Loyalist paramilitary groups 'have 12,500 members', Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine, Chaos at port as thousands rush to leave Sudan. [89] Eleven months later, a man was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of the UVF's alleged second-in-command Harry Stockman, described by the Belfast Telegraph as a "senior Loyalist figure". It was the UVF's deadliest attack in Northern Ireland, and the deadliest attack in Belfast during the Troubles. This was followed by another pub fight in North Belfast in March and this time the UVF members returned armed and shot and killed both Goatley and Fulton, who had been involved in the earlier fight. Two UVF men were accidentally blown up in this attack. [40], In January 1970, the UVF began bombing Catholic-owned businesses in Protestant areas of Belfast. The SUU Thunderbirds schedule includes opponents, date, time, and TV. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Donoghue noted the links between Orange Lodges in Scotland and loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and that membership of the Orange Order in Scotland at the time was 80,000, and was concentrated in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Inverness. [30], On 27 May, Spence sent four UVF members to kill IRA volunteer Leo Martin, who lived in Belfast. [6] The UDA initially believed the IRA were responsible and intended to kidnap twenty Catholics in retaliation. Rab C - South East Antrim (loyalist) by Mugs1911 These included the Miami Showband killings of 31 July 1975 when three members of the popular showband were killed, having been stopped at a fake British Army checkpoint outside Newry in County Down. Both men were placed under death sentences. The UDA's leadership were persuaded to call off their plan by a Protestant clergyman, who convinced them that the IRA were not involved. It claimed the pubs were used for republican fundraising. The UVF stated that the attempted attack was a protest against the Irish Army units "still massed on the border in County Donegal". The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom. Such retaliation was seen as both collective punishment and an attempt to weaken the IRA's support; it was thought that terrorising the Catholic community and inflicting such a death toll on it would force the IRA to end its campaign. All were widely blamed on the IRA, and British soldiers were sent to guard installations. [63][64][110] Graham has held the position since he assumed office in 1976. Notorious attacks by the UFF included the shooting dead of five Catholics at a Belfast bookmakers in 1992 and the Greysteel massacre the following year. CAIN also states that republicans killed 15 UVF members, some of whom are suspected to have been set up for assassination by their colleagues. Oct 28 // football. In recent years, it has been linked to serious criminality including drug dealing. Matters had come to a head when Wright's unit killed a Catholic taxi-driver during the Drumcree standoff. This was in retaliation for attacks on Loyalist homes the previous weekend and after a young girl was hit in the face with a brick by Republicans. [24] Harding Smith survived two separate shootings but crucially lost the support of other leading Shankill Road UDA figures and eventually left Belfast after being visited by North Belfast Brigadier Davy Payne, who warned him that he would not survive a third attack. Get the latest news and information for the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. Veteran anti-UVF campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son, Raymond Jr., a Protestant, was beaten to death by UVF men in 1997, estimates the UVF has killed more than thirty people since its 1994 ceasefire, most of them Protestants.
