Forty years on: bereaved families publish booklet on Ulster Resistance and the DUP's role in its formation
Who/What: Families of the Time for Truth Campaign launch new publication on the 40th anniversary of the Democratic Unionist Party’s Ulster Hall rally that founded Ulster Resistance, a loyalist paramilitary group linked to at least 98 murders. The keynote speaker is John Finucane MP.
When: Tuesday, 10th November at 11am.
Where: St Comgall's, Ionad Eileen Howell, Divis Street, Belfast, BT12 4AQ
Media invitation and photocall. Everyone welcome.
Families of the Time for Truth Campaign will launch Ulster Resistance & the Role of the DUP in its Formation, a new booklet setting out the historical record of how the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) founded the loyalist paramilitary group.
The launch takes place on Tuesday 10th November at 11am at St Comgall's, Ionad Eileen Howell, Divis Street, Belfast. The keynote speaker is John Finucane MP.
The date is deliberate. Exactly 40 years ago, on 10th November 1986, the DUP launched Ulster Resistance at an invitation-only rally of some 3,000 men in the Ulster Hall. The rally was chaired by Sammy Wilson and addressed by Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Ivan Foster. In the weeks that followed, Paisley and Robinson appeared at rallies wearing the group's red berets.
The booklet draws on Police Ombudsman findings, declassified state papers and contemporary press reports. We record:
- The names of 98 victims killed with Ulster Resistance weapons between 1988 and 1994.
- Atrocities perpetrated with Ulster Resistance weapons include massacres in Milltown Cemetery, Sean Graham’s Bookmakers, Castlerock, Greysteel and Loughinisland.
- How deadly attacks by Loyalists escalated sharply in the years after the delivery of Ulster Resistance weapons
- Only part of the Ulster Resistance arsenal was ever recovered, and the rest was never decommissioned.
The DUP has said it severed its links with Ulster Resistance in 1987. The families say the party has never given a full public account of its role in founding Ulster Resistance, or of when and how those links ended.
Ciarán MacAirt, spokesperson for the Time for Truth Campaign, said:
"Forty years ago, senior DUP figures stood on the stage of the Ulster Hall and launched Ulster Resistance. Within weeks, Ulster Resistance was planning to import guns with the UVF and UDA. Those guns were then used to kill our loved ones.”
“It is the stated view of the families that there must be an independent, thematic investigation into Ulster Resistance, its political sponsorship, the arms importation, the role of state agencies and the subsequent killings.”
“The DUP can no longer withhold answers from families, refuse to account for the actions of its senior leadership and then distance itself from an organisation it helped establish, publicly promoted and provided with political cover and sponsorship.”
Further Information on the DUP and Loyalist Paramilitarism
The Democratic Unionist Party has had a long history and history with loyalist paramilitarism, including attemoting to form other paramilitary groups.
You can read about Ulster Resistance here: Who are Ulster Resistance and Where Are their Weapons?
