On BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback on 30 March 2022, PFC staffer and author of 'UDR Declassified' discussed the new book with host William Crawley and former UDR man David Crabbe.
Nobody believes that the UFF and the UDA are distinct organisations...
A newly-discovered declassified document contains a paper prepared by the NIO on 17 July 1992. It discusses the fact that the UFF was in fact the UDA, which was proscribed less than a month later. The fact is they always knew that the UFF, since it emerged on 9 June 1973, was never a separate organisation. The document reads: The...
This is a visiting permit for HM Prison, Maze (Long Kesh), signed by the prison governor, Robert Truesdale allowing Merlyn Rees, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Stanley Orme and Donald Concannon, Ministers of State, to visit Gusty Spense, UVF leader, on 12 July 1975.
NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs, 2003/17/406, Extract from Report of the ECHR: Ireland v UK, 25 January 1976
A deliberate decision was taken by the RUC, the British Army and politicians to present the bombing of McGurk's Bar, Belfast on 4 December 1971 as an IRA 'own goal' despite reliable evidence, both eyewitness and forensic, to the contrary in the immediate aftermath. It is an entirely credible proposition that the disinformation campaign that emerged in the aftermath of...
CJ4-1919 - First page of notes from meeting between Minister of State Stan Orme with UVF leaders on 15 May 1974
The meeting of Stan Orme with UVF leaders on 15 May was just one of several that took place between the NIO and UVF during the month of May 1974. This particular meeting took place as the UVF was being de-proscribed and made a legal organisation. Orme informed the delegation that the order had been taken through the House of...
FCO87-1207 - Telegram to FCO from Sir Leonard Figg, British Ambassador to Dublin, re proscription of the UDA, 2 February 1982
In this telegram, Figg reported Irish media reactions to Andy Tyrie's statement that the UDA was a counter-terrorist organisation that would be prepared to pursue terrorists across the border. He was clearly anxious that Tyrie's statement had, once again, put UDA proscription on the political agenda.
