Ulster Volunteer Force

synonyms: Protestant Action Force; Protestant Action Group The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is a Loyalist paramilitary group that was formed in 1966. The group adopted the name of the previous UVF which was formed in 1912 to oppose, by armed force, the arrangements for Home Rule in Ireland. Potential conflict in Ireland was averted by the First World War and many of the members of the then UVF joined the British Army's 36th (Ulster) Division and fought - and died in large numbers - on the battlefields of the Somme. The aim of the present UVF is to ensure that Northern Ireland's constitutional position within the United Kingdom is secure. The re-established UVF was opposed to the reforms that were being considered in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As Loyalist paramilitary groups often did not claim responsibility for the killings they committed and on many occasions used pseudonyms, it is difficult to give an accurate count of the number of people killed by each organisation. However, the UVF has been responsible, over a period of almost 40 years, for scores of assassinations in Northern Ireland, mostly of innocent Catholics. The UVF is also believed to have been responsible for the greatest loss of life in a single day when it planted bombs in Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May 1974 killing 33 innocent people. In May 1966 the UVF killed a Catholic man in the Falls Road, Belfast. On 26 June 1966 Peter Ward (18), who was working as a barman in a pub in the Shankill Road, Belfast, was shot dead as he left work. Augustus ('Gusty') Spence was sentenced to life imprisonment for this killing. In the early 1970s the main centres of UVF influence were the Shankill area of Belfast, East Antrim, and parts of County Armagh. The Red Hand Commando (RHC) a loyalist paramilitary group closely associated with the UVF was formed in 1972. In April 1974 Merlyn Rees, then Secretary of Sate for Northern Ireland, removed the proscription on the UVF (making it a legal organisation) in an attempt to encourage it to move towards constitutional politics. However, on 2 October 1975 the UVF carried out a number of attacks in which 12 people died, 6 of them were Catholic civilians. On 3 October 1975 the UVF was once again 'proscribed'. On 5 October 1975 the security forces swooped on a number of houses in Belfast and East Antrim and arrested 26 suspected UVF men. In March 1977 the men were sentenced to a total of 700 years imprisonment. In April 1983 Joseph Bennett, who was a commander in the UVF, became an informer giving the RUC information which lead to the conviction of 14 leading members of the UVF. In the coming years the UVF was to suffer from the effects of further informers. During the 1990s the UVF had a particularly active unit in the Portadown area of Northern Ireland which was responsible for the killing of many innocent Catholics. The UVF became a part of the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) in 1991 (?). In 1996 a number of disaffected 'maverick' members of the mid-Ulster brigade of the UVF broke away to form the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is considered to be the source of political analysis for the UVF. The UVF declared a ceasefire on 13 October 1994; the announcement of the ceasefire by the CLMC was made by 'Gusty' Spence. During the late 1990s and into the 2000s the UVF was accussed of involvement in many killings. The UVF also engaged in internal disputes and fueds with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and more particularly the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). Following a series of killings in July and August in 2005 the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland specified the UVF on 14 September 2005. On Thursday 3 May 2007 the UVF issued a statement in which it stated that: "... as of 12 midnight, Thursday 3 May 2007, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando will assume a non-military, civilianised, role." While the statement indicated that UVF weapons had been put "beyond reach" the organisation refused to decommission its weapons under the supervision of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). The UVF was despecified on 14 May 2008. On 18 June 2009 the BBC broke the news that the UVF (and RHC) had engaged with the IICD to decommission weapons. However the official statement from the UVF on the matter was not released until 27 June 2009. In the statement the UVF said it had "completed the process of rendering ordnance totally, and irreversibly, beyond use". On 28 May 2010 members of the UVF shot dead Bobby Moffett (43) on the Shankill Road. On 15 September 2010 the IMC issued a special report which concluded that Moffett's killing had been sanctioned by the UVF. It is estimated that the UVF and RHC were responsible for the deaths of over 500 people, mainly Catholic civilians. Membership: Membership of the UVF was estimated to be up to several hundred, with a smaller number being 'active' members. Arsenal: 200 AK-47 rifles, Uzi machineguns, and machine pistols (also home-made submachine guns); dozens of pistols and revolvers. The UVF also has a small number of RPG-7 rocket launchers and a small amount of Powergel (commercial plastic explosive), some of which has been used in bomb attacks in the Republic of Ireland. Reading: Cusack, Jim., and McDonald, Henry. (1997), The UVF. Dublin: Poolbeg.