. While republicans were the expressed target, the attacks that followed were explicitly sectarian. [26] Despite the fact that control of the UVF lay (nominally at least) with Spence's closest ally Samuel "Bo" McClelland, from prison Spence was often at odds with the group's leadership, in particular with regards to the 1971 McGurk's Bar bombing. "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. View discounts Available for editorial and personal use only. 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[54] This was endorsed by Gusty Spence, who issued a statement asking all UVF volunteers to support the new regime. Spence told Radio Ulster that the UVF had been "engaged in murder, attempted murder of civilians, attempted murder of police officers. She died of her injuries on 27 June. [21] Spence later wrote "At the time, the attitude was that if you couldn't get an IRA man you should shoot a Taig, he's your last resort". [2] He was sent to Crumlin Road Prison. However, RUC Special Branch believed that his brother Billy, who kept a much lower public profile, was the real leader of the group. Two UVF members, Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, were accidentally killed by their own bomb while carrying out this attack. [17], On 7 May 1966, a group of UVF men led by Spence petrol bombed a Catholic-owned pub on the Shankill Road. [51] The couple had three daughters, Elizabeth (born 1954), Sandra (1956) and Catherine (1960). However, following significant political pressure, the UVF claimed in 2007 that it was decommissioning its weapons. However, the year leading up to the loyalist ceasefire, which took place shortly after the Provisional IRA ceasefire, saw some of the worst sectarian killings carried out by loyalists during the Troubles. Spence said loyalists offered "abject and true remorse" to the loved ones of all the innocent victims of the Troubles. In 1984, Gusty was released from prison, and became a leading figure in the Progressive Unionist Party and . 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. It began carrying out gun attacks to kill random Catholic civilians and using car bombs to attack Catholic-owned pubs. [45], In 1974, hardliners staged a coup and took over the Brigade Staff. Entdecke Gareth Mulvenna - Mein Leben in Loyalitt - Neues Taschenbuch - C245A in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! [3] Spence was the sixth of seven children, their birth order being Billy, Cassie, Jim, Bobby, Ned junior, Gusty and Lily. . The biggest of these was the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which killed 34 civilians, making it the deadliest terrorist attack of 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. Mr Lynch had many unionist friends, "some even politicians". They also stated that they would retain their weaponry but put them beyond reach of normal volunteers. The group also carried out attacks in the Republic of Ireland from 1969 onward. Referring to its activity in the early and mid-1970s, journalist Ed Moloney described no-warning pub bombings as the UVF's "forte". He was jailed for life for the murder of a Catholic barman in 1966 and served 18 years in prison. 28 September 2011 Gusty Spence announced the loyalist paramilitary ceasefires in 1994 Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the former loyalist leader Gusty Spence. Another loyalist paramilitary organisation called Ulster Resistance was formed on 10 November 1986. This collection contains Gusty Spence's personal and business correspondence from 1959-1998, the bulk of which was written during . In March and April that year, UVF and UPV members bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, blaming them on the dormant IRA and elements of the civil rights movement. They were blamed by the PSNI on members of the UVF, who also said UVF guns had been used to try to kill police officers. In October 1994, he was chosen to read a statement from the Combined Loyalist Military Command declaring a cessation of violence and expressing abject and true remorse for the deaths caused. [18] Two days later, the government of Northern Ireland used the Special Powers Act to declare the UVF illegal. [134] Like the IRA, the UVF also operated black taxi services,[135][136][137] a scheme believed to have generated 100,000 annually for the organisation. [54], Spence died on 25 September 2011, aged 78, in a Belfast hospital;[53] he had been suffering from a long-term illness and was admitted to hospital 12 days prior to his death. It was the deadliest attack of the Troubles. [106][107] This uniform, based on those of the original UVF, was introduced in the early 1970s. 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. That year, a string of tit-for-tat pub bombings began in Belfast. They shot dead John Scullion (28), a Catholic civilian, as he walked home. [37], The IRA had split into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA in December 1969. On 7 May 1966, loyalists petrol bombed a Catholic-owned pub in the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast. A piper leads a procession for Huntington Beach Police Officer Nicholas Vella in La Habra, CA on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. [31], The UVF had launched its first attack in the Republic of Ireland on 5 August 1969, when it bombed the RT Television Centre in Dublin. [21] The group called itself the "Ulster Volunteer Force" (UVF), after the Ulster Volunteers of the early 20th century, although in the words of a member of the previous organisation "the present para-military organisation has no connection with the U.V.F. [126] Later, in September 1972, Gusty Spence said in an interview that the organisation had a strength of 1,500. Mr Spence argued for a ceasefire with republicans from as early as the mid-1970s and played a key role in encouraging young loyalists he met in prison to think of the reasons for their involvement in violence. Mein Nisinta Seirbhse Poibl na hireann, Originally Published / Wednesday, 28 Sep 2011. Mr Spence said last night he was an eternal optimist" where the present situation in the North was concerned. The UVF agreed to a ceasefire in October 1994. This development came soon after the UVF's Brigade Staff in Belfast had stood down Wright and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade, on 2 August 1996, for the killing of a Catholic taxi driver near Lurgan during Drumcree disturbances. 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. 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. In the 1960s, he founded the modern Ulster Volunteer Force, an. Leading public figures were among the mourners, including former senior civil servant Maurice Hayes, former head of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Monica McWilliams, and trade unionist Peter Bunting. (Thesis 2017). Gusty Spence received primary education at Riddell Memorial (1938-43) and Hemsworth Square (1943-7) public elementary schools, both in the Shankill area. [27] Spence appointed Samuel McClelland as UVF Chief of Staff in his stead. 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. [67] According to Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), the UVF killed 17 active and four former republican paramilitaries. [70], There followed years of violence between the two organisations. "While the talks may be slow, they are the only glint on the horizon, he said. 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. 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. F". This was a general strike in protest against the Sunningdale Agreement, which meant sharing political power with Irish nationalists and the Republic having more involvement in Northern Ireland. "Shortly after he was jailed, Gusty, after a period of reflection on his own life, quickly started to challenge other loyalists coming into prison to reflect on their own lives.". [22] Spence's involvement in the killings gave him legendary status among many young loyalists and he was claimed as an inspiration by the likes of Michael Stone. [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. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade. A controlled explosion was carried out and the bomb was later declared a hoax. [47] Spence went on to become a leading advocate for the Good Friday Agreement. Thousands of families, mostly Catholics, were forced to flee their homes and refugee camps were set up in the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly said many nationalists would remember Spence as someone "who was central to the sectarianism that gave birth to the modern loyalist paramilitary". The initial aim of Ulster Resistance was to bring an end to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. She told mourners that he had made friends among republicans and socialists and among people from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The community centre hosting the event and 25 nearby homes were evacuated and a funeral was disrupted. "[18], In November 2013, after a series of shootings and acts of intimidation by the UVF, Police Federation Chairman Terry Spence declared that the UVF ceasefire was no longer active. [40] These were all subordinate to the Brigade Staff. Fire engulfed the house next door, badly burning the elderly Protestant widow who lived there. During this time he restructured the organisation into brigades, battalions, companies, platoons and sections. [125] Members were disciplined after they carried out an unsanctioned theft of 8 million of paintings from an estate in Co Wicklow in April 1974. [164], For the original Ulster Volunteer Force, see, Aaron Edwards - UVF: Behind the Mask pp. It was the UVF's deadliest attack in Northern Ireland, and the deadliest attack in Belfast during the Troubles. Donoghue noted the links between Orange Lodges in Scotland and loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and that membership of the Orange Order in Scotland at the time was 80,000, and was concentrated in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Inverness. [123][124], The strength of the UVF is uncertain. Bates was born into an Ulster Protestant family and grew up in the Shankill Road area of Belfast.He had a criminal record dating back to 1966, and later became a member of the Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). [43] David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson were among the other UVF men imprisoned in the mid-1970s to become disciples of Spence. "The untouchable informers facing exposure at last". [33] His fugitive status earned him the short-lived nickname the "Orange Pimpernel". [93] Much of the UVF's orchestration was carried out by its senior members in East Belfast, where many attacks on the PSNI and on residents of the Short Strand enclave took place. On 23 October 1972, the UVF carried out an armed raid against King's Park camp, a UDR/Territorial Army depot in Lurgan. Browse funeral homes near La Habra Heights, California. There are various credible[citation needed] allegations that elements of the British security forces colluded with the UVF in the bombings. [44], The brigade formed part of the Glenanne gang, a loose alliance of loyalist assassins which the Pat Finucane Centre has linked to 87 killings in the 1970s. What's he waiting for? [41] On 17 May, two UVF units from the Belfast and Mid-Ulster brigades detonated four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan. [145], Scotland was a source of funding and aid, supplying explosives and guns. Augustus Spence was born in a Protestant area of Belfast, not far from Shankill Road. This move came as the organisation held high-level discussions about its future. The UVF was also clashing with the UDA in the summer of 2000. Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the former loyalist leader Gusty Spence. [49] A political wing was formed in June 1974, the Volunteer Political Party led by UVF Chief of Staff Ken Gibson, which contested West Belfast in the October 1974 general election, polling 2,690 votes (6%). In 1984, the UVF attempted to kill the northern editor of the Sunday World, Jim Campbell after he had exposed the paramilitary activities of Mid-Ulster brigadier Robin Jackson. Augustus Andrew "Gusty" 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. Read about our approach to external linking. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. [17], He was entrusted by the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) to read out their 13 October 1994 statement that announced the loyalist ceasefire. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade. This collection contains Gusty Spence's personal and business correspondence from 1959-1998, the bulk of which was written during Spence's time in prison (1966-1984). 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. [39], Spence began to move towards a position of using political means to advance one's aims, and he persuaded the UVF leadership to declare a temporary ceasefire in 1973. He would go on to hold private talks with the then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. On the basis of that, we as a federation have called for the respecification of the UVF [stating that its ceasefire is over]. [91], In July 2011, a UVF flag flying in Limavady was deemed legal by the PSNI after the police had received complaints about the flag from nationalist politicians. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. [43] Jackson was allegedly the hitman who shot Hanna dead outside his home in Lurgan. [12] Due to his later involvement in a murder, Spence was expelled from the Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution. As a PUP representative he took a principal role in delivering the loyalist ceasefires of 1994. The ferry [between Scotland and Northern Ireland] was pivotal in getting arms into the north and anything like checkpoints, or armed police and Army in Scotland would have b******d that all up.[148] An Irish government memo written by David Donoghue stated: "The commonest contribution of Scots UDA and UVF is to send gelignite. [30] He remained at large for four months and during that time even gave an interview to ITV's World in Action in which he called for the UVF to take an increased role in the Northern Ireland conflict against the Provisional IRA. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. It was not in his later life. Bates, employed as a barman at the Long Bar, was recruited into the Shankill Butchers gang in 1975 by its notorious ringleader, Lenny Murphy. Openly paraded with the UVF and thanked Gusty Spence repeatedly for his services to Ulster. My experience of Gusty was as the whole man. He did not specify what activities or what was being resisted. Also, why did the author not probe the close relationship between Gusty Spence and the RHC? According to the Belfast Telegraph, "70 separate police intelligence reports implicating the north Belfast UVF man in dealing cannabis, Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement. Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation. He added: "I think it helped to set some of the tone to bring us to where we are now.". A man committed to social and economic justice and equality and a man absolutely devoted and committed to his wife and family.. 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. Although Mr Lynch was from a different tradition, he had "welcomed his friendship," and he recalled the conversations they had about peace in Ireland. Call now: (562) 579-5980. Almost 10 years later in October 1994, he was chosen to announce to the world that the main loyalist paramilitary groups, the UVF and the UDA, were declaring ceasefires in response to an IRA cessation. This era also saw a more widespread targeting on the UVF's part of IRA and Sinn Fin members, beginning with the killing of senior IRA member Larry Marley[62] and a failed attempt on the life of a leading republican which left three Catholic civilians dead. [29] Unionist support for O'Neill waned, and on 28 April he resigned as Prime Minister. [80], In the twentieth IMC report, the group was said to be continuing to put its weapons "beyond reach", (in the group's own words) to downsize, and reduce the criminality of the group. 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