PRC-UTE
4th August 2005, 14:59
Ulster Resistance spectre
CIARAN BARNES
To comment: [email protected]
DAILY IRELAND
In the six years between December 1981 and December 1987,
loyalist paramilitaries murdered 71 people.
During the next six years from January 1988 to the loyalist
ceasefire in October 1994, the same paramilitaries increased their kill rate
by 300 per cent - murdering 229 people.
Part of the reason for this massive rise was the huge shipment of
arms they received from South Africa at the beginning of 1988.
Loyalists swopped plans for missiles developed at the Shorts
weapons factory in Belfast in return for South African guns.
The British government knew about the shipment, but did nothing
to prevent it arriving on these shores.
The weapons were deposited in Co Armagh before being divided
evenly between the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) and the shadowy Ulster Resistance group.
Although it has never claimed a paramilitary killing, Ulster
Resistance has allowed its weapons to be used by other loyalist
paramilitary groups resulting in scores of deaths.
It is estimated the group has 70 assault rifles, 30 Browning
pistols, 165 fragmentation grenades, 10,000 rounds of ammunition and four
RPG7 rocket launchers hidden at different locations throughout the
North.
Ulster Resistance weapons were used in the 1992 Sean Graham's
betting shop massacre in Belfast that claimed five lives and left seven
others seriously wounded.
They were also used to murder brothers Rory and Gerard Cairns in
the Co Armagh village of Bleary in 1993.
Following last week's confirmation from the IRA that it is to
commit to a programme of decommissioning, the UDA and UVF are now being
asked what will they do with their weapons?
However, little has been mentioned of Ulster Resistance's arms
cache.
Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which played a
central role in launching the organisation, has been particularly quiet on
the subject of its arms.
At an Ulster Resistance rally in Belfast's Ulster Hall in
November 1986, DUP leaders Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson donned red berets
while flanked by men in military style uniforms.
They were joined on stage by then Belfast mayor Sammy Wilson -
the current DUP MP for East Antrim.
Mr Paisley warned Ulster Resistance was not for "the faint or
half-hearted" and went on to pledge that the group would use "all means
which may be found necessary to defeat the Anglo-Irish agreement".
Also prominent at the rally were Alan Wright, a religious zealot
from Armagh and leader of the Ulster Clubs, and Noel Little, a former
DUP council candidate who would be arrested for Ulster Resistance
gunrunning in 1989.
Mr Wright's uncle, Dick Wright, worked for the South African
weapons manufacturer Armscor and played a central role in organising the
huge loyalist paramilitary arms shipment into the North in 1988.
The DUP leadership has long protested that it severed all links
to Ulster Resistance when it realised the organisation was becoming
militant.
A statement released by the DUP in November 1987 said that while
it had encouraged recruitment for Ulster Resistance, party leaders had
never been members.
Despite the denials, the spectre of Ulster Resistance will
continue to hang over the DUP until the outstanding issue of its illegal
weapons is dealt with.
North Belfast DUP Assemblyman Nelson McCausland refuses to talk
specifically about the issue of Ulster Resistance arms.
He says he wants to see all paramilitary weapons decommissioned
but the priority has to be the IRA's because it is linked to a major
political party.
Mr McCausland does not accept the DUP has a link to Ulster
Resistance.
He said: "I know nothing about the organisation or anyone
pertaining to represent it.
"If anyone has any questions about Ulster Resistance they should
direct them to someone connected with the organisation.
"The DUP does not in any way represent Ulster Resistance."
At a meeting of the Ulster Independence Committee (UIC) in 1989,
two years after the DUP had distanced itself from Ulster Resistance, a
notice of sympathy was recorded for three of its members arrested in
Paris.
In echoes of what had occurred the previous year, the men were
negotiating with South Africans for the supply of weaponry in return for
plans of missiles developed at Shorts.
Mr McCausland was one of those in attendance at the UIC meeting
when the notice of sympathy was expressed.
Speaking in 2001, the DUP man said that from what he could
remember, the notice was for the three men and their families and the
predicament in which they found themselves.
He insisted it did not indicate any agreement with what they were
engaged in.
What this incident does highlight however, is the degree of
sympathy expressed towards Ulster Resistance by some quarters of the
unionist community.
Even when the whole world knew the group was involved in
procuring arms to kill Catholics, unionists who style themselves as staunch
opponents of paramilitarism still emphathised with its members.
Many nationalists argue that the same attitude still exists
today, only now it manifests itself in a cloak of silence that covers Ulster
Resistance's hidden weapons.
CIARAN BARNES
To comment: [email protected]
DAILY IRELAND
In the six years between December 1981 and December 1987,
loyalist paramilitaries murdered 71 people.
During the next six years from January 1988 to the loyalist
ceasefire in October 1994, the same paramilitaries increased their kill rate
by 300 per cent - murdering 229 people.
Part of the reason for this massive rise was the huge shipment of
arms they received from South Africa at the beginning of 1988.
Loyalists swopped plans for missiles developed at the Shorts
weapons factory in Belfast in return for South African guns.
The British government knew about the shipment, but did nothing
to prevent it arriving on these shores.
The weapons were deposited in Co Armagh before being divided
evenly between the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) and the shadowy Ulster Resistance group.
Although it has never claimed a paramilitary killing, Ulster
Resistance has allowed its weapons to be used by other loyalist
paramilitary groups resulting in scores of deaths.
It is estimated the group has 70 assault rifles, 30 Browning
pistols, 165 fragmentation grenades, 10,000 rounds of ammunition and four
RPG7 rocket launchers hidden at different locations throughout the
North.
Ulster Resistance weapons were used in the 1992 Sean Graham's
betting shop massacre in Belfast that claimed five lives and left seven
others seriously wounded.
They were also used to murder brothers Rory and Gerard Cairns in
the Co Armagh village of Bleary in 1993.
Following last week's confirmation from the IRA that it is to
commit to a programme of decommissioning, the UDA and UVF are now being
asked what will they do with their weapons?
However, little has been mentioned of Ulster Resistance's arms
cache.
Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which played a
central role in launching the organisation, has been particularly quiet on
the subject of its arms.
At an Ulster Resistance rally in Belfast's Ulster Hall in
November 1986, DUP leaders Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson donned red berets
while flanked by men in military style uniforms.
They were joined on stage by then Belfast mayor Sammy Wilson -
the current DUP MP for East Antrim.
Mr Paisley warned Ulster Resistance was not for "the faint or
half-hearted" and went on to pledge that the group would use "all means
which may be found necessary to defeat the Anglo-Irish agreement".
Also prominent at the rally were Alan Wright, a religious zealot
from Armagh and leader of the Ulster Clubs, and Noel Little, a former
DUP council candidate who would be arrested for Ulster Resistance
gunrunning in 1989.
Mr Wright's uncle, Dick Wright, worked for the South African
weapons manufacturer Armscor and played a central role in organising the
huge loyalist paramilitary arms shipment into the North in 1988.
The DUP leadership has long protested that it severed all links
to Ulster Resistance when it realised the organisation was becoming
militant.
A statement released by the DUP in November 1987 said that while
it had encouraged recruitment for Ulster Resistance, party leaders had
never been members.
Despite the denials, the spectre of Ulster Resistance will
continue to hang over the DUP until the outstanding issue of its illegal
weapons is dealt with.
North Belfast DUP Assemblyman Nelson McCausland refuses to talk
specifically about the issue of Ulster Resistance arms.
He says he wants to see all paramilitary weapons decommissioned
but the priority has to be the IRA's because it is linked to a major
political party.
Mr McCausland does not accept the DUP has a link to Ulster
Resistance.
He said: "I know nothing about the organisation or anyone
pertaining to represent it.
"If anyone has any questions about Ulster Resistance they should
direct them to someone connected with the organisation.
"The DUP does not in any way represent Ulster Resistance."
At a meeting of the Ulster Independence Committee (UIC) in 1989,
two years after the DUP had distanced itself from Ulster Resistance, a
notice of sympathy was recorded for three of its members arrested in
Paris.
In echoes of what had occurred the previous year, the men were
negotiating with South Africans for the supply of weaponry in return for
plans of missiles developed at Shorts.
Mr McCausland was one of those in attendance at the UIC meeting
when the notice of sympathy was expressed.
Speaking in 2001, the DUP man said that from what he could
remember, the notice was for the three men and their families and the
predicament in which they found themselves.
He insisted it did not indicate any agreement with what they were
engaged in.
What this incident does highlight however, is the degree of
sympathy expressed towards Ulster Resistance by some quarters of the
unionist community.
Even when the whole world knew the group was involved in
procuring arms to kill Catholics, unionists who style themselves as staunch
opponents of paramilitarism still emphathised with its members.
Many nationalists argue that the same attitude still exists
today, only now it manifests itself in a cloak of silence that covers Ulster
Resistance's hidden weapons.