Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ULSTER DEFENCE ASSOCIATION • 681The former UDA leader, Andy Tyrie, explained the UDA missionas follows: “We’re a counterterrorist organization. The only waywe’ll get peace here is to terrorize the terrorists.” The UDA financeditself partly through protection rackets, ironically the same way theIRA financed itself. The UDA was affiliated with the New UlsterPolitical Research Group (NUPRG), which made contingency plansfor creating an independent Ulster state in the event Ulster Protestantsdecided to create an independent Ulster Protestant republic toforestall a feared betrayal by Westminster. In June 1981 the UlsterLoyalist Democratic Party replaced the NUPRG, and in 1988 theparty again changed its name to the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP),removing Andy Tyrie from the top leadership position, which wastaken over by an inner council of six members.The UDA demonstrated its political power during the prounionistUlster Workers’ Council general strike in 1974, directed against aBritish-sponsored plan to share power in Ulster with Catholics. TheUDA openly joined ranks with proscribed death squads such as theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF), Red Hand Commandos, and otherillegal militias to form an Ulster Army Council to enforce the generalstrike. By setting up roadblocks throughout Northern Ireland, theUDA effectively shut down large sections of the country.Beginning in mid-1980 and lasting into 1981, an assassinationcampaign was waged against republicans and nationalists in thenorth. John Turnley, a nationalist member of the Westminster parliamentwho had unseated the ultraunionist Ian Paisley in 1979, was shotdead in June 1980. On 16 January 1981 Bernadette Devlin McAlisky,the former republican member of the Westminster parliament, andher husband were injured by gunmen in their home. UDA men werelater convicted of the Turnley murder and attempted murders of theMcAliskys. Three other nationalists were also killed this way, suggestingthat the UDA was behind the wave of killings. IRA supportersbelieved that the UDA had to have enjoyed the cover of Britisharmy patrols to have been able to penetrate the largely Catholic areasin which these murders took place.During the period 1990–1994 the UFF stepped up its attacks onCatholics and republicans, also targeting members of the SocialDemocratic Labour Party, a Catholic group seeking equal rights forCatholics but opposing the tactics of the IRA. The UFF killed fiveCatholics on 27 March 1972, three on 14 November 1992, and six in