Ulster Political Research Group
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The Ulster Political Research Group are an advisory body connected to the Ulster Defence Association, providing advice to them on political matters. The group is largely a successor to the Ulster Democratic Party, which dissolved in 2001, and was permanently founded in January 2002. Ex-UDP man Frank McCoubrey is the UPRG's leading member and sits on Belfast City Council ostensibly as an independent (and was formerly deputy Lord Mayor of the city), with other leading members including Sammy Duddy, Frankie Gallagher and Tommy Kirkham (a member of Newtownabbey Borough Council and registered as leader of the Ulster Protestant League, a title he has never used in elections).
Firm proposals for an independent Ulster were produced in 1976 by the Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee and in 1977 by the UDA's New Ulster Political Research Group. The NUPRG document, Beyond the Religious Divide has been recently republished with a new introduction. The NUPRG were disbanded in 1981 and replaced with the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party, although the Ulster Political Research group was later reconvened for policy-making purposes from time to time.
