The 78-year-old died in hospital at the weekend after a long illness. The gang comprised, in addition to the UVF, rogue elements of the UDR, RUC, SPG, and the regular Army, all acting allegedly under the direction of the British Intelligence Corps and/or RUC Special Branch. [40] These were all subordinate to the Brigade Staff. Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. The party's former leader Dawn Purvis told his funeral in the loyalist heartland of Belfasts Shankill Road that Mr Spence became involved in violence in the 1960s. [50], Spence married Louie Donaldson, a native of the city's Grosvenor Road, on 20 June 1953 at Wellwood Street Mission, Sandy Row. The UVF was also clashing with the UDA in the summer of 2000. [3] Spence Snr was a member of the Ulster Volunteers and had fought in the First World War. [98], On 23 March 2019, eleven alleged UVF members were arrested during a total of 14 searches conducted in Belfast, Newtownards and Comber and the suspects, aged between 22 and 48, were taken into police custody for questioning. In Belfast, loyalists responded by attacking nationalist districts. Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the former loyalist leader Gusty Spence. [10] Spence then found employment at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where he worked as a stager (builder of the scaffolding in which the ships are constructed), a skilled job that commanded respect amongst working class Protestants and ensured for Spence a higher status within the Shankill. These included the Miami Showband killings of 31 July 1975 when three members of the popular showband were killed, having been stopped at a fake British Army checkpoint outside Newry in County Down. It would continue these tactics for the rest of its campaign. Loyalists were successful in importing arms into Northern Ireland. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Spence was born in the Shankill Road, Belfast, area, Northern Ireland, the son of William Edward Spence, who was born in Whitehaven, England and raised in the Tiger's Bay area of north Belfast before moving to the Shankill. As a PUP representative he took a principal role in delivering the loyalist ceasefires of 1994. [63], The UVF also attacked republican paramilitaries and political activists. The feud with the UDA ended in December following seven deaths. Skip to navigation [n] Skip to content [c] Skip to footer [f] Search Search. [130], Prior to and after the onset of the Troubles the UVF carried out armed robberies. Along with the newly formed Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the UVF started an armed campaign against the Catholic population of Northern Ireland. [128] Information regarding the role of women in the UVF is limited. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. . "While the talks may be slow, they are the only glint on the horizon, he said. 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. A controlled explosion was carried out and the bomb was later declared a hoax. [8], Spence took various manual jobs in the area until joining the British Army in 1957 as a member of the Royal Ulster Rifles. The new Brigade Staff's aim was to carry out attacks against known republicans rather than Catholic civilians. 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. Gusty Spence received primary education at Riddell Memorial (1938-43) and Hemsworth Square (1943-7) public elementary schools, both in the Shankill area. [25], On 27 May, Spence sent four UVF members to kill IRA volunteer Leo Martin, who lived in Belfast. A number of friends and family members spoke at the service at St Michael's Church of Ireland on the Shankill Road. Officers from the PSNI's Paramilitary Crime Task Force also seized drugs, cash and expensive cars and jewellery in an operation carried out against the criminal activities of the UVF crime gang. "The untouchable informers facing exposure at last". [89][90] A dissident Republican was arrested for "the attempted murder of police officers in east Belfast" after shots were fired upon the police. [58][59] West died in 1980. House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Cusack & McDonald, p.3435, 105, 199, 205, The Lost Lives, David McKittrick, Page 1475, Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:47, Timeline of Ulster Volunteer Force actions, protests throughout Northern Ireland, some of which became violent, Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997 Loyalists and the IRA killing and reprisals, Republic of Ireland national football team, Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, "Report drawn up on behalf of the Political Affairs Committee on the situation in Northern Ireland", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGe4WO8yok, "Sutton Index of Deaths: Organisation responsible for the death", "Sutton Index of Deaths: Crosstabulations", "Inside the UVF: Money, murders and mayhem - the loyalist gang's secrets unveiled", "UVF mural on Shankill Road being investigated by police", "UVF 'behind racist attacks in south and east Belfast'", Chronology of Key Events in Irish History, 1800 to 1967, "Irish tighten security after Dublin bombing", "Call for probe of British link to 1974 bombs", "Collusion in the South Armagh / Mid Ulster Area in the mid-1970's". A man once involved in conflict. [74], On 3 May 2007, following recent negotiations between the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and with Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde, the UVF made a statement that they would transform to a "non-military, civilianised" organisation. 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". In keeping with his wishes, there will be no UVF trappings and his coffin will be draped in the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles in which he served. In October, UVF and UPV member Thomas McDowell was killed by the bomb he was planting at Ballyshannon power station. [6] He was also a member of the Church Lads' Brigade, a Church of Ireland group and the Junior Orange Order. 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 . In keeping with his wishes,. Mr Lynch had many unionist friends, "some even politicians". They shot dead John Scullion (28), a Catholic civilian, as he walked home. 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. [103], On 25 March 2022, the UVF was blamed[by whom?] With Moore now deceased, the only senior figure still alive is "Mr A". [55] The hawks had been ousted by those in the UVF who were unhappy with their political and military strategy. Scores of houses and businesses were burnt out, most of them owned by Catholics. [2] He was sent to Crumlin Road Prison. Gusty Spence reading the 2007 UVF 'weapons beyond use' statement in Belfast. Spence said loyalists offered "abject and true remorse" to the loved ones of all the innocent victims of the Troubles. [151][152] These shipments were considered enough for the UVF/UDA to wage its campaign, most of which were used to kill its victims. [84] Eleven months later, a man was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of the UVF's alleged second-in-command Harry Stockman, described by the Belfast Telegraph as a "senior Loyalist figure". [125], The UVF has killed more people than any other loyalist paramilitary group. . [106] Later, in September 1972, Gusty Spence said in an interview that the organisation had a strength of 1,500. ][102] On 11 April, the UVF reportedly ordered the removal of Catholic families from a housing estate in Carrickfergus. [37], The IRA had split into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA in December 1969. We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this cause. ", "Ulster Volunteer Force is no longer on ceasefire, police warn", "Gary Haggarty: Ex-senior loyalist pleads guilty to 200 terror charges", "Police seize drugs and arrest 11 during raids on east Belfast UVF", "Nine men charged after east Belfast UVF police raids", "Brexit: loyalist paramilitary groups renounce Good Friday agreement", "NI riots: What is behind the violence in Northern Ireland? He was jailed for life for the murder of a Catholic barman in 1966 and served 18 years in prison. The initial aim of Ulster Resistance was to bring an end to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. So when her husband had first made contact with Mr Spence "it was like talking to someone we had always known". Mr Lynch's widow, Norma, recollected last night that the late Catholic primate of Ireland, Cardinal O Fiaich, had said that "if there was a hope for peace in Ireland it would come through Gusty". 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. During his time in prison Spence renounced violence and helped to convince a number of fellow inmates that the future of the UVF lay in a more political approach. Along with the UDA, it helped to enforce the strike by blocking roads, intimidating workers, and shutting any businesses that opened. 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 vast majority (more than two-thirds)[9][10] of its victims were Irish Catholic civilians, who were often killed at random. LocationLa Habra, CA 90631 EmailGet a free estimate Call(562) 579-5980. Colin Wallace, part of the intelligence apparatus of the British Army, asserted in an internal memo in 1975 that MI6 and RUC Special Branch formed a pseudo-gang within the UVF, designed to engage in violence and to subvert the tentative moves of some in the UVF towards the political process. . He read the loyalist ceasefire statement in 1994 and was asked to read the UVF weapons decommissioning statement, at the age of 74, in 2007. A former leader of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, described him as "one of the pivots on which a page of Irish history turned". He was sworn in soon afterwards in a ceremony held in secret near Pomeroy, County Tyrone. He was shot dead by the IRA in November 1982, four months after his release from the Maze Prison. His conviction, which he always denied, has been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission by his family in light of new evidence being brought forward. [24] The murder of Ward was, however, repudiated by Paisley and condemned in his Protestant Telegraph, sealing the split between the two. During 1970, 42 Catholic-owned licensed premises in Protestant areas were bombed. [23] Tim Pat Coogan has described Spence as a "loyalist folk hero". (Thesis 2017). [71], On 14 September 2005, following serious loyalist rioting during which dozens of shots were fired at riot police and the British Army the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain announced that the British government no longer recognised the UVF ceasefire. Secret memo says explosives were shipped in small boats", "The Canadian Dimension to the Northern Ireland Conflict", "BBC - The Devenport Diaries: Remembering Billy Wright", "Sutton Index of Deaths: Crosstabulations (two-way tables)", "Sutton Index of Deaths: Status of the person killed", CAIN University of Ulster Conflict Archive, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ulster_Volunteer_Force&oldid=1142049756, May 1966 present (on ceasefire since October 1994; officially ended armed campaign in May 2007), Unnamed Chief of Staff (1974 October 1975). 206, 207, Ed Moloney, Secret History of the IRA, p.321, "Voices From the Grave:Two Men's War in Ireland" Ed Moloney, Faber & Faber, 2010 pp 417. Ever Loved makes it easy to compare funeral homes, funeral parlors and mortuaries, so you can find the best fit. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. 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