Ulster Defence Regiment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was a infantry regiment of the British Army. It was a locally raised, part time and full time unit, intended to carry out security duties within Northern Ireland. The UDR was strongly indentified with the Protestant and unionist community. It was disbanded in 1992 and amalgamated with the Royal Irish Regiment.
Contents |
[edit] History
Formed in 1970, the UDR was designed to replace the controversial B-Specials of Northern Ireland. The regiment was reduced to nine battalions in 1984, then to seven in 1991 through amalgamations, before being amalgamated as a whole with the Royal Irish Rangers in 1992 to form the Royal Irish Regiment, after many calls for their disbandment. In 1990 British Secretary of State Peter Brooke described them as committed to "justice, decency and democracy".
Between April 1, 1970 and June 30, 1992, a total of 200 members of the UDR were killed during the Troubles. Two UDR men were killed by British soldiers, three by loyalist paramilitaries, other three were killed as members of the UVF[1], and the remaining 192 by republican paramilitaries (mainly the Provisional IRA). During this time members of the UDR were responsible for the killing of (officially) six civilians and two members of the IRA. Many unionist politicians in Northern Ireland today are former members of the UDR, Jeffrey Donaldson for example.
This is the only unit in the history of the British Army to have been on operational deployment for its entire history, from the moment it was created until it was amalgamated with the Royal Irish Rangers in 1992.
[edit] Structure
Initially, seven battalions were raised, immediately making it the largest regiment in the British Army. Within two years, a further four battalions were added, taking the total to eleven. To begin with, the regiment consisted entirely of part-time volunteers, before a full time cadre was added in 1976.
At first, the regiment was 82 per cent Protestant and 18 per cent Catholic, but this ratio became 99:1 as intimidation by both Loyalists and Roman Catholics prevented Catholics from joining up [citation needed]. All but a handful of the 7,500 members of the UDR were Protestants.
The full-time element of the regiment eventually expanded to encompass half the total personnel. The UDR was also the first infantry regiment in the British Army to fully integrate women into its structure, when the so-called Greenfinches took over clerical and signals duties, which allowed male members of the regiment to return to patrol duties. One Greenfinch, Eva Martin, was killed during the Troubles.
[edit] Battalions
- 1st (County Antrim) Battalion [1970-1984]
- 1st/9th (County Antrim) Battalion [1984-1992]
- 2nd (County Armagh) Battalion [1970-1991]
- 2nd/11th (Craigavon) Battalion [1991-1992]
- 3rd (County Down) Battalion [1970-1992]
- 4th (County Fermanagh) Battalion [1970-1991]
- 4th/6th (County Fermanagh and County Tyrone) Battalion [1991-1992]
- 5th (County Londonderry) Battalion [1970-1992]
- 6th (County Tyrone) Battalion [1970-1991]
- 7th (City of Belfast) Battalion [1970-1984]
- 7th/10th (City of Belfast) Battalion [1984-1992]
- 8th (County Tyrone) Battalion [1971-1992]
- 9th (Country Antrim) Battalion [1972-1984]
- 10th (City of Belfast) Battalion [1972-1984]
- 11th (Craigavon) Battalion [1972-1991]
[edit] Collusion allegations
There were repeated allegations throughout the UDR's history that the units's members were covertly aiding the loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. Brigadier David Millar, the former commandant of the Fifth Battalion (County Londonderry), once admitted that if he expelled any of his soldiers for belonging to an illegal loyalist paramilitary group, he would be left without a regiment [citation needed].
On 3 May 2006 the British Government released documents that showed overlapping membership between British Army units like the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and loyalist paramilitary groups was a wider problem than a "few bad apples" as was often claimed. The documents include a report titled "Subversion in the UDR" which details the problem. In 1973;
- an estimated 5-15% of UDR soldiers were directly linked to loyalist paramilitary groups,
- it was believed that the "best single source of weapons, and the only significant source of modern weapons, for Protestant extremist groups was the UDR",
- it was feared UDR troops were loyal to "Ulster" alone rather than to "Her Majesty's Government",
- the British Government knew that UDR weapons were being used in the assassination and attempted assassination of Roman Catholic civilians by loyalist paramilitaries. [2]
Despite knowing that the UDR had problems and that over 200 weapons had been passed from British Army hands to loyalist paramilitaries by 1973, the British Government went on to increase the role of the UDR in "maintaining order" in Northern Ireland. This was part of the wider "Normalisation, Ulsterisation, and Criminalisation" strategy to quell the violence of the PIRA.[3]
Two UDR soldiers, who were also members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, were convicted of the 1975 murder of three members of the pop group the Miami Showband in a Ulster Volunteer Force attack.
In 1989, 28 UDR soldiers were arrested by the Royal Ulster Constabulary as part of the Stevens Inquiry into security force collusion with paramilitaries. Six of those arrested were later awarded damages over their arrests.
In 1999 David Jordan, a former UDR soldier, allegedly broke down in a bar and admitted to being part of a patrol that killed nationalist councillor Patsy Kelly in 1974. Jordan also implicated former Democratic Unionist Party Northern Ireland Assembly member Oliver Gibson in the murder [4]
[edit] References
- ^ See the following quotes of 1975's chapter of Sutton chronology:[1]
- 27 July 1975 William Hanna (46) Protestant
- 31 July 1975 Harris Boyle (22) Protestant
- 31 July 1975 Wesley Somerville (34) Protestant
- ^ May 2, 2006 edition of the Irish News available here.
- ^ Paisley by Ed Moloney & Andy Pollak Poolbeg Press Ltd., 1986 P.363-402
- ^ http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9AE0DC07-095C-4DEE-BB32-335224A38224/0/j_j_KERC5130.htm
