Abstract
"The British should realise that we will not accept Dublin interference in our affairs. The potential for Protestant violence is as great now as it always as". These two sentences, taken from an interview of the Loyalist leader John McMichael in 1985, illustrate the contradiction of Loyalist ideology. McMichael was threatening Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, to use violence although his political engagement would mean that he obeyed to all the British state's decisions, since he made out he was Ulster loyalist. According to Sarah Nelson, loyalists are not "those who gave unequivocal loyalty to governments at Stormont and Westminster" but rather "Protestants who have opposed concessions to the Catholic minority, condemned links between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, and resisted Wesminster's attempts to enforce political change" (p. 9). Actually, Ulster loyalism is divided into two parts: evangelical and paramilitary.
There are two main loyalist paramilitary organisations, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and the UDA (Ulster Defence Association). The UDA was created in early 1970 to protect Protestant enclaves of Belfast, during the worst of the violence in Northern Ireland. According to the members
of the UVF, this organisation descent from a private army created in 1912 by Sir Edward Carson and Sir James Craig, and its initial purpose was to oppose British authorities' desire of granting "Home Rule" to Ireland. Hence, one can observe that loyalist's termination of British policies which give to Irish Catholic a larger autonomy is not totally new in the 1970s. However, according to Sarah Nelson, in this decade there is a "curious" shift: loyalist groups more and more advocate for an "independent Ulster", which means that some consider themselves more Ulster Protestants than British. Both the UDA and the UVF are characterized by using illegal actions, such as bombing or killing, generally meeting violence with violence. Indeed, they are defensive groups which respond to Provisional or Official IRA's attacks. Even if they claim to revere British law and authority, they break the law if they consider it is necessary.
