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The LVF is believed to be responsible for a number of bombings and sectarian killings, including the killing of Sean Brown in Bellaghy in May, and Seamus Dillon and Eddie Treanor in December 1997. The group employs explosives, light arms, and knives. LVF bombs have often contained Powergel commercial explosives, typical of many loyalist groups.

On 27 December 1997 the leader of the LVF was shot to death at close range by three Irish National Liberation Army gunmen at the top security Maze prison. In the subsequent riots followed loyalist gangs in Portadown and other towns hijacked and burned cars and attacked police with Molotov cocktails. In retaliation for Wright's killing, three men opened fire in front of the Glengannon Hotel on December 28, killing 45-year-old former IRA terrorist and convicted murderer (released in 1994) Seamus Dillon. Three others, including a 14-year-old boy, were wounded. The LVF claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as a subsequent new year's eve attack on a North Belfast bar which fatally wounded 31-year-old Catholic Eddie Treanor.

On 15 July 1997, 18-year-old Catholic Bernadette Martin was shot in the head while she was sleeping in the home of her Protestant boyfriend. Although denied by the organization, it is widely believed that the killing was committed by the LVF. The LVF was also thought to be responsible for the killing of Gerry Devlin, a 36-year-old Catholic man who was shot in North Belfast on 05 December 1997.

During the summer weeks of the annual "marching season" some 100,000 members of the Orange Order and similar Protestant organizations stage traditional parades to celebrate their history and cultural identity. While few of the 3,100 parades held each year are contentious, about 40 that celebrate Protestant "triumphs" in historical battles or are routed through Catholic neighborhoods give rise to tensions. The LVF threatened heavy bombing in the Republic of Ireland if the Orange Order March in Portadown was banned. On 01 June 1997, 41-year-old RUC constable Greg Taylor was kicked to death by a loyalist mob outside a bar in County Antrim. The mob was reportedly angry about the police ban on a recent loyalist parade in the Antrim village of Dunloy.

Northern Ireland Loyalist Paramilitaries
U.K., extremists

Who are Northern Ireland’s “loyalists”?
Loyalists want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, and many are willing to support the use of violence to keep the Protestant-majority province, also known as Ulster, under British rule. They are the adversaries of the Irish Republican Army, and others who seek a united Ireland, in the violent decades-long struggle that the Irish call “the Troubles.” Young Protestant men from Ulster’s most downtrodden neighborhoods make up the core membership of loyalist paramilitary groups, which are effectively pro-state terrorist organizations.

How many loyalist paramilitary groups are there?
Historically, there were two main organizations: the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), founded in 1966 (and named for an early-twentieth-century organization with the same mission), and the larger Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a network of vigilante groups founded in 1971. UDA members also use the name Ulster Freedom Fighters. The UVF and the UDA cooperated closely through the Combined Loyalist Military Command for much of the 1990s, but this association dissolved amid a violent feud in 2001.

Loyalist Volunteer Force press conference, Portadown, Northern Ireland, 1998.
(AP Photo/APTV)

Three hard-line offshoots have emerged from these groups in recent years: the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), in 1996, and the Red Hand Defenders and the Orange Volunteers, in 1998. Authorities believe the last two may simply be cover names used by UDA and LVF members conducting attacks.

In December 2001, the State Department listed four of these Protestant paramilitary organizations as terrorist groups, all except the Ulster Volunteer Force.

What is the conflict in Northern Ireland about?
Following a 1916 uprising and years of guerrilla war led by the legendary Irish nationalist Michael Collins, the British government decided in 1920 to divide Ireland, which it had ruled as a colony for centuries. An independent state, the Republic of Ireland, was created in the island’s predominantly Catholic south, and the six Ulster counties in the north, with a Protestant majority, remained part of the United Kingdom. The conflict is both political and religious: many Catholic “republicans” in Ulster have complained of being treated as second-class citizens, and they seek to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, but most Protestants want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Almost 3,500 people on both sides have died since the Troubles began in 1969.

What attacks have the loyalist paramilitary groups carried out?
Despite accounting for almost 30 percent of the deaths in the Northern Ireland conflict, loyalists’ attacks have generally drawn far less media and international attention than those perpetrated by the IRA. Major loyalist attacks include:

The UVF’s 1966 shooting of four Catholics, one fatally, outside a Belfast pub. This attack was the first major act of sectarian violence since Ireland was divided, and it spurred Catholic activism, which soon turned violent.
The UVF’s 1969 bombing of a power station near Belfast. Initially attributed to the IRA, this attack also helped trigger the Troubles.
The UVF’s 1971 bombing of a Belfast pub, which killed 15 people.
A pair of UVF bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, both in the Republic of Ireland, on May 17, 1974, that killed 33 civilians, making this day the deadliest of the conflict.
The UDA’s October 1993 machine-gun attack on a bar in the Northern Ireland town of Greysteel, which killed eight civilians.
The LVF killing of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams’ nephew in January 1998.
A fierce campaign of intimidation and abuse of Catholic schoolgirls in Belfast between June and October 2001.

Religious violence, harassment, and intimidation typically flare up during the summer “marching season,” when hard-line Protestants don bowlers and orange sashes and parade through Catholic neighborhoods to celebrate centuries-old battlefield victories. Many Catholics see these parades as provocations.

Have the loyalist groups targeted civilians?
Yes—and more frequently than the IRA. Between 1968 and 1998, loyalist paramilitaries killed an estimated 864 civilians (most of them Catholic), compared with an estimated 728 civilians (most of them Protestant) killed by the IRA. Experts say loyalist groups have often acted out of religious hatred, while the IRA has more often targeted British security officers—killing more than 1,000 of them—in an effort to further its political goal of ejecting the British from Northern Ireland.

How big are the loyalist paramilitary groups?
At its peak in the 1970s, the UDA had some 40,000 members, but the UVF and the UDA today are thought to be only several hundred strong. The LVF, the Red Hand Defenders, and the Orange Volunteers count only dozens of members each, possibly with a great deal of overlap.