"[23] It was led by Gusty Spence, formerly a soldier in the British Army. [162], There were also 66 UVF/RHC members and four former members killed in the conflict. [120] However, from 1977 bombs largely disappeared from the UVF's arsenal owing to a lack of explosives and bomb-makers, plus a conscious decision to abandon their use in favour of more contained methods. She told mourners that he had made friends among republicans and socialists and among people from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. While the Troubles broke out in 1969, the murders carried out by the UVF years earlier were seen as brutal sectarian attacks that shocked Northern Ireland. Fifteen Catholic civilians were killed and seventeen wounded. RT 2023. At his funeral yesterday, Mr Spence said he was not there to deify Mr Lynch, whom he described as "a simple man but a wealthy one in terms of his friends and his love for his country". Augustus (Gusty) Spence Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), Protestant paramilitary organization founded in Northern Ireland in 1966. Mr Lynch's widow, Norma, recollected last night that the late Catholic primate of Ireland, Cardinal O Fiaich, had said that "if there was a hope for peace in Ireland it would come through Gusty". The British Army were deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland. Read about our approach to external linking. It was responsible for more than 500 deaths. [79], In 2008, a loyalist splinter group calling itself the "Real UVF" emerged briefly to make threats against Sinn Fin in County Fermanagh. Berenice's Cremation & Burial Care offers qualified funeral services in La Habra, CA, 90631. F". Sociologist Steven Bruce described the support networks in Canada as "the main source of support for loyalism outside the United Kingdom . [106] Later, in September 1972, Gusty Spence said in an interview that the organisation had a strength of 1,500. On the basis of that, we as a federation have called for the respecification of the UVF [stating that its ceasefire is over]. [24] On 21 May, the group issued a statement: From this day, we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups. The gunmen shot dead six people and injured five. [30] As arranged, the car in which Spence was a passenger was stopped in Springmartin and Spence was taken away by UVF members. Gusty Spence reading the 2007 UVF 'weapons beyond use' statement in Belfast. Openly paraded with the UVF and thanked Gusty Spence repeatedly for his services to Ulster. He was shot dead by the IRA in November 1982, four months after his release from the Maze Prison. 2023 BBC. [3] Spence Snr was a member of the Ulster Volunteers and had fought in the First World War. "The untouchable informers facing exposure at last". The UVF launched further attacks in the Republic of Ireland during December 1972 and January 1973, when it detonated three car bombs in Dublin and one in Belturbet, County Cavan, killing a total of five civilians. In the 1960s, he founded the Ulster Volunteer Force, which was responsible for hundreds of murders during the Troubles. During the service, mourners were told there is a campaign to have overturned the conviction for which Gusty Spence served a jail sentence, the killing of 18-year-old Belfast Catholic Peter Ward in 1966. The Mid-Ulster Brigade was also responsible for the 1975 Miami Showband killings, in which three members of the popular Irish cabaret band were shot dead at a bogus military checkpoint by gunmen in British Army uniforms. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. For an online, self-service experience, please visit: The 78-year-old died in hospital at the weekend after a long illness. [33] His fugitive status earned him the short-lived nickname the "Orange Pimpernel". [4] He married Isabella "Bella" Hayes, Gusty Spence's mother, in 1919. Spence said loyalists offered "abject and true remorse" to the loved ones of all the innocent victims of the Troubles. [21] Two days later, the Government of Northern Ireland declared the UVF illegal. [11] He was also a member of the Royal Black Institution and the Apprentice Boys of Derry. A number of friends and family members spoke at the service at St Michael's Church of Ireland on the Shankill Road. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade. The weapons were Palestine Liberation Organisation arms captured by the Israelis and sold to Armscor, the South African state-owned company which, in defiance of a 1977 United Nations arms embargo, set about making South Africa self-sufficient in military hardware. (2006) "Neglected Intelligence: How the British Government Failed to Quell the Ulster Volunteer Force, 19121914. [55] The hawks had been ousted by those in the UVF who were unhappy with their political and military strategy. Some of them left much of Belfast without power and water. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths crosstabulations", "UVF disbands unit linked to taxi murder", Law and order Belfast-style as two men are forced on a 'walk of shame', 'Report of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning', Twenty-Fourth Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission, "David Madine admits trying to kill loyalist Harry Stockman", "Police say UVF gunman seen in Rathcoole during trouble". Along with the newly formed Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the UVF started an armed campaign against the Catholic population of Northern Ireland. It issued a statement vowing to "remove republican elements from loyalist areas" and stop them "reaping financial benefit therefrom". Read about our approach to external linking. Two UVF members, Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, were accidentally killed by their own bomb while carrying out this attack. [151] A Canadian branch of the UDA also existed and sent $30,000 to the UDA's headquarters in Belfast by 1975. Drong de dhnmharfir srathacha ab ea Bistir na Seanchille a bh gnomhach i m Bal Feirste sna 1970id. [84] The Progressive Unionist Party's condemnation, and Dawn Purvis and other leaders' resignations as a response to the Moffett shooting, were also noted. The former loyalist paramilitary leader Gusty Spence has died in hospital. [29], On 12 October, a loyalist protest in the Shankill became violent. The funeral of 78-year-old Gusty Spence, the former leader of the UVF paramilitary organisation, has taken place in Belfast. [92], During the Belfast City Hall flag protests of 201213, senior UVF members were confirmed to have actively been involved in orchestrating violence and rioting against the PSNI and the Alliance Party throughout Northern Ireland during the weeks of disorder. [11] Whenever it claimed responsibility for its attacks, the UVF usually claimed that those targeted were IRA members or were giving help to the IRA. . He died on 17 May 2009, from a suspected heart attack at his home and was given a paramilitary funeral by the UVF. The Shankill loyalists supported Kilfedder and following his election as MP sent a letter to Paisley accusing him of treachery during the entire affair. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Why Covid lab-leak theory is now being taken seriously, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. [142] Its main benefactors have been in central Scotland,[143] Liverpool,[144] Preston[144] and the Toronto area of Canada. DeSantis won't say he's running. SENIOR UVF figures have warned loyalists will "wreck the place" and "the streets will be in flames" if any Brexit deal between the UK and EU does not . It would attack the Republic again in May 1974, during the two-week Ulster Workers' Council strike. [20], Since 1964 and the formation of the Campaign for Social Justice, there had been a growing civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland, seeking to highlight discrimination against Catholics by the unionist government of Northern Ireland. [2] He rose to the rank of Provost Sergeant (battalion police). Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings, Prince Andrew offered Frogmore Cottage - reports, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Beer and wine sales in Canada fall to all-time low, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US. The family of the former UVF leader Gusty Spence is planning a funeral with the emphasis on his British army past rather than his time in the paramilitary group. They shot dead John Scullion (28), a Catholic civilian, as he walked home. 2023 BBC. A former leader of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, described him as "one of the pivots on which a page of Irish history turned". [125], The UVF has killed more people than any other loyalist paramilitary group. The community centre hosting the event and 25 nearby homes were evacuated and a funeral was disrupted. Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric'. THE self described "old UVF man", Mr Gusty Spence (64), gave a brief oration at the funeral of Mr Jim Lynch (72), a former officer commanding (OC) of the IRA, at Cootehill, Co Cavan,. Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings, Prince Andrew offered Frogmore Cottage - reports, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Beer and wine sales in Canada fall to all-time low, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US. A piper leads a procession for Huntington Beach Police Officer Nicholas Vella in La Habra, CA on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. Malcolm Sutton's Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland, part of the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), states that the UVF and RHC was responsible for at least 485 killings during the Troubles, and lists a further 256 loyalist killings that have not yet been attributed to a particular group. [158] Loyalists in Portadown such as Bobby Jameson have stated that the LVF (the Mid-Ulster Brigade that broke away from the main UVF - and led by Billy Wright) was not a 'loyalist organisation but a drugs organisation causing misery in Portadown. Thousands of families, mostly Catholics, were forced to flee their homes and refugee camps were set up in the Republic of Ireland. [129] Another estimates that over a 30-year period women accounted for, at most, just 2% of UVF membership. They have been engaged in orchestrating violence on our streets, and it's very clear to me that they are engaged in an array of mafia-style activities. On 17 February 1979, the UVF carried out its only major attack in Scotland, when its members bombed two pubs in Glasgow frequented by Irish-Scots Catholics. Mr Spence said last night he was an eternal optimist" where the present situation in the North was concerned. [37], The IRA had split into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA in December 1969. Armed men hijacked a van on the nearby Shankill Road and forced the driver to take a device to a church on the Crumlin Road. The unnamed woman stated, "When you go out and throw a petrol bomb through a widow's window, you're no peacemaker. [164], For the original Ulster Volunteer Force, see, Aaron Edwards - UVF: Behind the Mask pp. "FIFTH REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT MONITORING COMMISSION", Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs - Part One: The continuing threat from paramilitary organisations, "Inside story: Why the IRA never attacked Scotland", "Revealed: how Scots loyalists sent gelignite to paramilitaries. All were widely blamed on the IRA, and British soldiers were sent to guard installations. Although O'Neill was a unionist, they saw him as being too 'soft' on the civil rights movement and too friendly with the Republic of Ireland. He also directed a significant restocking of the group's arsenal, with guns mostly taken from the security forces. [2] He was sent to Crumlin Road Prison. The group also carried out attacks in the Republic of Ireland from 1969 onward. Augustus Andrew Spence (28 June 1933[2] 25 September 2011) was a leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and a leading loyalist politician in Northern Ireland. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Formed in 1965,[7] it first emerged in 1966. [36] Catholic churches were also attacked. Spence in 1972, while at large from prison, National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Biographies of people prominent during 'the Troubles': S, "CAIN: Background: Chronology of Key Events 1800 to 1967". [128] Information regarding the role of women in the UVF is limited. [56] The UVF's activities in the last years of the decade were increasingly being curtailed by the number of UVF members who were sent to prison. Paisley had intimated that Kilfedder, a rival for the leadership of dissident unionism, was close to Fine Gael after learning that he had attended party meetings while a student at Trinity College Dublin. He added: "He formed a relationship with Cardinal O'Fiach and that was in some of our ways of thinking in those days a big step because the Catholic church in particular were the enemy. "He was an Irishman and looked upon himself as an Ulster Irishman as well as being British. Spence now argued that UVF members were soldiers and soldiers should not kill civilians, as had been the case at McGurk's Bar. Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US. He added: "He formed a relationship with Cardinal O'Fiach and that was in some of our ways of thinking in those days a big step because the Catholic church in particular were the enemy. [64] Republicans responded to the attacks by assassinating senior UVF members John Bingham, William "Frenchie" Marchant and Trevor King[65] as well as Leslie Dallas, whose purported UVF membership was disputed both by his family and the UVF. [26] He died of his wounds on 11 June. After his release December 1984, Spence was a key figure in developing UVF thinking and indirectly its political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade. Gusty Spence announced the loyalist paramilitary ceasefires in 1994, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Home; About; Testimonials; Contact; Select Page. On 23 October 1972, the UVF carried out an armed raid against King's Park camp, a UDR/Territorial Army depot in Lurgan. Read about our approach to external linking. [149] It is estimated that the UVF nevertheless received hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations to its Loyalist Prisoners Welfare Association. In 1972, the UVF's imprisoned leader Gusty Spence was at liberty for four months following a staged kidnapping by UVF volunteers. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In accordance with Spence's wishes, there were no paramilitary trappings at the funeral or reference to his time in the UVF. The coffin, covered with the flag of the Ulster Rifles and his beret, of former UVF leader Gusty Spence passes a UVF mural along the Shankill Road in Belfast after his funeral at St Michael's Church. Secret memo says explosives were shipped in small boats", "The Canadian Dimension to the Northern Ireland Conflict", "BBC - The Devenport Diaries: Remembering Billy Wright", "Sutton Index of Deaths: Crosstabulations (two-way tables)", "Sutton Index of Deaths: Status of the person killed", CAIN University of Ulster Conflict Archive, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ulster_Volunteer_Force&oldid=1142049756, May 1966 present (on ceasefire since October 1994; officially ended armed campaign in May 2007), Unnamed Chief of Staff (1974 October 1975). [99][100], On 4 March 2021, the UVF, Red Hand Commando and UDA renounced their current participation in the Good Friday Agreement. [2] In 1978, Spence left the UVF altogether. The largest death toll in a single attack was in the 3 March 1991 Cappagh killings, when the UVF killed IRA members John Quinn, Dwayne O'Donnell and Malcolm Nugent, and civilian Thomas Armstrong in the small village of Cappagh. [117] Members were trained in bomb-making, and the organisation developed home-made explosives. "However he did dedicate himself to peace and reconciliation for much of his later life so he will also be remembered as a major influence in drawing loyalism away from sectarian strife," he added. [70], There followed years of violence between the two organisations. In keeping with his wishes, there will be no UVF trappings and his coffin will be draped in the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles in which he served. According to the Belfast Telegraph, "70 separate police intelligence reports implicating the north Belfast UVF man in dealing cannabis, Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. The latter had formally asked Spence for his daughter's hand in marriage during a prison visit. Recently it has emerged from the Police Ombudsman that senior North Belfast UVF member and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch informant Mark Haddock has been involved in drug dealing. Also, why did the author not probe the close relationship between Gusty Spence and the RHC? In Belfast, loyalists responded by attacking nationalist districts. ", This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:47. Thirty-three people were killed and almost 300 injured. The charges were dropped but later in 1966 he was given life for the murder of Peter Ward, who had called in to a Shankill Road bar with Catholic workmates and was shot dead as he left. The gang comprised, in addition to the UVF, rogue elements of the UDR, RUC, SPG, and the regular Army, all acting allegedly under the direction of the British Intelligence Corps and/or RUC Special Branch. "[97], In June 2017, Gary Haggarty, former UVF commander for north Belfast and south-east Antrim, pleaded guilty to 200 charges, including five murders. In her address to the church congregation, Ms Purvis recalled how Mr Spence had been frank about his UVF role, but that he had often shocked loyalist contemporaries by his willingness to bring an end to conflict and build bridges between working class Protestants and Catholics. He added: "I think it helped to set some of the tone to bring us to where we are now.". [47] Spence went on to become a leading advocate for the Good Friday Agreement. When Spence was 'abducted' in July 1972 it was the RHC who were at the forefront of this operation. He initially refused and went on to attend his daughter's wedding. Skip to navigation [n] Skip to content [c] Skip to footer [f] Search Search. Available for both RF and RM licensing. [18] Two days later, the government of Northern Ireland used the Special Powers Act to declare the UVF illegal. [citation needed]. According to Billy Mitchell, Spence quizzed him and others sent to the Maze about why they were there, seeking an ideological answer to his question. In keeping with his wishes, there were no paramilitary trappings and his coffin was draped with the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles, in which he served. [20], In October 1966, Spence was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Ward, although Spence has always claimed he was innocent. Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Mr Spence, who died in hospital at the weekend after a long illness, inspired loyalists to enter politics during the peace process and helped form the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). The 78-year-old died in hospital at the weekend after a long illness. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom.[8]. Augustus Spence was born in a Protestant area of Belfast, not far from Shankill Road. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Eleven years ago he was forced out of his home on the Shankill Road by Johnny Adair's gang during one of the many loyalist paramilitary feuds. View discounts Available for editorial and personal use only. Gusty Spence Funeral RIP 21,778 views Nov 15, 2013 95 Dislike Share Save Elmwoodgrove 14 subscribers The Funeral at Craven Street Gusty said Some day The PUP will grow a set of Jaws And BITE. Spence said loyalists offered "abject and true remorse" to the loved ones of all the innocent victims of the Troubles. Although Mr Lynch was from a different tradition, he had "welcomed his friendship," and he recalled the conversations they had about peace in Ireland. The arms are thought to have consisted of: The UVF used this new infusion of arms to escalate their campaign of sectarian assassinations. Edward's son Ronnie was active in the Official IRA and then the INLA, serving a sentence on the INLA wing of the Maze prison while his uncle was on the UVF wing. The statement also included a warning that activities could "provoke another generation of loyalists toward armed resistance". Spence was initially held over the murder of the first victim of the Troubles, John Scullion, who was shot by the UVF in the Falls Road area of Belfast. The Sunday World's offices were also firebombed. Mr Spence was convicted for the murder of one of the victims, 18-year-old Peter Ward, who was shot dead after being identified as a Catholic while he drank in a mainly Protestant pub. Others who attended included Jeanette Irvine, the widow of the former PUP Assembly member, David Ervine, Dawn Purvis, the former PUP Assembly member who resigned from the party over the UVF's activities and the former Assembly member and former Human Rights Commissioner, Monica Mc Williams. He later became involved in politics and announced the landmark loyalist paramilitary ceasefires in 1994. [1] Spence, along with other Shankill Road loyalists, broke from Paisley in 1965 when they sided with Jim Kilfedder in a row that followed the latter's campaigns in Belfast West. [82] The IICD confirmed that "substantial quantities of firearms, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices" had been decommissioned and that for the UVF and RHC, decommissioning had been completed. We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this cause. He was jailed for life for the murder of a Catholic barman in 1966 and served 18 years in prison. There are various credible[citation needed] allegations that elements of the British security forces colluded with the UVF in the bombings. In keeping with his wishes, there will be no UVF trappings and his coffin will be draped in the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles in which he served. From that time until the early 1990s the Mid-Ulster Brigade was led by Robin "the Jackal" Jackson, who then passed the leadership to Billy Wright. A controlled explosion was carried out and the bomb was later declared a hoax. [127] A British Army report released in 2006 estimated a peak membership of 1,000. Arms are thought to have consisted of: the 78-year-old died in hospital the streets of Northern Ireland used Special., a loyalist protest in the Republic of Ireland from 1969 onward attend his daughter wedding. Volunteer Force, 19121914 among people from Northern Ireland 164 ], There were also 66 UVF/RHC members four! 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