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5 unusual facts about Ulster Defence Association


Sentence Review Commission

Many members of the community, especially Unionists were aggrieved at this part of the Agreement, however this was seen as necessary to appease the paramilitary organisations, namely the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association.

Thomas Begley

Begley was killed when a bomb he was planting on the Shankill Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland intending to kill Johnny Adair and senior members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) exploded prematurely, killing him, a UDA member and eight Protestant civilians.

Trevor King

His is the middle mural, flanked by those representing Brian Robinson and Sam Rockett, a UVF man killed by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in 2000 during a loyalist feud.

Ulster Defence Association

The name is derived from the furry fictional creatures The Wombles, and was given to the UDA because many of its members wore fur-lined anoraks.

William James Carson

On April 24, 1979, a Loyalist Ulster Defence Association death squad consisting of William John Mullan and Billy Dodds visited Carson's home on Rosevale Street in Belfast with the intention to kill him.


Corporals killings

Their unpoliced funerals in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery on 16 March were attacked by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member Michael Stone with pistols and hand grenades, in what became known as the Milltown Cemetery attack.

Irish Independence Party

It was boosted in the late 1970s by the defection of a prominent Protestant Larne SDLP councillor, John Turnley, later the party chairman, who was killed in 1980 in Carnlough, County Antrim by an attack claimed by the Ulster Defence Association.


see also

Army Council

Ulster Army Council, set up in 1973 as an umbrella group by the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force to co-ordinate joint paramilitary operations.