Northern IrelandIn early 1974, in the bar in Stormont, I was approached by two leading members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), who introduced themselves as Chicken and Rice and inquired what I thought would be the response of the RUC to our names if the three of us were travelling in the same car and were stopped at a roadblock.
I laughed but I thought that, in the circumstances they were suggesting, I would at least be alive. But probably not for long. This book confirms my suspicion.
Rather like the Provisional IRA, the UDA evolved from vigilante and defence groupings and then consolidated into a single coordinated body which, at the height of its power, numbered more than 40,000 men. It then degenerated into an alliance of criminal factions for whom murder, extortion, blackmail, prostitution, sectarian intimidation and drugs became much more important than the initial objective of defending Protestant areas.
The UDA's primary target was "Taigs", and no distinction was made on age or gender grounds. Vulnerable Catholics were picked as a simple, brutal way of getting at the community that the UDA believed was harbouring Ulster's enemies. Shooting Catholics was not enough. The extent of torture and mutilation, invariably under the influence of drink, suggested psychopathic tendencies in many instances, rather than political or religious motivation. The descriptions make horrendous reading.
The authors seek to put the barbarism in context: Protestant frustration at what was perceived as the continual Catholic political advance, at the disbandment of the B Specials and, particularly, at the escalation of the Provisional IRA bombing campaign aimed not only at military targets but at Protestants. On September 29th, 1971, two men died and 27 were injured when an IRA bomb exploded without warning in the Four Step Inn on the Shankill Road, a bar crowded with Linfield supporters. Fifty thousand people attended the funerals, and the newly founded UDA received the boost its membership required. Then, on December 11th, the IRA blew up the Balmoral Furniture Store, also on the Shankill, killing two men and two children in their pram on the street. It made no difference to Protestant outrage that this barbarism was in retaliation for the killing of 15 Catholics at McGurk's Bar a week earlier by the other Protestant paramilitary organisation, the UVF. The UDA thirsted for Catholic blood and, throughout its 30-year history, including periods when leaders such as Andy Tyrie and John McMichael attempted to take it in a political direction, this remained its basic motivation.
The height of UDA success was, of course, its involvement in the strike which led to the fall of the Power-Sharing Executive in 1974, when, along with the UVF, it provided the intimidation without which the putsch could not have been successful. Some of the leadership, notably Tyrie, McMichael and Glenn Barr, briefly thought that they could capitalise on this achievement, and that the organisation could displace the Official Unionists and Paisley as the political leadership. It was not to be, and so gangsterism, internal conflicts and feuding with the UVF took over. The failure of the UDA's political wing, the Ulster Democratic Party, can be contrasted with the success of Sinn Féin.
Strangely, the authors consider Andy Tyrie "one of the most important figures in late 20th-century Ireland and, in terms of achievement, arguably one of the most successful terrorist (he would say paramilitary) leaders to have emerged in Europe . . . Ironically, probably the only other insurgent or terrorist leader to achieve such success before him was Michael Collins". Tyrie's one big success - helping to bring down Sunningdale - owed more to Merlyn Rees's vacillation and the unwillingness of the British army to fight a war on two fronts than to any leadership qualities displayed by Tyrie.
McDonald and Cusack describe how, almost from the beginning, the organisation was riddled with informers - they estimate the different branches of the security forces were at one stage running 27 different agents inside the UDA - and their substantiation of the extent of collusion once again raises serious questions about the morality of aspects of British policy.
The authors, two distinguished journalists, had unprecedented and often personally dangerous access to influential UDA figures over many years. They disclose some new facts and add to some that we had suspected and indeed, in some instances, feared.
In 1994, Loyalists were fearful of a secret deal between Republicans and the British government as a part of an IRA cessation. The UDA produced a document proposing re-partition, with three options for Catholics east of the Bann: "expulsion, nullification and internment." The middle option effectively meant sectarian slaughter. The doomsday situation did not materialise, but not because of lack of effort by the IRA. Nine Protestant civilians, including two children, were killed by an IRA bomb at a fish shop in the heart of Shankill Road. The authors conclude that, in the aftermath, "Northern Ireland was closer to civil war than at any time since the 1970s".
This courageously researched book reminds us all how close to the precipice we came on a number of occasions and how lucky we were to have avoided being pushed over.
Austin Currie's autobiography, All Hell Will Break Loose, was published earlier this autumnAustin Currie
UDABy Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack Penguin Ireland, 406pp. €16.99