Only last year, a former leader of the Progressive Unionist Party Dawn Purvis said the UVF had not gone anywhere despite decommissioning its weapons in 2009. 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. [46] In August 2016 the new leader was reported as having fled to Scotland due to the threat of the Mount Vernon UVF. Thu 6 Oct 2022 at 23:00 The South-East Antrim UDA has carried out seven brutal murders in Carrickfergus since 1995, but no one has ever been convicted in connection with them. UVF bosses in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey are now demanding SEA UDA leader Gary Fisher punishes his out-of-control member, who was also involved in an assault on a teenage boy the same night. Adair's former ally Mo Courtney, who had returned to the mainstream UDA immediately before the attack, was appointed the new West Belfast brigadier, ending the feud. Read about our approach to external linking. There have been threats this year to journalists and politicians following stories about the South East Antrim UDA's . 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. In November 2007, the UDA issued a statement saying "the war is over". The UVF was also clashing with the UDA in the summer of 2000. [36], As the feud rumbled on Bunting became a target for a number of attacks. Eventually a ceasefire was reluctantly agreed upon by the majority of those involved in the feuding after new procedures were established with the aim of preventing the escalation of any future problems between the two organisations, and after consideration was paid to the advice of Gary McMichael and David Ervine, the then leaders of the two political wings of loyalism.[15]. With a few exceptions, such as Mid-Ulster brigadier Billy Hanna (a native of Lurgan), the Brigade Staff members have been from the Shankill Road or the neighbouring Woodvale area to the west. Spence told Radio Ulster that the UVF had been "engaged in murder, attempted murder of civilians, attempted murder of police officers. [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. "The untouchable informers facing exposure at last". [147] Its main benefactors have been in central Scotland,[148] Liverpool,[149] Preston[149] and the Toronto area of Canada. [160], Billy Wright, the commander of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade, is believed to have started dealing drugs in 1991[161] as a lucrative sideline to paramilitary murder. It has also been embroiled in feuds with other paramilitary organisations including the LVF and the UDA. [111][112] This uniform, based on those of the original UVF, was introduced in the early 1970s. [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. The chip shop has since been closed down. [6] The UDA initially believed the IRA were responsible and intended to kidnap twenty Catholics in retaliation. From late 1975 to mid-1977, a unit of the UVF dubbed the Shankill Butchers (a group of UVF men based on Belfast's Shankill Road) carried out a series of sectarian murders of Catholic civilians. [22] The main problems were between East Belfast chief Tommy Herron and Charles Harding Smith, his rival in the west of the city, over who controlled the movement. A man released by police following a South East Antrim UDA investigation has been targeted by loyalist paramilitaries. [41] Subsequent reports indicated this brigadier had lasted only two weeks before McDonald replaced him with an unidentified former member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force. View the 2022 Southern Utah Football Schedule at FBSchedules.com. View 13 homes for sale in South Rim, UT at a median listing home price of $627,000. 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. The UDA had remained a legal organisation until it was banned in August 1992. In January 2000 UVF Mid-Ulster brigadier Richard Jameson was shot dead by a LVF gunman which led to an escalation of the UVF/LVF feud. [31], On 26 June, the group shot dead a Catholic civilian and wounded two others as they left a pub on Malvern Street, Belfast. [63][64][110] Graham has held the position since he assumed office in 1976. [37][38] There were further attacks in the Republic between October and December 1969. US. Briefings, obtained by BBC NI's Spotlight programme, cover all the paramilitary groups and are based on PSNI and MI5 intelligence. As it turned out, the victims, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, were not part of any loyalist paramilitary organisation. [130] Members were disciplined after they carried out an unsanctioned theft of 8 million of paintings from an estate in Co Wicklow in April 1974. [43] This followed the rejection of earlier overtures to West Belfast brigadier Matt Kincaid as he opted to back Spence and Courtney. But its first victims, a Protestant woman and two Catholic men, had no connections with the IRA. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Although the UDA and UVF have frequently co-operated and generally co-existed, the two groups have clashed. The East Belfast UVF is one of the major crime-dealing loyalist paramilitary organisations currently in operation and is among four loyalist factions being targeted by the Paramilitary Crime Task Force - the others being the South East Antrim UDA, the West Belfast UDA and North Antrim UDA. [167], There were also 66 UVF/RHC members and four former members killed in the conflict.[169]. Hanna and Jackson have both been implicated by journalist Joe Tiernan and RUC Special Patrol Group (SPG) officer John Weir as having led one of the units that bombed Dublin. The South East Antrim UVF is being linked to a 100,000 cash and drugs haul seized in Carrickfergus. [117] The vast majority of its victims were Irish Catholic civilians, who were often killed at random. [80] This was to take effect from midnight. "We know that has been the situation for decades. The largest loyalist paramilitary groups throughout the Troubles were the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and they remain the largest active groups. The Ulster Defence Association, formed in 1971, had tens of thousands of members at its peak. 'Impossible to get out' of paramilitaries, Loyalists on 1969: 'Better to die on your feet', Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine, Chaos at port as thousands rush to leave Sudan. The Irish parliament's Joint Committee on Justice called the bombings an act of "international terrorism" involving the British security forces. 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." University of Central Arkansas. 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. [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." On 18 June 1994, UVF members machine-gunned a pub in the Loughinisland massacre in County Down, on the basis that its customers were watching the Republic of Ireland national football team playing in the World Cup on television and were therefore assumed to be Catholics. That support the UDA and UVF members were giving involved shutting down their own social clubs and pubs due to complaints from loyalist wives of the striking men. [58] These men had overthrown the "hawkish" officers, who had called for a "big push", which meant an increase in violent attacks, earlier in the same month. Birgen, Julia. One study focusing in part on female members of the UVF and Red Hand Commando noted that it "seem[ed] to have been reasonably unusual" for women to be officially asked to join the UVF. In 1972, the UVF's imprisoned leader Gusty Spence was at liberty for four months following a staged kidnapping by UVF volunteers. The newspaper also reported that the group refused to decommission its weapons. 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. "[159], According to Alan McQuillan, the assistant director of the Assets Recovery Agency in 2005, "In the loyalist community, drug dealing is run by the paramilitaries and it is generally run for personal gain by a large number of people." [34], On 12 October, a loyalist protest in the Shankill became violent. 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. 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. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths crosstabulations", "UVF disbands unit linked to taxi murder", Law and order Belfast-style as two men are forced on a 'walk of shame', 'Report of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning', Twenty-Fourth Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission, "David Madine admits trying to kill loyalist Harry Stockman", "Police say UVF gunman seen in Rathcoole during trouble". Six of the victims were abducted at random, then beaten and tortured before having their throats slashed. The ferry [between Scotland and Northern Ireland] was pivotal in getting arms into the north and anything like checkpoints, or armed police and Army in Scotland would have b******d that all up.[153] An Irish government memo written by David Donoghue stated: "The commonest contribution of Scots UDA and UVF is to send gelignite. In recent years, it has been linked to serious criminality including drug dealing. The new assessment says this is still the position and the IRA is in a much-reduced form and not recruiting or training. [59] The number of killings in Northern Ireland had decreased from around 300 per year between 1973 and 1976 to just under 100 in the years 19771981. 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 Home Rule. Antrim, w d i Borough of Belfast mia zwizkowiec wikszoci gosw na poziomie okoo 60%. [131] Later, in September 1972, Gusty Spence said in an interview that the organisation had a strength of 1,500. The men were tried, and in March 1977 were sentenced to an average of twenty-five years each.[56][57]. [51] The South-east Antrim brigadier, who was not named in reports, stated that any brigade members attending Gilmore's funeral would be expelled. According to the report they agreed that West Belfast Brigade members loyal to the wider UDA should establish a new command structure for the brigade which would then take the lead in ousting Mo Courtney, Jim Spence and Eric McKee from their existing leadership positions. However, the UVF saw fit to continue the battle in 2001, using its satellite group the Red Hand Commando to kill two of the LVF's leading figures, Adrian Porter and Stephen Warnock. [59] The UVF was behind the deaths of seven civilians in a series of attacks on 2 October. [36], The UVF had launched its first attack in the Republic of Ireland on 5 August 1969, when it bombed the RT Television Centre in Dublin. "The Dublin and Monaghan bombings: Cover-up and incompetence". [26][27] A new generation of leaders emerged at this time and decided that the woes facing the UDA, including a lack of arms and perceived poor leadership by ageing brigadiers, were being caused by the continuing leadership of Andy Tyrie. CAIN also states that republicans killed 15 UVF members, some of whom are suspected to have been set up for assassination by their colleagues. [60] The decommissioning was completed five weeks before a government amnesty deadline beyond which any weapons found could have been used as evidence for a prosecution. [94] The UVF leader in East Belfast, who is popularly known as the "Beast of the East" and "Ugly Doris" also known as by real name Stephen Matthews, ordered the attack on Catholic homes and a church in the Catholic enclave of the Short Strand. 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. [72] According to Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), the UVF killed 17 active and four former republican paramilitaries. [100][101], In October 2013, the policing board announced that the UVF was still heavily involved in gangsterism despite its ceasefire. [68], The UVF also attacked republican paramilitaries and political activists. The Sunday World's offices were also firebombed. Latest News. The LVF members swore revenge and on 10 January 2000 they took it by shooting Jameson dead on the outskirts of Portadown. Adair by this time had forged close links with the dissident LVF, a breakaway group to which the UVF was ardently opposed. Western Illinois University. [76], On 14 September 2005, following serious loyalist rioting during which dozens of shots were fired at riot police and the British Army the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain announced that the British government no longer recognised the UVF ceasefire. Andre Khalef Shoukri was born in 1977, the son of a Coptic Christian Egyptian father and a Northern Irish mother. [109] The Brigade Staff's former headquarters were situated in rooms above "The Eagle" chip shop located on the Shankill Road at its junction with Spier's Place. Two UVF members, Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, were accidentally killed by their own bomb while carrying out this attack. On the basis of that, we as a federation have called for the respecification of the UVF [stating that its ceasefire is over]. Riverton East Homes for Sale $995,000; "[28] It was led by Gusty Spence, formerly a soldier in the British Army. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It was responsible for more than 500 deaths. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. [69] Republicans responded to the attacks by assassinating senior UVF members John Bingham, William "Frenchie" Marchant and Trevor King[70] as well as Leslie Dallas, whose purported UVF membership was disputed both by his family and the UVF. He was shot dead by the IRA in November 1982, four months after his release from the Maze Prison. Along with the newly formed Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the UVF started an armed campaign against the Catholic population of Northern Ireland. It later said it had stood down the UFF and all UFF weapons were being put "beyond use", but that did not mean they would be decommissioned. The UVF shot dead the first police officer to be murdered during the Troubles. 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. It is believed about 7,500 members are in the UVF and 5,000 in the UDA, The assessment says the IRA "still has access to weapons", The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this cause. [42], In September 2014 it was reported in the Belfast Telegraph that the leaders of the UDA in North, East and South Belfast, as well as the head of the Londonderry and North Antrim Brigade had met to discuss the feud as well as the schism with the West Belfast Brigade. During the riot, UVF members shot dead RUC officer Victor Arbuckle. The Red Hand Commando, along with the UDA and UVF, is represented on the Loyalist Communities Council, which was formed in 2015. The feud between the UVF and the LVF began as an internal feud but quickly changed when Billy Wright established the LVF as a separate organisation. Until recent years,[16] it was noted for secrecy and a policy of limited, selective membership. [136][137] This activity has been described as its preferred source of funds in the early 1970s,[138] and it continued into the 2000s, with the UVF in County Londonderry being active. Security sources have previously said that with more than 2,000 members, it is one of Northern Ireland's largest paramilitary gangs. [97], During the Belfast City Hall flag protests of 201213, senior UVF members were confirmed to have actively been involved in orchestrating violence and rioting against the PSNI and the Alliance Party throughout Northern Ireland during the weeks of disorder. The South East Antrim Ulster Defence Association is a standalone faction of the UDA and was once part of its inner council. [21] In February 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission reported that this feud had come to an end. The UVF was formed with the express intention of executing known IRA men. A controlled explosion was carried out and the bomb was later declared a hoax. From the 1990s until his shooting death in 2003 by rival associates, Gregg served as brigadier of the UDA's South East Antrim Brigade. [16] Jackie McDonald replaced Kerr, becoming, for the second time, leader of the South Belfast Brigade. On 7 May 1966, loyalists petrol bombed a Catholic-owned pub in the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast.
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