Ulster Defense Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters (UDA/UVF)

The Ulster Defense Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters (UDA/UVF) is the largest loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, and was formed in 1971 as an umbrella organization for loyalist paramilitary groups. It remained a legal organization until 1992, when the British Government proscribed it. Among its members are Johnny Adair, the only person ever convicted of directing terrorism in Northern Ireland, and Michael Stone, who killed three people in a gun and grenade attack at an IRA funeral. The UDA joined the UVF in declaring a cease-fire in 1994, which broke down in January 1998, but was later restored. In October 2001, the British Government ruled that the UDA had broken its cease-fire. The organization's political wing, the Ulster Democratic Party, was dissolved in November 2001. The group has been linked to pipe bombings and sporadic assaults on Catholics in Northern Ireland; where it stepped up attacks in 2001. William Stobie, the group's former quartermaster who admitted to passing information about the UDA to the British government, was murdered in December 2001; the Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility for the killing.

Estimates of UDA strength vary from 2,000 to 5,000 members, with several hundred active in paramilitary operations throughout Northern Ireland.

█ FURTHER READING:

ELECTRONIC:

CDI (Center for Defense Information), Terrorism Project. CDI Fact Sheet: Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. March 27, 2003. <http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/terrorist.cfm> (April 17, 2003).

Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook, 2002. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/> (April 16, 2003).

Taylor, Francis X. U.S. Department of State. "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001," Annual Report: On the Record Briefing. May 21, 2002 <http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rm/10367.htm> (April 17, 2003).

U.S. Department of State. Annual Reports. <http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/annual_reports.html> (April 16, 2003).

SEE ALSO

Terrorism, Philosophical and Ideological Origins
Terrorist and Para-State Organizations
Terrorist Organization List, United States
Terrorist Organizations, Freezing of Assets

Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary organization established in Northern Ireland in the autumn of 1971. In its early years it was closely associated with the Ulster Vanguard movement. During 1972 it grew to an estimated membership of 40,000, and was prominent in the mass protests against the closure of Stormont. In the same year its threatened opposition to the British army on the streets of Belfast increased the pressure on the government to end the republican no‐go areas. This reactive style soon developed a more sinister dimension as elements apparently operating within the UDA, using the title Ulster Freedom Fighters, began a campaign of assassination—sometimes of republican activists, but often of randomly selected Catholics—in response to IRA actions.

During the mid‐1970s and later, these activities played an important part, alongside republican violence, in ratcheting up the level of residential segregation in Belfast and elsewhere. The UDA operated drinking clubs and other businesses, and allegations of protection rackets and gangsterism were frequent. It also sought to improve its image by a more formal involvement in housing allocation, and its leaders were associated with Vanguard's 1975 attempt to restore devolved government to the province by establishing a ‘voluntary coalition’ with the Social Democratic and Labour Party, which was thwarted by the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). This combination of extreme violence and hints of political flexibility has continued to characterize the UDA during the 1980s and 1990s. It established a ‘Combined Loyalist Paramilitary Command’ in partnership with the rival Ulster Volunteer Force, and an open political party, the Ulster Democratic Party, to contest local elections. Its leadership is predominantly urban working class and secular in tone: it has consistently sought to avoid domination by more conventional politicians, especially Ian Paisley and the DUP.

A. C. Hepburn

Ulster Defence Association (UDA) (Northern Ireland) The UDA is the largest Loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was established in 1971, as an umbrella for a number of smaller ‘defence associations’, which sought to defend Protestant areas against the IRA. One of its component parts, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, carried out a consistent terrorist campaign against nationalist and republican targets, resulting in the UDA being banned in 1992. It was led by the controversial Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair, who was one of the most controversial beneficiaries of the Good Friday Agreement and its amnesty terms for ‘political’ prisoners.