| Orange Volunteers (OV) | |
|---|---|
  Above: Emblem of the Orange Volunteers Below: Flag used by the Orange Volunteers | |
| Ideology | Ulster loyalism Protestant extremism Anti-Catholicism |
The Orange Volunteers (OV) was a loyalist vigilante group with a paramilitary structure active in Northern Ireland during the early 1970s. It took its name from the Orange Order, from which it drew the bulk of its membership.
The group was established in or around 1972 [1] as a paramilitary movement for members of the Orange Order. [2] Members met in Orange Halls and were drawn exclusively from the Orange Order. [3] Many of its members had previously served in the British Army. [4] Full details of its early membership are sketchy, although its strength was estimated at between 200 and 500 members, most of whom were concentrated in East Belfast and Sandy Row, with some outlying groups in North Down and East Antrim. [5] The group also had a presence in West Belfast in the Shankill Road area. [6] The group was close to the Ulster Vanguard and provided security at some of its rallies, a task usually undertaken by the Vanguard Service Corps.; [4] in September 1972 at a Vanguard rally in Woodvale Park "rows" of uniformed OV members stood beside the speakers' platform as the former junior Minister of Home Affairs John Taylor gave a speech. [7] Following their formation the group was endorsed by leading Orangeman George Watson. However, the Reverend Martin Smyth was not prepared to fully associate the Orange Order with a paramilitary group and so the OV did not receive its official public endorsement. [8] OV leader Bob Marno stated the organisation had a "friendly relationship" with the Orange Order who "were aware of our existence and activities. [3] A newspaper report on Loyalist paramilitaries described the group as "in effect, the military wing of the Orange Order. [3] In June 1972 loyalists staged protests and erected barricades across Northern Ireland to protest the continued existence of republican "no-go" areas. The OV also took part:
Belfast city centre was sealed off as several thousand "Orange Volunteers" paraded in company ranks, accompanied by bands. Although there was distinct paramilitary flavour to the demonstration, absent were the UDA trappings of face-masks, dark glasses and combat jackets. But "officers" who shouted orders wore maroon berets with orange flashes and each contingent wore arm-bands indicating the area of the city from which they came. At the head of each company were colour parties carrying Ulster flags and Union Jacks. The Orange influence was emphasised by men carrying swords, Many members in the ranks wore ex-Service medals. [9]
The leader of the group was Bob Marno, who was also an active figure in the Loyalist Association of Workers. [10] Marno represented the OV on the Ulster Army Council following the establishment of that group in 1973. [11]
According to Steve Bruce the group carried out a bombing on a Belfast pub in 1973 but otherwise did little publicly of note. [2] The group was involved in stockpiling weapons and stashing them in Orange halls. [2] British Army searches of Orange Halls in Belfast in June 1974 uncovered three arms dumps in a 24-hour period, including explosive training aids, bomb-making equipment, and mortar parts. The searches were prompted by Orange Volunteers documents recovered in earlier British Army raids. [12] In 1977 a pair of OV members from Antrim pleaded guilty to storing arms. However, they only received suspended sentences. [13] When asked about their activities, Marno claimed the group's targets were always "known Republicans". [3] It also enjoyed a close relationship with the much larger Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and some of its more militant members were eventually absorbed into that group. [14] In April 1973 their name was attached, along with those of the UVF, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Red Hand Commando (RHC), to a series of posters that appeared in loyalist areas of West Belfast threatening violence to racketeers, particularly those claiming to be paramilitaries. [15] In October 1974 three men were sentenced for the armed robbery of a milk float on behalf of the Orange Volunteers in May the previous year. [16] In 1972 the Belfast Command of the OV claimed British government plans to introduce proportional representation for local council elections in Northern Ireland were "a further step in the downward path of appeasement, designed to placate a rebellious minority." [17]
Its members were active during the Ulster Workers' Council strike of 1974. [2] Around this time it experienced a rush of members and grew in strength to as many as 3,000 men, allowing it to play a leading role in the roadblocks and intimidation that accompanied the strike. [4] During the strike itself the OV was part of a faction of minor loyalist paramilitary groups, represented by the Ulster Special Constabulary Association, Ulster Volunteer Service Corps, Down Orange Welfare and themselves, who pushed for Bill Craig to take a leading role in the running of the strike. The UDA and UVF had hoped to exclude politicians from the conduct of the strike as much as possible but ultimately acquiesced and allowed both Craig and Ian Paisley to play prominent public roles in the stoppage. [18]
Following the strike, the group helped to form the Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee, which replaced the Ulster Army Council in 1974. [19] In February 1976 the Orange Volunteers claimed Hugh Woodside, a Protestant man shot dead by the British Army during an altercation on the Shankill Road, as a member of the organisation. [6] The group was still in existence in 1977, when Marno was replaced as leader by Jackie Campbell. [20] It supported the United Ulster Unionist Council strike that year. This stoppage, which attempted to replicate the successes of 1974, had little impact. [4] The OV disbanded at an unknown time after this and was certainly defunct by the 1980s. [21] Bob Marno told the Belfast Telegraph in 1980 that the group was dormant. [22]
During the 1981 hunger strike by republican paramilitary prisoners, the Ulster Army Council claimed to have reformed and threatened a renewed campaign of violence. The press statement listed the Orange Volunteers and former B-Specials as members. [23]
In early 1986 it was reported that the OV had "reactivated" in response to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and could claim 700 members. [24] It was reported upon the founding of Ulster Resistance that the OV had aligned itself to the new paramilitary organisation. [3] In May 1987 wreaths from the Orange Volunteers and other Loyalist paramilitary organisations were displayed outside the Belfast home of William Marchant, a senior member of the UVF shot dead by the IRA. [25]
A separate organisation calling itself the Orange Volunteers emerged in 1998 although members of the original OV disassociated themselves from this new group, claiming that, apart from the name, there was no connection. [26]
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom.
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of the participants of the Troubles. Its declared goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas and to combat Irish republicanism, particularly the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the 1970s, uniformed UDA members openly patrolled these areas armed with batons and held large marches and rallies. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks that used the cover name Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. The British government proscribed the UFF as a terrorist group in November 1973, but the UDA itself was not proscribed until August 1992.
Sporadic feuds erupted almost routinely between Northern Ireland's various loyalist paramilitary groups after the ethno-political conflict known as the Troubles began in 1969. The feuds have frequently involved conflicts between and within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) as well as, later, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
The Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee (ULCCC) was set up in 1974 in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the aftermath of the Ulster Workers Council Strike, to facilitate meetings and policy coordination between the Ulster Workers Council, loyalist paramilitary groups, and the political representatives of Ulster loyalism.
The Ulster Workers' Council was a loyalist workers' organisation set up in Northern Ireland in 1974 as a more formalised successor to the Loyalist Association of Workers (LAW). It was formed by shipyard union leader Harry Murray and initially failed to gain much attention. However, with the full support of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) the UWC became the main mobilising force for loyalist opposition to power-sharing arrangements.
Augustus Andrew Spence was a leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and a leading loyalist politician in Northern Ireland. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade.
The Ulster Army Council of Northern Ireland was set up in 1973 as an umbrella group by the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force to co-ordinate joint paramilitary operations during the Ulster Workers' Council Strike. Andy Tyrie was the head of the group – and was also the then commander of the Ulster Defence Association.
Ulster Resistance (UR), or the Ulster Resistance Movement (URM), is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary movement established by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland in November 1986 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
John Dunlop McKeague was a Northern Irish loyalist and one of the founding members of the paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando in 1970. A number of authors on the Troubles in Northern Ireland have accused McKeague, a homosexual paederast, of involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal but he was never convicted. He was shot dead by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Belfast in January 1982.
John "Jackie" McDonald is a Northern Irish loyalist and the incumbent Ulster Defence Association (UDA) brigadier for South Belfast, having been promoted to the rank by former UDA commander Andy Tyrie in 1988, following John McMichael's killing by the Provisional IRA in December 1987. He is also a member of the organisation's Inner Council and the spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), the UDA's political advisory body.
William Hull was a loyalist activist in Northern Ireland. Hull was a leading figure in political, paramilitary and trade union circles during the early years of the Troubles. He is most remembered for being the leader of the Loyalist Association of Workers, a loyalist trade union-styled movement that briefly enjoyed a mass membership before fading.
Andrew Tyrie is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who served as commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during much of its early history. He took the place of Tommy Herron in 1973 when the latter was killed, and led the organisation until March 1988 when an attempt on his life forced him to resign from his command.
Frankie Curry was a Northern Irish loyalist who was involved with a number of paramilitary groups during his long career. A critic of the Northern Ireland peace process, Curry was killed during a loyalist feud.
Kenneth Gibson was a Northern Irish politician who was the Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party (VPP), which he had helped to form in 1974. He also served as a spokesman and Chief of Staff of the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Clifford Peeples is a self-styled pastor in Northern Ireland who has been associated with Ulster loyalism, for which he was convicted of terrorist activity and imprisoned. Peeples has been a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) prisoners' spokesman and leader of the Orange Volunteers (OV). He has taken a prominent role in opposing the Northern Ireland Protocol in the courts.
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Samuel Smyth was a Northern Irish loyalist activist. A founder member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) he was the early public face of the movement as the organisation's spokesman, and he later became involved in the group's attempts to politicise. He was assassinated by the Provisional IRA as part of the Troubles. Author Steve Bruce described Smyth as the "sometime editor of the Ulster Militant and a loose cannon who enjoyed an exciting and erratic relationship with the UDA".
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