In general loyalism refers to an individual's allegiance toward an established government, political party, or sovereign, especially during times of war and revolt. The most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the Great Britain, especially to opponents of the American Revolution and those exiles who went to Canada.
In North America, the term loyalist characterised colonists who rejected the American Revolution in favour of remaining within the British Empire. American loyalists included royal officials, Anglican clergymen, wealthy merchants with ties to London, demobilised British soldiers, and recent arrivals (especially from Scotland), as well as many ordinary colonists who were conservative by nature and/or felt that the protection of Britain was needed. Colonists with loyalist sympathies accounted for an estimated 15% to 20% of the white colonial population of the day, compared with those described as "Patriots", who accounted for about 40-50% of the population. This high level of political polarisation leads historians to argue that the American Revolution was as much a civil war as it was a war of independence from the British Crown.
In the United States, Southern Unionists were white people living in the Confederate States of America, opposed to secession, and against the Civil War. These people are also referred to as Southern Loyalists, Union Loyalists and Lincoln Loyalists. During reconstruction these terms were replaced by "scalawag", which covered all Southern whites who supported the Republican Party. Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia (which West Virginia still formed part of) were home to the largest populations of loyalists, thousands of whom volunteered for Union military service.
What was a Southern Unionist?
The term Southern Unionist, and its variations, incorporate a spectrum of beliefs and actions. Some, such as Texas governor Sam Houston, were vocal in their support of Southern interests, but believed that those interests could best be maintained by remaining in the Union as it existed. Some Unionists opposed secession, but afterwards either actively served and fought with the Confederate armies, or supported the Confederacy in other ways. Others refused to fight, went North or stayed North to enlist in the Union Armies, or fought informally as partisans in the South. Some remained in the South and tried to stay neutral. The term could also be used of any Southerner who worked with the Republican Party or Union government in any capacity after the war ended in 1865.
Loyalist (American Civil War), residents of the Southern states who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War
National Union Conventioners, who supported the policies of President Andrew Johnson against the Radical Republicans during Reconstruction after the Civil War
Returning the Serve Documentary | Loyalists | The Troubles
Interviews with loyalist terrorists in abundance within this fantastic documentary by the great Peter Taylor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Disclaimer: The videos uploaded by A Troubled Land are historical.
Uploaded to protect and save our troubled history for future generations.
We do NOT glorify war by any...
published: 04 Apr 2022
Loyalists Episode1 No Surrender Full Version HQ
"Loyalists" No Surrender (1999)
Documentary series presented by Peter Taylor, about the origins and evolution of the loyalist paramilitary movement in Northern Ireland.
published: 07 Mar 2013
History Brief: Patriots and Loyalists
In this video, the subject of Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution are discussed.
For teaching resources to accompany this video series, click here: http://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Reading-Through-History/dp/1492215481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442463781&sr=8-1&keywords=reading+through+history+the+american+revolution
published: 17 Sep 2015
Which Loyalist Chapters Were Created Using Traitor Geneseed? | Warhammer 40k Lore
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Traitor geneseed is considered to be tainted and heretical by most. However it has actually created some of the most powerful and steadfast loyalist chapters in the entire Imperium
Artwork in Thumbnail by :
FonteArt : https://www.deviantart.com/fonteart/art/Blood-Raven-627945135
Vladislav Grechko : https://grechkovl.artstation.com/projects/qA6O3n
David Sondered : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBowVn
See naughty Cosplay shots and other special content here : https://www.patreon.com/majorkill
Get the Major Minis here : https://www.majorminis.com.au/
Pick up the Majorkill Merch here : https://www.majorkill.shop/
If ...
published: 24 Mar 2023
Loyalist paramilitaries: The 'defence groups' that killed hundreds
Fifty years after British troops were deployed to NI, BBC News NI assesses the impact of loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles.
Many of those who joined such groups said they were simply defending their communities from attack.
But loyalist paramilitaries killed more than 1,000 people during the Troubles, including many Catholics who were targeted simply because of their religion.
published: 15 Aug 2019
100 years on: How do today’s Loyalist teenagers see their Northern Irish identity?
The Queen has hailed the continued peace in Northern Ireland as a credit to its people - in a message marking a hundred years since its creation.
(Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)
Muted commemorations will be taking place among unionist and loyalist communities, who celebrate Northern Ireland being part of the UK.
Our correspondent Pariac O’Brien has been exploring Northern Irish identity by talking to young people born after the Good Friday agreement. In the first in our two part series, he meets Loyalist teenagers living on one side of a peace wall separating neighbourhoods.
-----------------------
Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Channel4News
published: 03 May 2021
Number one platoon-loyalist song
published: 13 Sep 2020
Loyalists Episode3 War and Peace Full Version HQ
Former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners Gerry Spence and Bobby Philpott claim that Loyalist violence in the early nineties made the IRA realise they could not win. Peter Taylor reveals the true face of the Loyalist paramilitaries and assesses the prospects for peace in the face of continuing sectarian tensions
published: 07 Mar 2013
UTV Insight : Loyalist and Republican Collusion. (full documentary)
An emerging body of evidence shows that during the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, a number of British military, police and security agencies were engaged in a ‘dirty war’ where human rights and the law were jettisoned in covert counter-insurgency strategies
Various sources — including declassified government files and official police and parliamentary reports on both sides of the border in Ireland — suggest that collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups was systematic and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
The so-called “Troubles” in Northern Ireland began in the late 1960s. Republican (or nationalist) paramilitary groups — principally the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) — fought a violent campaign to unite the territory wit...
Interviews with loyalist terrorists in abundance within this fantastic documentary by the great Peter Taylor.
-------------------------------------------------...
Interviews with loyalist terrorists in abundance within this fantastic documentary by the great Peter Taylor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't get paid from YouTube so if you would like to make a donation to me please use my PayPal link here : https://paypal.me/RetroZom?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Join the WhatsApp group here : https://chat.whatsapp.com/CdNKrPFiiBVEDwsUNDRDsr
-Like ATL on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/A-Troubled-Land-101064309219655
- Have content you want shared? Contact me here [email protected]
Disclaimer: The videos uploaded by A Troubled Land are historical.
Uploaded to protect and save our troubled history for future generations.
We do NOT glorify war by anyone nor condone it.
#BritishState #TheTroubles #IrishState
Interviews with loyalist terrorists in abundance within this fantastic documentary by the great Peter Taylor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't get paid from YouTube so if you would like to make a donation to me please use my PayPal link here : https://paypal.me/RetroZom?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Join the WhatsApp group here : https://chat.whatsapp.com/CdNKrPFiiBVEDwsUNDRDsr
-Like ATL on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/A-Troubled-Land-101064309219655
- Have content you want shared? Contact me here [email protected]
Disclaimer: The videos uploaded by A Troubled Land are historical.
Uploaded to protect and save our troubled history for future generations.
We do NOT glorify war by anyone nor condone it.
#BritishState #TheTroubles #IrishState
"Loyalists" No Surrender (1999)
Documentary series presented by Peter Taylor, about the origins and evolution of the loyalist paramilitary movement in Norther...
"Loyalists" No Surrender (1999)
Documentary series presented by Peter Taylor, about the origins and evolution of the loyalist paramilitary movement in Northern Ireland.
"Loyalists" No Surrender (1999)
Documentary series presented by Peter Taylor, about the origins and evolution of the loyalist paramilitary movement in Northern Ireland.
In this video, the subject of Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution are discussed.
For teaching resources to accompany this video series, click h...
In this video, the subject of Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution are discussed.
For teaching resources to accompany this video series, click here: http://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Reading-Through-History/dp/1492215481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442463781&sr=8-1&keywords=reading+through+history+the+american+revolution
In this video, the subject of Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution are discussed.
For teaching resources to accompany this video series, click here: http://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Reading-Through-History/dp/1492215481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442463781&sr=8-1&keywords=reading+through+history+the+american+revolution
Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping on your order with promo code "MAJORKILL" at https://manscaped.com/majorkill
Cheers to MANSCAPED for sponsoring today'...
Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping on your order with promo code "MAJORKILL" at https://manscaped.com/majorkill
Cheers to MANSCAPED for sponsoring today's video!
Traitor geneseed is considered to be tainted and heretical by most. However it has actually created some of the most powerful and steadfast loyalist chapters in the entire Imperium
Artwork in Thumbnail by :
FonteArt : https://www.deviantart.com/fonteart/art/Blood-Raven-627945135
Vladislav Grechko : https://grechkovl.artstation.com/projects/qA6O3n
David Sondered : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBowVn
See naughty Cosplay shots and other special content here : https://www.patreon.com/majorkill
Get the Major Minis here : https://www.majorminis.com.au/
Pick up the Majorkill Merch here : https://www.majorkill.shop/
If you want to play games or join the community further then join the Discord: https://discord.gg/hm3ug8kAtg
Follow me on Twitter for a laugh: https://twitter.com/Majorkill1
Like, Comment and Subscribe for more
DISCLAIMER : Majorkill PTY LTD is in no way associated or affiliated with Games workshop. The Warhammer IP and it's respective trademarks are the property of GW.
Artwork in this video is used for commentary and educational purposes. Artwork belongs to GW and other respective owners.
If you see artwork you have created in this video and would like to be credited, message me on discord at MajorKill9058 with a screenshot and credit link.
Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping on your order with promo code "MAJORKILL" at https://manscaped.com/majorkill
Cheers to MANSCAPED for sponsoring today's video!
Traitor geneseed is considered to be tainted and heretical by most. However it has actually created some of the most powerful and steadfast loyalist chapters in the entire Imperium
Artwork in Thumbnail by :
FonteArt : https://www.deviantart.com/fonteart/art/Blood-Raven-627945135
Vladislav Grechko : https://grechkovl.artstation.com/projects/qA6O3n
David Sondered : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBowVn
See naughty Cosplay shots and other special content here : https://www.patreon.com/majorkill
Get the Major Minis here : https://www.majorminis.com.au/
Pick up the Majorkill Merch here : https://www.majorkill.shop/
If you want to play games or join the community further then join the Discord: https://discord.gg/hm3ug8kAtg
Follow me on Twitter for a laugh: https://twitter.com/Majorkill1
Like, Comment and Subscribe for more
DISCLAIMER : Majorkill PTY LTD is in no way associated or affiliated with Games workshop. The Warhammer IP and it's respective trademarks are the property of GW.
Artwork in this video is used for commentary and educational purposes. Artwork belongs to GW and other respective owners.
If you see artwork you have created in this video and would like to be credited, message me on discord at MajorKill9058 with a screenshot and credit link.
Fifty years after British troops were deployed to NI, BBC News NI assesses the impact of loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles.
Many of those who joi...
Fifty years after British troops were deployed to NI, BBC News NI assesses the impact of loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles.
Many of those who joined such groups said they were simply defending their communities from attack.
But loyalist paramilitaries killed more than 1,000 people during the Troubles, including many Catholics who were targeted simply because of their religion.
Fifty years after British troops were deployed to NI, BBC News NI assesses the impact of loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles.
Many of those who joined such groups said they were simply defending their communities from attack.
But loyalist paramilitaries killed more than 1,000 people during the Troubles, including many Catholics who were targeted simply because of their religion.
The Queen has hailed the continued peace in Northern Ireland as a credit to its people - in a message marking a hundred years since its creation.
(Subscribe: ...
The Queen has hailed the continued peace in Northern Ireland as a credit to its people - in a message marking a hundred years since its creation.
(Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)
Muted commemorations will be taking place among unionist and loyalist communities, who celebrate Northern Ireland being part of the UK.
Our correspondent Pariac O’Brien has been exploring Northern Irish identity by talking to young people born after the Good Friday agreement. In the first in our two part series, he meets Loyalist teenagers living on one side of a peace wall separating neighbourhoods.
-----------------------
Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Channel4News
The Queen has hailed the continued peace in Northern Ireland as a credit to its people - in a message marking a hundred years since its creation.
(Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)
Muted commemorations will be taking place among unionist and loyalist communities, who celebrate Northern Ireland being part of the UK.
Our correspondent Pariac O’Brien has been exploring Northern Irish identity by talking to young people born after the Good Friday agreement. In the first in our two part series, he meets Loyalist teenagers living on one side of a peace wall separating neighbourhoods.
-----------------------
Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Channel4News
Former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners Gerry Spence and Bobby Philpott claim that Loyalist violence in the early nineties made the IRA realise they could...
Former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners Gerry Spence and Bobby Philpott claim that Loyalist violence in the early nineties made the IRA realise they could not win. Peter Taylor reveals the true face of the Loyalist paramilitaries and assesses the prospects for peace in the face of continuing sectarian tensions
Former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners Gerry Spence and Bobby Philpott claim that Loyalist violence in the early nineties made the IRA realise they could not win. Peter Taylor reveals the true face of the Loyalist paramilitaries and assesses the prospects for peace in the face of continuing sectarian tensions
An emerging body of evidence shows that during the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, a number of British military, police and security agencies were en...
An emerging body of evidence shows that during the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, a number of British military, police and security agencies were engaged in a ‘dirty war’ where human rights and the law were jettisoned in covert counter-insurgency strategies
Various sources — including declassified government files and official police and parliamentary reports on both sides of the border in Ireland — suggest that collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups was systematic and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
The so-called “Troubles” in Northern Ireland began in the late 1960s. Republican (or nationalist) paramilitary groups — principally the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) — fought a violent campaign to unite the territory with the 26 counties in Ireland.
On the other side were unionist (or loyalist) paramilitary forces, established to protect the union with Britain, by force of arms if necessary. These were mainly the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the newer and larger Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
‘Dozens and dozens’ of murders
Lord Stevens, a former senior British police officer who led three government investigations into the security forces in Northern Ireland, has stated that the British recruited thousands of agents and informants during the Troubles, and that just one of them may be linked to “dozens and dozens” of murders. During his investigations, Stevens and his team arrested 210 paramilitary suspects, of whom, he said, 207 were agents or informants for the British state.
The lawyer Pat Finucane was shot dead in front of his wife and children in Belfast in 1989 by a UDA hit squad which included British police and military agents. The most recent government-ordered review of the murder noted that 85% of the UDA’s intelligence originated in one arm or other of the British security agencies. It also stated that the UDA was “heavily reliant on the flow of [British] security force leads to enable them to identify republican targets” and that “many UDA attacks could be traced back to assistance initially provided by one of their [British] security force contacts”.
The British government has always claimed it was not involved in paramilitary activities and that its role in Northern Ireland was limited to defeating the IRA, upholding the rule of law and preserving the union. As the conflict raged in the early 1970s, claims of collusion between loyalist paramilitary gangs and the British state were widely dismissed as republican propaganda. However, a growing body of work by journalists and historians now makes this position unsustainable.
for the IRA, Tuzo accepted that the British army should “acquiesce in unarmed UDA patrolling and barricading of Protestant areas”. Indeed, the UDA was often allowed to patrol its “own areas” in uniform, sometimes wearing masks. The authorities even went so far as to turn a blind eye to the UDA patrolling with arms and sometimes even allowed it to patrol with British troops.
The British government regularly claimed that loyalist killings were carried out in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) and not the UDA which, it said, was a separate organisation.
An internal 1976 British assessment, however, told a different story.
It stated that, “the UDA is the largest and best-organised of the loyalist paramilitary organisations”, which “tries to maintain a respectable front” either by denying responsibility for sectarian murders or claiming them “in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a proscribed and essentially fictitious organisation which is widely known to be a nom de guerre for the UDA”.
A 1976 internal British assessment noted that, ‘The UDA is the largest and best-organised of the loyalist paramilitary organisations’ and that the Ulster Freedom Fighters were ‘a proscribed and essentially fictitious organisation which is widely known to be a nom de guerre for the UDA’. (Source: National Archives, https://www.patfinucanecentre.org/declassified-documents/declassified-document-uff-fictitious-020976)
The police and the UVF
There is also evidence of systemic collusion between the Northern Irish police and the two main paramilitary organisations, the UVF and the UDA.
British documents from 1975 noted that there were “certain elements in the police” who were very close to the UVF. One former sergeant in the police wrote in a 1999 affidavit that “collusion” was endemic.
Following the publication of a report into the Pat Finucane murder in 2012, the then British prime minister, David Cameron, made an explicit admission in the House of Commons that the depth of the co-operation between the security forces and Finucane’s loyalist killers was “unacceptable”.
Cameron denied, however, that there was any overarching policy to use loyalists to target members of the nationalist community or active republicans.
An emerging body of evidence shows that during the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, a number of British military, police and security agencies were engaged in a ‘dirty war’ where human rights and the law were jettisoned in covert counter-insurgency strategies
Various sources — including declassified government files and official police and parliamentary reports on both sides of the border in Ireland — suggest that collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups was systematic and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
The so-called “Troubles” in Northern Ireland began in the late 1960s. Republican (or nationalist) paramilitary groups — principally the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) — fought a violent campaign to unite the territory with the 26 counties in Ireland.
On the other side were unionist (or loyalist) paramilitary forces, established to protect the union with Britain, by force of arms if necessary. These were mainly the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the newer and larger Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
‘Dozens and dozens’ of murders
Lord Stevens, a former senior British police officer who led three government investigations into the security forces in Northern Ireland, has stated that the British recruited thousands of agents and informants during the Troubles, and that just one of them may be linked to “dozens and dozens” of murders. During his investigations, Stevens and his team arrested 210 paramilitary suspects, of whom, he said, 207 were agents or informants for the British state.
The lawyer Pat Finucane was shot dead in front of his wife and children in Belfast in 1989 by a UDA hit squad which included British police and military agents. The most recent government-ordered review of the murder noted that 85% of the UDA’s intelligence originated in one arm or other of the British security agencies. It also stated that the UDA was “heavily reliant on the flow of [British] security force leads to enable them to identify republican targets” and that “many UDA attacks could be traced back to assistance initially provided by one of their [British] security force contacts”.
The British government has always claimed it was not involved in paramilitary activities and that its role in Northern Ireland was limited to defeating the IRA, upholding the rule of law and preserving the union. As the conflict raged in the early 1970s, claims of collusion between loyalist paramilitary gangs and the British state were widely dismissed as republican propaganda. However, a growing body of work by journalists and historians now makes this position unsustainable.
for the IRA, Tuzo accepted that the British army should “acquiesce in unarmed UDA patrolling and barricading of Protestant areas”. Indeed, the UDA was often allowed to patrol its “own areas” in uniform, sometimes wearing masks. The authorities even went so far as to turn a blind eye to the UDA patrolling with arms and sometimes even allowed it to patrol with British troops.
The British government regularly claimed that loyalist killings were carried out in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) and not the UDA which, it said, was a separate organisation.
An internal 1976 British assessment, however, told a different story.
It stated that, “the UDA is the largest and best-organised of the loyalist paramilitary organisations”, which “tries to maintain a respectable front” either by denying responsibility for sectarian murders or claiming them “in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a proscribed and essentially fictitious organisation which is widely known to be a nom de guerre for the UDA”.
A 1976 internal British assessment noted that, ‘The UDA is the largest and best-organised of the loyalist paramilitary organisations’ and that the Ulster Freedom Fighters were ‘a proscribed and essentially fictitious organisation which is widely known to be a nom de guerre for the UDA’. (Source: National Archives, https://www.patfinucanecentre.org/declassified-documents/declassified-document-uff-fictitious-020976)
The police and the UVF
There is also evidence of systemic collusion between the Northern Irish police and the two main paramilitary organisations, the UVF and the UDA.
British documents from 1975 noted that there were “certain elements in the police” who were very close to the UVF. One former sergeant in the police wrote in a 1999 affidavit that “collusion” was endemic.
Following the publication of a report into the Pat Finucane murder in 2012, the then British prime minister, David Cameron, made an explicit admission in the House of Commons that the depth of the co-operation between the security forces and Finucane’s loyalist killers was “unacceptable”.
Cameron denied, however, that there was any overarching policy to use loyalists to target members of the nationalist community or active republicans.
Interviews with loyalist terrorists in abundance within this fantastic documentary by the great Peter Taylor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't get paid from YouTube so if you would like to make a donation to me please use my PayPal link here : https://paypal.me/RetroZom?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Join the WhatsApp group here : https://chat.whatsapp.com/CdNKrPFiiBVEDwsUNDRDsr
-Like ATL on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/A-Troubled-Land-101064309219655
- Have content you want shared? Contact me here [email protected]
Disclaimer: The videos uploaded by A Troubled Land are historical.
Uploaded to protect and save our troubled history for future generations.
We do NOT glorify war by anyone nor condone it.
#BritishState #TheTroubles #IrishState
"Loyalists" No Surrender (1999)
Documentary series presented by Peter Taylor, about the origins and evolution of the loyalist paramilitary movement in Northern Ireland.
In this video, the subject of Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution are discussed.
For teaching resources to accompany this video series, click here: http://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Reading-Through-History/dp/1492215481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442463781&sr=8-1&keywords=reading+through+history+the+american+revolution
Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping on your order with promo code "MAJORKILL" at https://manscaped.com/majorkill
Cheers to MANSCAPED for sponsoring today's video!
Traitor geneseed is considered to be tainted and heretical by most. However it has actually created some of the most powerful and steadfast loyalist chapters in the entire Imperium
Artwork in Thumbnail by :
FonteArt : https://www.deviantart.com/fonteart/art/Blood-Raven-627945135
Vladislav Grechko : https://grechkovl.artstation.com/projects/qA6O3n
David Sondered : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBowVn
See naughty Cosplay shots and other special content here : https://www.patreon.com/majorkill
Get the Major Minis here : https://www.majorminis.com.au/
Pick up the Majorkill Merch here : https://www.majorkill.shop/
If you want to play games or join the community further then join the Discord: https://discord.gg/hm3ug8kAtg
Follow me on Twitter for a laugh: https://twitter.com/Majorkill1
Like, Comment and Subscribe for more
DISCLAIMER : Majorkill PTY LTD is in no way associated or affiliated with Games workshop. The Warhammer IP and it's respective trademarks are the property of GW.
Artwork in this video is used for commentary and educational purposes. Artwork belongs to GW and other respective owners.
If you see artwork you have created in this video and would like to be credited, message me on discord at MajorKill9058 with a screenshot and credit link.
Fifty years after British troops were deployed to NI, BBC News NI assesses the impact of loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles.
Many of those who joined such groups said they were simply defending their communities from attack.
But loyalist paramilitaries killed more than 1,000 people during the Troubles, including many Catholics who were targeted simply because of their religion.
The Queen has hailed the continued peace in Northern Ireland as a credit to its people - in a message marking a hundred years since its creation.
(Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)
Muted commemorations will be taking place among unionist and loyalist communities, who celebrate Northern Ireland being part of the UK.
Our correspondent Pariac O’Brien has been exploring Northern Irish identity by talking to young people born after the Good Friday agreement. In the first in our two part series, he meets Loyalist teenagers living on one side of a peace wall separating neighbourhoods.
-----------------------
Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Channel4News
Former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners Gerry Spence and Bobby Philpott claim that Loyalist violence in the early nineties made the IRA realise they could not win. Peter Taylor reveals the true face of the Loyalist paramilitaries and assesses the prospects for peace in the face of continuing sectarian tensions
An emerging body of evidence shows that during the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, a number of British military, police and security agencies were engaged in a ‘dirty war’ where human rights and the law were jettisoned in covert counter-insurgency strategies
Various sources — including declassified government files and official police and parliamentary reports on both sides of the border in Ireland — suggest that collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups was systematic and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
The so-called “Troubles” in Northern Ireland began in the late 1960s. Republican (or nationalist) paramilitary groups — principally the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) — fought a violent campaign to unite the territory with the 26 counties in Ireland.
On the other side were unionist (or loyalist) paramilitary forces, established to protect the union with Britain, by force of arms if necessary. These were mainly the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the newer and larger Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
‘Dozens and dozens’ of murders
Lord Stevens, a former senior British police officer who led three government investigations into the security forces in Northern Ireland, has stated that the British recruited thousands of agents and informants during the Troubles, and that just one of them may be linked to “dozens and dozens” of murders. During his investigations, Stevens and his team arrested 210 paramilitary suspects, of whom, he said, 207 were agents or informants for the British state.
The lawyer Pat Finucane was shot dead in front of his wife and children in Belfast in 1989 by a UDA hit squad which included British police and military agents. The most recent government-ordered review of the murder noted that 85% of the UDA’s intelligence originated in one arm or other of the British security agencies. It also stated that the UDA was “heavily reliant on the flow of [British] security force leads to enable them to identify republican targets” and that “many UDA attacks could be traced back to assistance initially provided by one of their [British] security force contacts”.
The British government has always claimed it was not involved in paramilitary activities and that its role in Northern Ireland was limited to defeating the IRA, upholding the rule of law and preserving the union. As the conflict raged in the early 1970s, claims of collusion between loyalist paramilitary gangs and the British state were widely dismissed as republican propaganda. However, a growing body of work by journalists and historians now makes this position unsustainable.
for the IRA, Tuzo accepted that the British army should “acquiesce in unarmed UDA patrolling and barricading of Protestant areas”. Indeed, the UDA was often allowed to patrol its “own areas” in uniform, sometimes wearing masks. The authorities even went so far as to turn a blind eye to the UDA patrolling with arms and sometimes even allowed it to patrol with British troops.
The British government regularly claimed that loyalist killings were carried out in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) and not the UDA which, it said, was a separate organisation.
An internal 1976 British assessment, however, told a different story.
It stated that, “the UDA is the largest and best-organised of the loyalist paramilitary organisations”, which “tries to maintain a respectable front” either by denying responsibility for sectarian murders or claiming them “in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a proscribed and essentially fictitious organisation which is widely known to be a nom de guerre for the UDA”.
A 1976 internal British assessment noted that, ‘The UDA is the largest and best-organised of the loyalist paramilitary organisations’ and that the Ulster Freedom Fighters were ‘a proscribed and essentially fictitious organisation which is widely known to be a nom de guerre for the UDA’. (Source: National Archives, https://www.patfinucanecentre.org/declassified-documents/declassified-document-uff-fictitious-020976)
The police and the UVF
There is also evidence of systemic collusion between the Northern Irish police and the two main paramilitary organisations, the UVF and the UDA.
British documents from 1975 noted that there were “certain elements in the police” who were very close to the UVF. One former sergeant in the police wrote in a 1999 affidavit that “collusion” was endemic.
Following the publication of a report into the Pat Finucane murder in 2012, the then British prime minister, David Cameron, made an explicit admission in the House of Commons that the depth of the co-operation between the security forces and Finucane’s loyalist killers was “unacceptable”.
Cameron denied, however, that there was any overarching policy to use loyalists to target members of the nationalist community or active republicans.
In general loyalism refers to an individual's allegiance toward an established government, political party, or sovereign, especially during times of war and revolt. The most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the Great Britain, especially to opponents of the American Revolution and those exiles who went to Canada.
In North America, the term loyalist characterised colonists who rejected the American Revolution in favour of remaining within the British Empire. American loyalists included royal officials, Anglican clergymen, wealthy merchants with ties to London, demobilised British soldiers, and recent arrivals (especially from Scotland), as well as many ordinary colonists who were conservative by nature and/or felt that the protection of Britain was needed. Colonists with loyalist sympathies accounted for an estimated 15% to 20% of the white colonial population of the day, compared with those described as "Patriots", who accounted for about 40-50% of the population. This high level of political polarisation leads historians to argue that the American Revolution was as much a civil war as it was a war of independence from the British Crown.
He was jailed in 1997, but the British authorities recognised the LVF as a separate loyalist paramilitary grouping and gave its members a separate wing in the Maze prison.
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