"He was really a role model for many young men who would follow.". It used submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, grenades (including homemade grenades), incendiary bombs, booby trap bombs and car bombs. Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them, but if they persist in giving them aid, then more extreme methods will be adopted. Although Mr Lynch was from a different tradition, he had "welcomed his friendship," and he recalled the conversations they had about peace in Ireland. In keeping with his wishes, there were no paramilitary trappings and his coffin was draped with the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles, in which he served. Such retaliation was seen as both collective punishment and an attempt to weaken the IRA's support; it was thought that terrorising the Catholic community and inflicting such a death toll on it would force the IRA to end its campaign. When the prisoner was unable to provide one, Spence would then seek to convince them of the wisdom of his more politicised path, something that he accomplished with Mitchell. Ontario is to Ulster Protestants what Boston is to Irish Catholics." "However he did dedicate himself to peace and reconciliation for much of his later life so he will also be remembered as a major influence in drawing loyalism away from sectarian strife," he added. "Shortly after he was jailed, Gusty, after a period of reflection on his own life, quickly started to challenge other loyalists coming into prison to reflect on their own lives.". Two of those later convicted (James McDowell and Thomas Crozier) were also serving members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), a part-time, locally recruited regiment of the British Army. [40] These were all subordinate to the Brigade Staff. [82] The IICD confirmed that "substantial quantities of firearms, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices" had been decommissioned and that for the UVF and RHC, decommissioning had been completed. There were no paramilitary trappings as mourners carried the coffin of the loyalist leader. [140][141], In contrast to the IRA, overseas support for loyalist paramilitaries including the UVF has been limited. On 23 October 1972, the UVF carried out an armed raid against King's Park camp, a UDR/Territorial Army depot in Lurgan. [24] On 21 May, the group issued a statement: From this day, we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups. [112] The vast majority of its victims were Irish Catholic civilians, who were often killed at random. [114] Many retaliatory attacks on Catholics were claimed using the covername "Protestant Action Force" (PAF), which first appeared in autumn 1974. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. [84] Eleven months later, a man was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of the UVF's alleged second-in-command Harry Stockman, described by the Belfast Telegraph as a "senior Loyalist figure". Among their engagements was one as guests of honour of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. Eleven years ago he was forced out of his home on the Shankill Road by Johnny Adair's gang during one of the many loyalist paramilitary feuds. The ferry [between Scotland and Northern Ireland] was pivotal in getting arms into the north and anything like checkpoints, or armed police and Army in Scotland would have b******d that all up.[148] An Irish government memo written by David Donoghue stated: "The commonest contribution of Scots UDA and UVF is to send gelignite. Read about our approach to external linking. His conviction, which he always denied, has been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission by his family in light of new evidence being brought forward. Augustus (Gusty) Spence Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), Protestant paramilitary organization founded in Northern Ireland in 1966. In October 1994, he was chosen to read a statement from the Combined Loyalist Military Command declaring a cessation of violence and expressing abject and true remorse for the deaths caused. After his release December 1984, Spence was a key figure in developing UVF thinking and indirectly its political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party. This building had been an important training centre for members of Edward Carson's original UVF. [51] The couple had three daughters, Elizabeth (born 1954), Sandra (1956) and Catherine (1960). Gusty was a man of war, he was also a man of peace, she said. [131][132] This activity has been described as its preferred source of funds in the early 1970s,[133] and it continued into the 2000s, with the UVF in County Londonderry being active. An article published by the newspaper fingered Wright as a drug lord and sectarian murderer. [1] Spence, along with other Shankill Road loyalists, broke from Paisley in 1965 when they sided with Jim Kilfedder in a row that followed the latter's campaigns in Belfast West. In June, nine UVF members were convicted of the attacks. Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric'. [citation needed] The feud between the UVF and the LVF erupted again in the summer of 2005. With Moore now deceased, the only senior figure still alive is "Mr A". Get in touch with us now to get the service you need. Unable to find their target, the men drove around in search of any Catholic instead. During 1970, 42 Catholic-owned licensed premises in Protestant areas were bombed. [32] Spence gave his permission for UVF brigadier Billy Hanna to establish the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade in Lurgan. As a lone piper led his funeral cortege through the area, the streets were lined by mourners. This was a large, three-day riot between Irish nationalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Nicholas Vella, a 14-year veteran of the Huntington Beach Police . [15], Spence claimed that he was approached in 1965 by two men, one of whom was an Ulster Unionist Party MP, who told him that the Ulster Volunteer Force was to be re-established and that he was to have responsibility for the Shankill. [40] However, Spence's ideas were abandoned as the UVF ceasefire fell apart that same year following the Ulster Workers' Council strike and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings; the carnage of the latter had shocked and horrified Spence. In March and April that year, UVF and UPV members bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, blaming them on the dormant IRA and elements of the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, he founded the modern Ulster Volunteer Force, an organisation which was responsible for hundreds of sectarian murders during the Troubles. He was buried in Bangor.[57][58]. While republicans were the expressed target, the attacks that followed were explicitly sectarian. In 1972, five Toronto businessmen shipped weapons in grain container ships out of Halifax, bound for ports in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland which were destined for loyalist militants. Gusty Spence, who has died aged 78, was the . The former loyalist paramilitary leader Gusty Spence has died in hospital. [41] On 17 May, two UVF units from the Belfast and Mid-Ulster brigades detonated four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan. "On behalf of Sinn Fein I would wish to extend my condolences to his family at this time.". Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A former leader of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, described him as "one of the pivots on which a page of Irish history turned". [101], In April 2021, riots erupted across Loyalist communities in Northern Ireland.[relevant? During the service, mourners were told there is a campaign to have overturned the conviction for which Gusty Spence served a jail sentence, the killing of 18-year-old Belfast Catholic Peter Ward in 1966. [30] There were bombings on 30 March, 4 April, 20 April, 24 April and 26 April. [29], On 12 August 1969, the "Battle of the Bogside" began in Derry. Berenice also assists in shipping across the state, country or around the world. The UVF was also clashing with the UDA in the summer of 2000. This collection contains Gusty Spence's personal and business correspondence from 1959-1998, the bulk of which was written during Spence's time in prison (1966-1984). [37] As the loyalist Maze commander, Spence initially also had jurisdiction over the imprisoned members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), although this came to an end in 1973 when, following a deterioration in relations between the two groups outside the prison walls, James Craig became the UDA's Maze commander. [11] Whenever it claimed responsibility for its attacks, the UVF usually claimed that those targeted were IRA members or were giving help to the IRA. There are various credible[citation needed] allegations that elements of the British security forces colluded with the UVF in the bombings. [50], Spence married Louie Donaldson, a native of the city's Grosvenor Road, on 20 June 1953 at Wellwood Street Mission, Sandy Row. The newspaper also reported that the group refused to decommission its weapons. "Sunningdale pushed hard-liners into fatal outrages in 1974". Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos Images Courtesy of Getty Images. [44], The brigade formed part of the Glenanne gang, a loose alliance of loyalist assassins which the Pat Finucane Centre has linked to 87 killings in the 1970s. Fifteen Catholic civilians were killed and seventeen wounded. Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the former loyalist leader Gusty Spence. [116], Like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the UVF's modus operandi involved assassinations, mass shootings, bombings and kidnappings. Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric'. [129] Another estimates that over a 30-year period women accounted for, at most, just 2% of UVF membership. [55], However, a granddaughter of Matilda Gould, a 74-year-old Protestant widow who had died from burns sustained in the UVF's attempted bombing of a Catholic bar next door to her home, objected to Spence being called a "peacemaker" and described him as a "bad evil man". Independentie. [18] On 27 May, Spence ordered four UVF men to kill an Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, Leo Martin, who lived on the Falls Road. The men were tried, and in March 1977 were sentenced to an average of twenty-five years each.[51][52]. [40] Following Merlyn Rees' decision to legalise the UVF in 1974, Spence encouraged them to enter politics and supported the establishment of the Volunteer Political Party. He was OC of the IRA in the Cavan area during the Border campaign in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Spence is regarded as the first terrorist godfather in Northern Ireland but also the man who took the first steps towards ending UVF violence. Find the perfect gusty spence funeral stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Mr Spence argued for a ceasefire with republicans from as early as the mid-1970s and played a key role in encouraging young loyalists he met in prison to think of the reasons for their involvement in violence. In May 1966, the UVF issued a statement, announcing that it was declaring war on the IRA. Spence is regarded as the first terrorist godfather in Northern Ireland but also the man who took the first steps towards ending UVF violence. He was born in the Shankill Road area of Belfast. Bates, employed as a barman at the Long Bar, was recruited into the Shankill Butchers gang in 1975 by its notorious ringleader, Lenny Murphy. But he was also credited with being a driving force in delivering the loyalist ceasefires of the mid-1990s that helped bring an end to the decades of conflict. [35], Spence's time on the outside came to an end on 4 November when he was captured by Colonel Derek Wilford of the Parachute Regiment, who identified Spence by tattoos on his hands. [2] He had been stationed in Cyprus and saw action fighting against the forces of Colonel Georgios Grivas. [38] By this time Spence polarised opinion within the UVF, with some members fiercely loyal to a man they saw as a folk hero and others resenting his draconian leadership and increasing emphasis on politics, with one anonymous member even labelling him "a cunt in a cravat". Augustus Andrew Spence (28 June 1933 [2] - 25 September 2011) was a leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and a leading loyalist politician in Northern Ireland. Uvf 's Mid-Ulster Brigade in Lurgan to Irish Catholics. raid against King 's Park,., 20 April, 24 April and 26 April ] [ 141 ] in. And Monaghan as mourners carried the coffin of the British security forces colluded with the UDA in the summer 2005... 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