Terrorists and Politics: The Case of Northern Ireland's Loyalist Paramilitaries

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 27-48

  Bruce, Steve ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0035629656     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09546550109609679     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. A brief point about names: while the UVF was banned in 1966, the UDA remained legal for two decades. To maintain the fiction that its members were not involved in terrorism, the UDA claimed its killings under the title Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a name initially chosen to poke fun at republican claims to be a national liberation movement. Although the UFF exists independently of the UDA to the extent that in some areas it has provided an alternative ranking of leaders, there is little practical difference, so to avoid adding further initials, I use 'UDA' to include 'UFF'.
2. Over the last two decades the research that informs this essay has been funded at various times by the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation and the Irish-American Partnership. I would like to acknowledge the assistance of those bodies and that of my two employers: the Queen's University of Belfast (1978-91) and the University of Aberdeen (1991 onwards).
3. Spence's UVF were responsible for three killings (John Patrick Scullion, Peter Ward and Matilda Gould) in 1966; see cases 1-3 in David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton, Lost Lives: The Stories of Men and Women who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Edinburgh: Mainstream 1999).
4. Shankill Bulletin, 31 May 1985, p.6.
5. All quoted material that is not given a specific source comes from interviews I conducted between 1986 and 2000.
6. Combat 1/14 (1974), p.1.
7. Gibson's election manifesto addressed what would now be called 'social exclusion' but its most strident point was an attack on the idea of independence for Ulster, which was already being mooted by some UDA leaders.
8. Arthur Aughey, Under Siege: Ulster Unionism and the Anglo-Irish Agreement (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1989).
9. Paul Bew and Gordon Gillespie, Northern Ireland: A Chronology 1968-93 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 1993), p.266.
10. Irish News, 27 June 1992.
11. Paul Bew and Gordon Gillespie, The Northern Ireland Peace Process: A Chronology 1993-96 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 1996), p.72.
12. Padraig O'Malley, The Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1983), p.319.
13. O'Malley (note 12), p.333.
14. A sad footnote that tells us a lot about the extravagant fantasies that surrounded loyalists paramilitaries: this failed attempt to create a new movement seems to have been the grain of sand on which the Ulster Independence Movement activist Jim Sands fabricated his pearl of an extensive murder conspiracy, promoted by Scan McPhilemy in his film and book, The Committee. For a critical commentary see Steve Bruce, 'Loyalist Assassinations and Police Collusion in Northern Ireland: An Extended Critique of Sean McPhilemy's The Committee', Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 23 (January 2000), pp.61-80.
15. We might go further and note that unionist politics in the Stormont days always had space for one or two maverick independent working class unionists. To date only the European election result shows any sign of the PUP making any greater dent in unionist voting patterns.
16. Irish News, 1 October 1994.
17. Steve Bruce, The Red Hand: Protestant Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland (Oxford: OUP 1992).
18. In June 1999, Ken Wilkinson, the PUP leader in Antrim, was sent a letter bomb by loyalist dissidents. A month later Jean Rainey of the Ballymena PUP received a letter bomb. In January 2000, PUP man Denver Smith was murdered by dissidents, as was Martin Taylor in north Belfast in May 2000.
19. Irish News, 17 February 1999.