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6 unusual facts about Ulster loyalism


Dan O'Boyle

Daniel "Dan" O'Boyle (died November 1933) was a Catholic Irish publican murdered by Protestant loyalists in 1933.

Far right in the United Kingdom

The party supported extreme loyalism in Northern Ireland, and attracted Conservative Party members who had become disillusioned after Harold Macmillan had recognised the right to independence of the African colonies, and had criticized Apartheid in South Africa.

Hugh Torney

Loyalist sectarian murders were bearing heavily on the Catholic/nationalist community and Torney struggled to hold back reactionary elements within his grouping.

Republican plot

Notable Republican plots include those at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin and Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, where the hunger-strikers Bobby Sands and Joe McDonnell are buried, and which was the site of an attack on a Republican funeral in 1988 by a loyalist paramilitary, Michael Stone.

Ulster loyalism

In Great Britain, a number of small far-right parties have and still do express support for loyalist paramilitaries, and loyalism in general.

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.


Billy Giles

He immediately commenced work with the Progressive Unionist Party also known as PUP, and concentrated on helping released Loyalist prisoners to resettle into the community.

Man Dancin'

The group travel in a van ironically painted with the Ulster Banner which was gifted to them by Billy Maddison (Ron Donachie), an Ulster loyalist gangster and old acquaintance of Jimmy, who wanted to assure the Catholic community that the church attack was not an act of sectarian violence.

Martin Flannery

He was of Irish descent, and supported the Irish republican cause, opposing the Prevention of Terrorism Act; however, after visiting Northern Ireland in 1994, he came to support the presence of British troops to protect Catholics from loyalist violence.

Sentence Review Commission

It was established by the Belfast Agreement which allowed for up to 500 Loyalist and Republican prisoners sentenced before 10 April 1998 to be released by 28 July 2000.

Ulster Third Way

U3W tended to focus its attentions on trying to build up grass-roots support in loyalist areas, emphasising Ulster-Scots and the Battle of the Boyne commemorations and has its main office in the Shankill area of Belfast.


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