Ulster Resistance

Ulster Resistance was preceded by a number of attempts at forming paramilitary organisations by the DUP. In June 1976 DUP politician Peter Robinson approached Clifford Smyth, secretary of the United Ulster Unionist Council, with a suggestion for a DUP paramilitary wing but it never materialised. According to a senior Ulster Defence Association (UDA) figure, the paramilitary organisation was also contacted later that year by a DUP member with a request for assistance in arming the DUP's new group. The DUP member particularly sought plans for home-made rocket launchers. This earlier attempt at a militant DUP force never materialised, although the United Unionist Action Council (UUAC), a sub-committee of the United Ulster Unionist Council, of which the DUP was the leading political party, had a semi-paramilitary wing already in the Ulster Service Corps (USC). The UDA, Down Orange Welfare, and the Orange Volunteers were also represented on the UUAC.[5]

The Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed by the British and Irish governments in November 1985, gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland's administration. This new political initiative caused outrage amongst the Unionist community of Northern Ireland and there were months of protests, strikes, and street violence in response.[6] In August 1986 DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson and several hundred Loyalists invaded the small Monaghan village of Clontibret. In the autumn of 1986, a meeting took place at a farmhouse near Omagh, County Tyrone. According to Peter Taylor, it was attended by five Unionist politicians (excluding Ian Paisley) and two members of the executive committee of the Ulster Clubs. At the meeting those in attendance discussed what form a new paramilitary organisation to fight the Anglo-Irish Agreement and Irish Republicanism should take. The meeting concluded with a pledge that "whatever the cost to life or liberty" to see the endeavor through; a private army prepared to "fight to the bitter end". [7]

Ulster Resistance was launched at a 3000-strong invitation-only meeting at the Ulster Hall on 10 November 1986. The rally was chaired by DUP Press Officer Sammy Wilson and addressed by party colleagues Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Ivan Foster. Paisley spoke of a need for an extra-governmental Third Force to fight against the aims of Irish republicanism. He was then filmed dramatically placing a red beret on his head and standing to attention. DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson was also photographed wearing the militant loyalist paramilitary regalia of beret and military fatigues at the rally.[8][9][10] Also on the platform was Alan Wright, the chairman of the Ulster Clubs. The launch rally was followed by a number of similar assemblies across Northern Ireland.[11][12] Its aim were to "take direct action as and when required" to end the Anglo-Irish Agreement.[13]

At a rally in Enniskillen, Peter Robinson announced: "Thousands have already joined the movement and the task of shaping them into an effective force is continuing. The Resistance has indicated that drilling and training has already started. The officers of the nine divisions have taken up their duties."[14][15] Ivan Foster told a newspaper that Ulster Resistance had access to Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) intelligence and would use it to target and kill suspected members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Alan Wright declared that Ulster Resistance would fight the British Army and RUC if the Anglo-Irish wasn't scrapped and could carry out armed incursions into the Republic of Ireland.[16]

A mass membership failed to materialise, but active groups were established in country areas such as County Armagh, attracting support from rural conservative Protestants.

Ulster Resistance was led by DUP party representatives Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Ivan Foster and Alan Wright, the chairman of the Ulster Clubs. Below them were nine divisions, based on District Council areas, lead by a so-called "Commander". Below them were battalions, companies, and platoons. The paramilitary wing was subordinate to the political leadership and was the de facto military wing of the DUP, though it operated outside the party's structures and was open to non-members. The group claimed 12,000 members across Northern Ireland, mostly outside Belfast.[16] Smaller Loyalist paramilitary organisations were taken in under the Ulster Resistance umbrella; Ulster Special Constabulary Association whose presence was inspiration rather than practical, Down Orange Welfare, largely inactive, and the Orange Volunteers.[16]

According to Martin Dillon, Ulster Resistance cooperated with the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), the cover name for the group within the UDA responsible for paramilitary attacks.[17] In Stone Cold Dillon alleges that Ulster Resistance members provided intelligence on potential targets in rural areas and also safehouses for Loyalist hit squads.[17] In 1987, Ulster Resistance members based in County Fermanagh and County Tyrone informed the UDA they had the identity of an IRA intelligence officer, Dermot Hackett. In reality Hackett was an innocent Catholic who had no connection to the IRA or Sinn Féin but had been subject to intense harassment and intimidation from members of the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and feared he was becoming the victim of a revenge campaign in response to the killing of a UDR soldier in Tyrone earlier that year.[17] The harassment subsided after an intervention by Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician Denis Haughey but Dillon believed there was "no doubt" that the UDR's focus on Hackett brought him to the attention of Ulster Resistance, because of the "natural collusion" between members of the UDR and Loyalist paramilitaries.[17] On May 22 1987 the IRA murdered Charles Watson, a former UDR soldier and Ulster Resistance member (Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) member according to the Sutton Index of Deaths[18]). The following day UFF gunman Micheal Stone met with members of Ulster Resistance in Enniskillen, where he was then taken to a safehouse. They briefed him about Hackett's whereabouts and Stone was then transported to another safehouse in Omagh where he met two other members of the organisation who showed him a security file. The British security forces file had numerous photographs of Hackett, some of which allegedly showed him in the company of IRA members; Hackett's charity work with Society of Saint Vincent de Paul brought him into contact with many people and the paucity of evidence in the file supported the view that Hackett was a victim of spurious accusations, according to Dillon.[17] Hackett was shot dead while driving his bread van near Drumquin, County Tyrone. Afterwards Stone was driven back to the Enniskillen safehouse. The UFF later claimed responsibility for the murder. The Bishop of Derry Edward Daly blamed the RUC for the murder, accusing the RUC of harassing innocent Catholics.[17]

Ivan Foster at the group's launch claimed that the organisation already had access to a substantial amount of legally-owned firearms.[16]

The group collaborated with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), Red Hand Commando (RHC) and the UDA to procure arms. In June 1987 the UVF stole more than £300,000 from the Northern Bank in Portadown. The money was transferred to Swiss and other banks accounts in Europe via suitcases carried by "respectable" members of the Unionist community involved in banking business, and insurance.[19] The money was used to buy 206 Vz. 58 assault rifles, 94 Browning 9mm pistols, 4 RPG-7 rocket launchers and 62 warheads, 450 RGD-5 grenades and 30,000 rounds of ammunition which arrived at Belfast docks from Lebanon in December 1987.[20] The weapons were then transported to a farm between Armagh and Portadown, to await collection by the three groups.[21]

On 8 January 1988, as they attempted to transport their share of the weapons from Portadown to Belfast in a convoy of three cars, the UDA's share was intercepted at a Royal Ulster Constabulary checkpoint. 61 assault rifles, 30 Brownings, 150 grenades and over 11,000 rounds of ammunition were seized and three UDA men arrested. Davy Payne, the UDA's North Belfast Brigadier was sentenced to 19 years in prison and the two others to 14 years each.[22] Noel Little, an Ulster Resistance member and former Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier who was also the Armagh chairman of the Ulster Clubs, was arrested in connection with the find under the Prevention of Terrorism Act but released without charge.

Ulster Resistance Flag 'C' Division, bearing the Red Hand of Ulster emblem

Part of the UVF's share was among weapons recovered in February 1988. A RPG-7 rocket launcher with 26 warheads, 38 assault rifles, 15 Brownings, 100 grenades and 40,000 rounds of ammunition were found following searches in the Upper Crumlin Road area of North Belfast.[23]

In November 1988, part of the Ulster Resistance share of the weapons was uncovered in police searches at a number of locations in County Armagh around Markethill, Hamiltonsbawn and in Armagh town. Among the items recovered was a RPG7 rocket launcher and 5 warheads, 3 assault rifles, a Browning pistol, 10 grenades, 12,000 rounds of ammunition and combat equipment.[24] Also discovered in the arms caches were parts of a Javelin surface-to-air missile and a number of Ulster Resistance red berets.[25] One of the men convicted of arms possession in connection with the find was Mervyn Spratt, a long-serving DUP member from Markethill who had contested a council seat on three occasions.[26] The DUP claimed that it had severed its links with Ulster Resistance in 1987.[10][27]

In September 1989, a 33-year-old man from Poyntzpass and a 35-year-old man from Tandragee were jailed to nine and six years respectively for storing and moving weapons and explosives on behalf of Ulster Resistance.[28] In January 1990, a 32-year-old former member of the UDR from Richill was jailed for 12 years for possessing Ulster Resistance arms and explosives.[29] In 2013, the group was reported to have acquired more modern weapons along with stocks that were already acquired.

The weapons jointly imported by Ulster Resistance and the two main Loyalist paramilitary organisations were linked to over 70 murders, including the Greysteel massacre and the Loughinisland massacre. Ulster Resistance's portion of the South African arms shipment was linked to numerous attacks by loyalist paramilitaries; already in 1988 a Browning pistol and grenades sourced from Ulster Resistance were used by Loyalist Michael Stone in the Milltown Cemetery attack. In the 1990s Willie Frazer, a "key figure" in the organisation, distributed assault rifles and rocket launchers from Ulster Resistance to the UDA.[30]

The South African contacts who had helped set up the 1987 arms deal[31] were also interested in trading guns for missile technology. In October 1988, a model of the Javelin missile aiming system was stolen from the Short Brothers factory in Belfast, which had a mostly unionist workforce. A few months later, parts of a Blowpipe missile went missing and another Blowpipe was stolen from a Territorial Army base in Newtownards in April 1989.

Three members of Ulster Resistance — Noel Little, a former UDR soldier, senior member of the Ulster Clubs,[32] and DUP activist[26] previously arrested in connection with the 1987 importation of arms, James King, a Free Presbyterian and DUP activist[26] from Killyleagh, County Down and Samuel Quinn, a sergeant in the Territorial Army from Newtownards — were arrested at the Hilton Hotel, Paris on 21 April 1989. Three of Quinn's colleagues were expelled from the Territorial Army in the aftermath of the missile theft; one, Jim Shannon, was a leading DUP councillor and was later elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Strangford.[26] Also arrested were a diplomat from South Africa, Daniel Storm, and an American arms dealer, Douglas Bernhart, leading to claims that the unionists were attempting to procure arms in return for missile technology from Short Brothers. The "Paris Three" were charged with arms trafficking and associating with criminals involved in terrorist activities. They were convicted in October 1991 after more than two years on remand. They received suspended sentences and fines ranging from £2,000 to £5,000.[33] DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson campaigned on behalf of the 'Paris Three' while DUP leader Ian Paisley sent them copies of the Bible.[26] King said in an interview that the Three's defence was partly funded by donations from the Orange Order, Apprentice Boys, and Royal Black Institution.[34] A fund set up by the DUP also assisted.[34]

The Sutton Index of Deaths[35] claims that two men killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in October 1989 were members of Ulster Resistance. Thomas Gibson, a 27-year-old labourer and part-time ambulance driver with the Territorial Army was shot dead in Kilrea, County Londonderry. Robert Metcalfe, the 40-year-old owner of an army surplus store in Lurgan was shot dead at his home in Magheralin, County Down. The families of both men denied that they had any connection with loyalist groups.

In the late 1980s some former members broke away naming themselves Resistance.[4] It is believed to have joined the Combined Loyalist Military Command, although it has long since faded.

Ulster Resistance members reportedly assisted the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade in a series of attacks in the late 1980s and early 1990s that marked an escalation of violence in County Tyrone and north County Armagh.[36][37]

The Irish News reported in 1996 that British security forces believed that Ulster Resistance "continued to act as a quartermaster" by organising an "arms pool" for loyalist paramilitaries.[38] The organisation was highlighted again when grenades found in a dilapidated Gospel hall in north Belfast were linked to an Ulster Resistance arms shipment from South Africa.[38]

In a front-page article on 10 June 2007, the Sunday Life reported that Ulster Resistance were still active and armed. A statement released by the group claimed that it had "the capability and resources to strike with deadly force". A photo accompanying the article showed two masked men posing with automatic rifles beside a banner which read "Ulster Resistance C Division". It is reported that the organisation has continued to restructure and evolve since then, and that there are at least seven divisions/brigades in Northern Ireland at present, with another "support" brigade in Britain.[38]

In June 2017, following the United Kingdom general election, the DUP's historic links with Ulster Resistance were discussed in the media in relation to the Conservative–DUP agreement.[39][40] Emma Little-Pengelly, daughter of Noel Little of the "Paris Three", was elected MP for Belfast South in that election.[41] When the DUP were asked to condemn Ulster Resistance in 2016 they stated "the party's stance is consistent, that anyone involved in illegal activity should be investigated and face the full weight of the law."[13]

• Paul Arthur & Keith Jeffrey, Northern Ireland Since 1968, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996
• Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1992
• Steve Bruce, "The Red Hand", Oxford University Press, 1992
• Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, "UVF", Poolbeg, 2000
• Martin Dillon, "Stone Cold", Hutchinson, 1992
• David McKittrick, "Lost Lives", Mainstream Publishing 2001
• Peter Taylor, "Loyalists", Bloomsbury, 1999