UDA’s drug-fuelled thugs decide to end their slaughter of the innocents

THE decision by the UDA to declare its war is over and to disband its cover group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), was long overdue. Its announcement was followed by the assertion of a former UDA killer, Kenny McClinton, that “people in loyalist circles are driven by ideals and the defence of their country” and that the only reason the UDA ever existed was “to defend the loyalist community”.

This lie was a reminder of previous pious rhetoric by the IRA about why it existed. Modern Irish republicanism has often been vague, contradictory and ideologically incoherent, but its leaders have continually perpetuated the myth that it has been consistent as a defender of its community, even though the longer its campaign lasted, the more support for the IRA in Northern Ireland was given through gritted teeth, or ambivalent quiescence, while questioning the leadership in public could often result in being shunned, intimidated or terrorised.

The same was true of the loyalist community’s relationship with the UDA. Undoubtedly, given the scale of IRA activities in the early years of the conflict, the UDA and other loyalist paramilitaries could garner considerable support for their response, but the claim that they existed solely to “terrorise the terrorists” quickly rang hollow.