Ulster Resistance Movement
The Ulster Resistance movement emerged as a red beret-wearing, mass paramilitary-style force at an Ulster Hall rally in November 1986. DUP leader Ian Paisley and his deputy Peter Robinson sat on the platform and donned berets at the launch of the group which aimed to smash the Anglo-Irish Agreement. And they gave Ulster Resistance their backing at a series of other rallies held in towns across Northern Ireland in the following weeks including Newtownards, Coleraine, Portadown and Kilkeel.
Peter Robinson, later first minister of Northern Ireland, led an "incursion" over the Irish border in 1986, when he and 500 loyalists entered the County Monaghan village of Clontibret as part of the DUP's anti-agreement protest. He ended up in a Republic of Ireland court, where he pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly and paid a fine. There was further controversy later that year, when Robinson was photographed wearing a beret at a rally of the paramilitary Ulster Resistance movement.
Tat an Ulster Resistance rally in November 1986, he said: "The organisation will only be stood down when its task is completely done." A couple of days later, the same Mr Robinson was in Kilkeel to speak at an Ulster Resistance rally. He said: "It stands to reason that Ulstermen, capable and prepared to defeat the IRA, will do so, and we will."
DUP leader Ian Paisley encouraged the original Ulster Resistance in 1986 but disowned it when it became linked to illegal arms and terrorism. The shadowy loyalist group secured a huge arms cache in 1987. Ulster Resistance was linked to a bid to procure South African arms in return for stolen missile technology from Short Bros. Weapons brought here from South Africa by a British agent, Mr Brian Nelson, for the Ulster Resistance movement, a movement with which it is clearly inextricably linked. This was evident at the Ulster Hall, where they wore the red beret and insignia of the Ulster Resistance, in Portadown and on various hillsides throughout the country where members of the DUP waved weapons, both licensed and unlicensed.
The Irish News reported in 1996 that security forces suspected that Ulster Resistance "continued to act as a quartermaster" by organising an "arms pool" for loyalists.
Hooded men brandishing rifles claimed in 2007 they were members of Ulster Resistance - and boasted the terror gang hasn't gone away. They re-emerged like a ghost from Ulster's grim past, claiming to have "the capability and resources to strike with deadly force". A statement purporting to come from Ulster Resistance warned it is ready to hit back against what it describes as the "intimidation of Protestants, especially in border areas".
It stated in 2007: "We are warning the Government and Republican movement that the intimidation of Protestants, especially in border areas, must stop! There will be no more statements from us, but as in the past we will be judged by our actions. Furthermore, there are a number of people under death threats from republicans and state-backed forces. If anyone is seriously hurt or killed, the response will be tenfold."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
