF members returned armed and shot and killed both Goatley and Fulton, who had been involved in the earlier fight. [34] Unionist support for O'Neill waned, and on 28 April he resigned as Prime Minister. Some of them left much of Belfast without power and water. The assessment says there are about 7,500 people in the UVF and 5,000 in the UDA. [73], According to journalist and author Ed Moloney, the UVF campaign in Mid-Ulster in this period "indisputably shattered Republican morale", and put the leadership of the republican movement under intense pressure to "do something",[74] although this has been disputed by others.[who?]. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? Recently it has emerged from the Police Ombudsman that senior North Belfast UVF member and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch informant Mark Haddock has been involved in drug dealing. There were four murders; the first victim being a nephew of a leading loyalist opposed to Adair, Jonathon Stewart, killed at a party on 26 December 2002. [35] There were bombings on 30 March, 4 April, 20 April, 24 April and 26 April. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. Many members of the 2nd Battalion Shankill Road West Belfast Brigade, commonly known as 'C' Company, stood by Adair and White, while the rest of the organisation were involved with attacks on these groups and vice versa. In Newtownabbey and nearby Carrickfergus, the motivation is criminal. [77], On 12 February 2006, The Observer reported that the UVF was to disband by the end of 2006. [43] This came to a climax on 4 December, when the UVF bombed McGurk's Bar, a Catholic-owned pub in Belfast. From that time until the early 1990s the Mid-Ulster Brigade was led by Robin "the Jackal" Jackson, who then passed the leadership to Billy Wright. Blair attempted to shore up his position by recruiting former allies of Bunting to his side, having reportedly been only sixth choice for the role with several more prominent figures turning down the job as a "poisoned chalice". During 1970, 42 Catholic-owned licensed premises in Protestant areas were bombed. As it turned out, the victims, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, were not part of any loyalist paramilitary organisation. Ulster Defence Association | Military Wiki | Fandom The initial aim of Ulster Resistance was to bring an end to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. US. The biggest of these was the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which killed 34 civilians, making it the deadliest terrorist attack of the conflict. [33], By 1969, the Catholic civil rights movement had escalated its protest campaign, and O'Neill had promised them some concessions. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Security sources have previously said that with more than 2,000. Although they had agreed to make compromise candidate Andy Tyrie the leader, each man considered himself the true leader. [47] John Boreland was shot dead soon after this. Colin Wallace, part of the intelligence apparatus of the British Army, asserted in an internal memo in 1975 that MI6 and RUC Special Branch formed a pseudo-gang within the UVF, designed to engage in violence and to subvert the tentative moves of some in the UVF towards the political process. However, whilst the statement was signed by McDonald and Birch, no representative of the West Belfast Brigade had added their signature. It was the UVF's deadliest attack in Northern Ireland, and the deadliest attack in Belfast during the Troubles. It would attack the Republic again in May 1974, during the two-week Ulster Workers' Council strike. The newspaper also claimed the South-East Antrim UVF had moved their weaponry to avoid decommissioning. Craig was killed, Tommy Lyttle was declared persona non grata and various brigadiers were removed from office, with the likes of Jackie McDonald, Joe English and Jim Gray taking their places. VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. [130] Historically, the number of active UVF members in July 1971 was stated by one source to be no more than 20. [155] The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee noted in its report that "in 1992 it was estimated that Scottish support for the UDA and UVF might amount to 100,000 a year. NI will burn: UVF's chilling warning over new 'betrayal' It was formed in 1966 and adopted the names and symbols of the original UVF, the movement founded in 1912 by Sir Edward Carson to fight against Irish home rule. . [156] On 10 February 1976, following the sudden uptick of violence against Catholic civilians by loyalist militants, Irish cardinal William Conway and nine other Catholic bishops met with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his cabinet, asking them as to where the loyalist militants had acquired guns, to which Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees replied "Canada". FedEx Office Print & Ship Center. That year, a string of tit-for-tat pub bombings began in Belfast. According to the Belfast Telegraph, "70 separate police intelligence reports implicating the north Belfast UVF man in dealing cannabis, Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. However, the UVF spurned the government efforts and continued killing. Roy Green was killed in retaliation. This move came as the organisation held high-level discussions about its future. Football - Southern Utah University Athletics Officers from the PSNI's Paramilitary Crime Task Force also seized drugs, cash and expensive cars and jewellery in an operation carried out against the criminal activities of the UVF crime gang. [121], Like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the UVF's modus operandi involved assassinations, mass shootings, bombings and kidnappings. "[9][10][11] Furthermore, Loyalists are linked to over 90% of race crimes in Northern Ireland.[12]. [51] On 29 May 2017 the South East Antrim UDA murdered an ex member and friend of George Gilmore. The first Independent Monitoring Commission report in April 2004 described the UVF/RHC as "relatively small" with "a few hundred" active members "based mainly in the Belfast and immediately adjacent areas". It has also been embroiled in feuds with other paramilitary organisations. Provo, UT 84604. Tensions had been further stoked by a graffiti campaign against Bunting's leadership on the York Road, in which expelled members of the North Belfast Brigade, who had come under the wing of their counterparts in the west, called for Bunting's removal as brigadier. [15] During the conflict, its deadliest attack in Northern Ireland was the 1971 McGurk's Bar bombing, which killed fifteen civilians. From the 1990s until his shooting death in 2003 by rival associates, Gregg served as brigadier of the UDA's South East Antrim Brigade. [2] A few pints later Shaw and some friends returned to their local, on North Queen St., and opened it up. The resulting activity led to the deaths of at least four people, all associated with the LVF. But its first victims, a Protestant woman and two Catholic men, had no connections with the IRA. In another incident the County Londonderry town of Coleraine saw tumult in the form of an attempted expulsion of UVF members by UDA members, which was successfully resisted by the UVF. Get Directions. SoundCloud . Armed men hijacked a van on the nearby Shankill Road and forced the driver to take a device to a church on the Crumlin Road. Is UVFs Beast in the East behind new wave of riots? "We know that has been the situation for decades. Mark Davenport from the BBC has stated that he spoke to a drug dealer who told him that he paid Billy Wright protection money. [87] The IICD confirmed that "substantial quantities of firearms, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices" had been decommissioned and that for the UVF and RHC, decommissioning had been completed. On 17 February 1979, the UVF carried out its only major attack in Scotland, when its members bombed two pubs in Glasgow frequented by Irish-Scots Catholics. The reason for this was with the men not working and funds being tight, the wives saw what little money they did have being spent at the pubs and social clubs controlled by UDA/UVF; therefore, the wives put pressure on the leaders of both groups to shut them down for the duration of the strike, and after consultation they agreed. But vicious fighting ensued, with a roughly three hundred-strong C Company (the name given to the Lower Shankill unit of the UDA's West Belfast Brigade, which contained Adair's most loyal men) mob attacking the patrons of the Rex, initially with hand weapons such as bats and iron bars, before they shot up the bar as its patrons barricaded themselves inside. Carrickfergus. UVF brothers to turn 'supergrass' in 10-year-old murder case Donoghue noted the links between Orange Lodges in Scotland and loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and that membership of the Orange Order in Scotland at the time was 80,000, and was concentrated in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Inverness. John Gregg (UDA) | Military Wiki | Fandom To Adair's indignation even the "A" and "B" Companies of his West Belfast Brigade of the UDA declined to get involved in C Company's war with the UVF. [158], The UVF have been implicated in drug dealing in areas from where they draw their support. [34] The loyalists "intended to force a crisis which would so undermine confidence in O'Neill's ability to maintain law and order that he would be obliged to resign". [119] Many retaliatory attacks on Catholics were claimed using the covername "Protestant Action Force" (PAF), which first appeared in autumn 1974. Along with the UDA, it helped to enforce the strike by blocking roads, intimidating workers, and shutting any businesses that opened. [33] The feud was confirmed in December 2013 when a UDA statement was released acknowledging the existence of a dissident tendency within the North Belfast Brigade but confirming support for Bunting's leadership. UVF demands UDA Rathcoole chief Gary Fisher punishes thug after home The organisation was later involved in various atrocities including the bombing of McGurk's Bar in Belfast, the sectarian killings of the Shankill Butchers and the Loughinisland massacre.
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