Tara (Northern Ireland)

Last updated

Tara was an Ulster loyalist movement in Northern Ireland that espoused a brand of evangelical Protestantism. Preaching a hard-line and somewhat esoteric brand of loyalism, Tara enjoyed some influence in the late 1960s before declining amid a high-profile sex abuse scandal involving its leader William McGrath.

Contents

Origins

The roots of Tara lay in a group known as "The Cell". This shadowy group, headed by the evangelist William McGrath, was made up of a mixture of his youthful followers and senior Orangemen who met at 15 Wellington Park, McGrath's Malone Road, Belfast base for his mission. [1] Young men such as Fraser Agnew, Roy Garland and Clifford Smyth, became part of this growing but mainly clandestine group. [2] The cell spearheaded a campaign of speeches to Protestant audiences, more political than religious in tone, encouraging unionists to turn away from the relatively moderate Terence O'Neill and to lend their support to his most vocal political opponent, the hardline Ian Paisley. [3]

Development

In November 1966 McGrath reconstituted the Cell as Tara, choosing the name to reflect his belief in the Irish heritage of his politico-religious mission. [4] [5] It was intended as an outlet for virulent anti-Catholicism. The group endorsed British Israelism as it sometimes claimed that Ulster Protestants were descendants of the Lost tribe of Israel. [5] [6] The group espoused a form of historical revisionism, arguing that the early inhabitants of Ireland had come from modern Scotland before being displaced by the Irish, whilst also utilising Gaelic terms and symbols. [7] An Orange Order lodge attached to Tara and founded by McGrath was named "Ireland's Heritage" as a consequence of these views. [6] Tara adopted as its motto "we hold Ulster that Ireland might be saved and Britain reborn". [8] As a movement Tara sought to establish a Protestant Northern Ireland in which law and order would be paramount and the Roman Catholic Church would be outlawed. [5] Tara viewed Catholics as being in a grand conspiracy with moderate unionists and left-wing groups and felt that a conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was inevitable. As a result members of Tara were expected to be proficient in weapon use and were encouraged to join the security forces. [7]

A short-lived alliance with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was attempted and Roy Garland, a leading Orangeman in the 60s and 70s, and now an author, was one of Tara's members who worked closely with the UVF for a time. [9] The leaders of the UVF initially encouraged their members to also become involved in Tara. [6] With the UVF under the command of Samuel McClelland in the late 1960s, McGrath felt that an alliance with the better-armed group could help advance Tara's aims. [10]

Tara enjoyed a rush of members around 1969 as McGrath's prophecy of a doomsday scenario in Northern Ireland looked like it might come true with the advent of the Troubles and a UVF bombing campaign, which McGrath suggested in a whispering campaign was the work of the Irish Army. [11] Tara soon established their regular meeting place as Clifton Street Orange Hall, one of the most important centres of Belfast Orangeism, although McGrath did not openly tell the Orange Order leadership that he was using the rooms for Tara meetings, rather simply stating that he need them for generic meetings. [12] A more formalised structure was adopted with Garland as deputy leader, Clifford Smyth as Intelligence Officer and leading roles for Frank Millar Jr and Protestant Telegraph journalist David Browne, whilst Davy Payne was also associate with the group, albeit at a lower level. [13]

Although initially Tara and the UVF co-operated closely, a number of people contacted McClelland to tell him that McGrath, who secretly pursued homosexual and pederastic relationships, was using the link-up with the UVF as a way to pick up young men who were members of the organisation. McClelland confronted McGrath who fiercely denied the allegations, but following a fiery argument the relationship between the UVF and Tara was ended and McClelland burnt the Tara ledger in which the names of his UVF men had been entered. [14] From that point on the UVF proscribed Tara membership for its volunteers and sought to hamper the work of Tara. [15] On a more practical level a number of UVF members who had become involved in Tara also informed their UVF superiors that Tara did not possess much in the way of weaponry or military know-how and according to Steve Bruce "Tara had a good line in martial rhetoric but even its claims to be ready for martial defence rang hollow". [6] Bruce further adds that, for the most part, UVF members had simply used their attendance at Tara meetings as an opportunity to identify new recruits for their own group. [6]

Decline

Tara failed to attract much interest as its ideas were too esoteric for most loyalists. By 1971 McGrath's relationship with his deputy Garland had deteriorated, as the two began to differ over ideology, whilst Garland had also been informed by some young members of Tara that McGrath had made passes at them. [16] Garland broke from Tara soon afterwards and confirmed to the UVF that their suspicions about McGrath had been correct. [17] A war of words erupted between the two groups, with McGrath and Tara regularly attacked in the pages of UVF magazine Combat and McGrath undertaking a letter-writing campaign to the press accusing the UVF of being a communist organisation. [18] McGrath sought to boost the ailing movement by linking up with John McKeague, a member of the Free Presbyterian Church, [19] leading figure in the Shankill Defence Association and founder of the Red Hand Commando who allegedly shared McGrath's sexual attraction to men and children. The pair met at the Kincora Boys' Home, where McGrath took up a position in 1971, to discuss trading weapons for their respective groups. [20] Around this time McGrath also made contact with another leading homosexual unionist, Sir Knox Cunningham, and secured funding for Tara from him. [20]

By 1974 Tara had an estimated 300–400 members, which was significantly less than the group had at their 1969 peak. [21] In an attempt to inject some life into the group, which unlike the UVF, RHC and UDA was not active in shooting or bombing attacks, McGrath imported a quantity of rifles, machine guns and ammunition from hard-line Protestants in the Netherlands with whom he had close links. [22]

In 1976 a Queen's University gradate who was a member of Taras's "brigade staff" made three trips to the Netherlands, where one of his main contacts was the Utrecht-based secretary of the anti-Ecumenist International Council of Christian Churches, of which Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church was a leading member. During these trips a variety of firearms, ammunition and plastic explosives were bought to be transported back to Northern Ireland. They included belt-fed MG 42 machine guns, MP 40 submachine guns, M1 carbines, .22 rifles with telescopic sights and silencers, Beretta machine pistols, Luger pistols, .303 rifles, shotguns and around 50,000 rounds of assorted ammunition. Reportedly, at least some of these arms originated from Apartheid South Africa. [23]

Many Tara members were Royal Ulster Constabulary reservists with access to standard police weapons like 9mm Walther pistols and Sterling submachine guns. Near Dromore, County Down, Tara members assembled home-made submachine guns based on the Sterling, with a rifled barrel which made them far more reliable than those manufactured by the UDA. In June 1981 a Tara member from Dromore, Walther Crothers, walked free from Belfast Crown Court after being fined £600 for possessing detonators, firearm components and a quantity of assorted ammunition. During the trial Crothers claimed he had assembled the arsenal at his home for use under the direction of the security forces in the event of a "doomsday situation". The presiding judge, Robert Babington, said: "I am satisfied you felt very strongly, clearly and honestly and that you thought you were behaving as a good patriot should. But the way you went about it was totally and utterly wrong". [23]

The group continued to speak of a coming "doomsday" scenario in which they would have to take the lead in battling the Irish government and returning the island to its pre-Catholic roots, although beyond some drilling Tara undertook no real activity. [24] In April 1973 posters issued by the group appeared in Belfast, calling for Protestants to bring up their children in the Protestant faith, an end to illegal drinking clubs, the return of capital punishment, the use of lawful authorities to "crush" the "spirit of rebellion" if it arises in a community, the Catholic Church to be made an illegal organisation, for Protestants to have a knowledge of firearms and to be prepared to "fight to the death" and finally:

We must campaign now for integrated education. All Roman Catholic centres of education must be closed. [25]

In June 1974 Tara published a full-page advertisement in Belfast newspapers calling for the Catholic Church to be proscribed under the law and claiming civil war was inevitable. [26] According to Steve Bruce the group did little beyond releasing occasional threatening statements but was quickly superseded by the UVF/RHC and eventually also the UDA. [27] The group spread rumours about senior unionist figures whom it felt were too moderate. [5]

A 1981 arms find damaged the group whilst McGrath had already been caught up in the Kincora scandal. [28] McGrath pleaded guilty to fifteen charges related to child sex abuse in December 1981 and was sentenced to four years imprisonment, representing the effective end of the by then near-moribund Tara. [29] The name reappeared in 1986, when a leaflet denouncing the Anglo-Irish Agreement and predicting again the onset of the doomsday scenario was circulated, although this seems to have been the work of a handful of die-hards rather than a reorganised movement. [30] In September 1986 a group calling itself Tara threatened "all republicans in loyalist areas". [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Volunteer Force</span> Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation formed in 1965

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 British Army 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Defence Association</span> Ulster loyalist paramilitary group formed in 1971

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.

Joseph Alan Johnston Campbell was a Northern Irish Pentecostal pastor and Orangeman from Belfast. He founded and served as pastor and director of the Restored Open Bible Ministries in Northern Ireland. He was an author on Bible studies, a lecturer in the British Israelism movement and an advocate of white supremacy. Strongly opposed to Catholicism, Campbell published anti-Catholic literature and argued that the white Celto Anglo Saxon peoples of the world represent the lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was known in Historicist circles due to his denial of the Westminster Confession of Faith, while Fundamentalist Protestants rejected his teachings as not being biblical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster loyalism</span> Pro-UK political ideology in Northern Ireland

Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a united Ireland independent of the UK. Unlike other strands of unionism, loyalism has been described as an ethnic nationalism of Ulster Protestants and "a variation of British nationalism". Loyalists are often said to have a conditional loyalty to the British state so long as it defends their interests. They see themselves as loyal primarily to the Protestant British monarchy rather than to British governments and institutions, while Garret FitzGerald argued they are loyal to 'Ulster' over 'the Union'. A small minority of loyalists have called for an independent Ulster Protestant state, believing they cannot rely on British governments to support them. The term 'loyalism' is usually associated with paramilitarism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Workers' Council strike</span> May 1974 general strike in Northern Ireland

The Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) strike was a general strike that took place in Northern Ireland between 15 May and 28 May 1974, during "the Troubles". The strike was called by unionists who were against the Sunningdale Agreement, which had been signed in December 1973. Specifically, the strikers opposed the sharing of political power with Irish nationalists, and the proposed role for the Republic of Ireland's government in running Northern Ireland.

Billy "Hutchie" Hutchinson is a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist politician and activist who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2011 to 2023, now serving as party president. He was a Belfast City Councillor, representing Oldpark from 1997 to 2005, and then Court from 2014 to 2023. Hutchinson was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 to 2003. Before this, he had been a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was a founder of their youth wing, the Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gusty Spence</span> Ulster loyalist (1933–2011)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Resistance</span> Ulster loyalist paramilitary movement

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McKeague</span> Northern Irish loyalist (1930–1982)

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.

Roy Garland is a newspaper columnist for the news publication Irish News and a member of the Ulster Unionist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William McGrath</span> Northern Ireland loyalist (1916–1991)

William Worthington McGrath was a loyalist from Northern Ireland who founded the far-right organisation Tara in the 1960s, having also been prominent in the Orange Order until his expulsion due to his paedophilia. A house master in Kincora Boys' Home in East Belfast, in 1981 he was jailed for four years for paedophile activities at the Home.

This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group since 1966. It includes actions carried out by the Red Hand Commando (RHC), a group integrated into the UVF shortly after their formation in 1972. It also includes attacks claimed by the Protestant Action Force (PAF), a covername used by the UVF. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankie Curry</span> Ulster loyalist

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Mitchell (loyalist)</span> Northern Ireland loyalist (1940–2006)

William Mitchell was a Northern Ireland loyalist, community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder. He later abandoned his UVF membership and took up cross-community work.

Samuel "Bo" McClelland was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary who served as the Chief of Staff of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) from 1966 until his internment in late 1973 and for a period in 1983 during the supergrass trials.

Down Orange Welfare was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary vigilante group active in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Operating in rural areas of County Down, the group faded after failing to win support away from larger groups such as the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle at Springmartin</span> 1972 gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The Battle at Springmartin was a series of gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 13–14 May 1972, as part of The Troubles. It involved the British Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

Jackie Mahood is a Northern Irish former loyalist activist with both the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). He later split from these groups and became associated with the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), founded in 1996 by Billy Wright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young Citizen Volunteers (1972)</span>

The Young Citizen Volunteers of Ireland, or Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV) for short, was a British civic organisation founded in Belfast in 1912 which later became the youth wing of Ulster loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force. It was established to bridge the gap for 18 to 25 year olds between membership of youth organisations—such as the Boys' Brigade and Boy Scouts—and the period of responsible adulthood. Another impetus for its creation was the failure of the British government to extend the legislation for the Territorial Force—introduced in 1908—to Ireland. It was hoped that the War Office would absorb the YCV into the Territorial Force, however such offers were dismissed. Not until the outbreak of World War I did the YCV—by then a battalion of the UVF—become part of the British Army as the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.

References

  1. ↑ Chris Moore, The Kincora Scandal: Political Cover-Up and Intrigue in Northern Ireland, Marino Books, 1996, p. 34
  2. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 34–38
  3. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 38–39
  4. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 46
  5. 1 2 3 4 Martin Dillon, God and the Gun, Routledge, 1999, p. 235
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Steve Bruce, The Red Hand, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 23
  7. 1 2 Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, 2002, p. 252
  8. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 47
  9. ↑ Review of Garland's 'Seeking a Political Accommodation – The Ulster Volunteer Force: Negotiating History'
  10. ↑ Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, UVF, Poolbeg, 1997, p. 21
  11. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 61–64
  12. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 71
  13. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 73
  14. ↑ Cusack & McDonald, UVF, pp. 95–96
  15. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 79
  16. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 84–85
  17. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 117–118
  18. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 165
  19. ↑ Dillon, God and the Gun, p. 236
  20. 1 2 Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 86
  21. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 118
  22. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, p. 121
  23. 1 2 Fortnight Magazine , Issue 189, p. 5-7. Fortnight Publications, 1982.
  24. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 120–125
  25. ↑ Belfast Telegraph, 12 April 1973
  26. ↑ Belfast Telegraph, 22 March 1975
  27. ↑ Steve Bruce, Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 217
  28. ↑ The Kincora Scandal Archived 30 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 180–181
  30. ↑ Moore, The Kincora Scandal, pp. 215–220
  31. ↑ Diary of Events. (1986). Fortnight, 244, 19–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25550965
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.