The Ulster Young Militants is considered the youth wing of the Ulster Defense Association (UDA), a paramilitary group of Ulster loyalists in Northern Ireland. Generally known as Young Militants or UYM, this group was formed in 1974 when the Troubles were at its peak. Their motto is "terrae filius", Latin for "son of the land". Their numbers are unknown, but mainly concentrated in the Belfast area, especially in eastern and southern Belfast.
Video Ulster Young Militants
Development
UYM had its origins in "Tartan Gangs" in the early 1970s, an unofficial loyalist street gang who got their name from the tartan scarves and the tartan flashes they wore on their denim jackets. The Tartan was said to commemorate the 1971 Scottish soldier's killing by the Temporary IRA. Author Ian S. Wood has also suggested that fashion may have been inspired by Bay City Rollers although it has been noted elsewhere that Bay City Rollers did not take off until 1974 (at that time the Geng Tartan was well established) and the following bands tended more toward the girl market teens. The main activity of Geng Tartan was the intimidation of Roman Catholic families in the Belfast loyalist areas and, on the weekend, attacks on Catholic youth and businesses in downtown Belfast. These gangs include "The Shankill Young Tartan", "Ardcarn Boot Boys", "Ballybeen Riot Squad" and "Young Newton" from the Ballymacarrett area in East Belfast. In the Shankill Road area, Gang Tartan was quickly under the control of the UDA and served as their youth movement, although elsewhere in the city they remained independent and during a series of riots in the east in 1972 they proved very difficult for UDA leadership to control. In East Belfast, several members of John McKeague's Tartan Gang formed the base of the Red Hand Command when he founded the group in 1972. During the 1974 Ulster Workers' strike, Tartan Gangs roamed the streets of Belfast, ensuring compliance with the termination cited by Ulster Workers Council. The Tartans will form the first of three major youth subcultures that form the basis of UYM, others becoming skinheads in the early 1980s and "spides" in the 1990s.
Although the exact date of UYM's official establishment as an official group attached to the UDA is not known to be estimated around 1974. The group was initially limited to 16-year-olds despite the demand for membership being so high after the 1994 Loyalist Military Command Cohort Combat that the age limit was dropped into fourteen. Many prominent loyalists are believed to have been UYM members before joining the UDA, including Johnny Adair and John Gregg, while Jim Gray, Billy "Twister" McQuiston and Michael Stone are members of Tartan Gang. Adair and a number of friends, including Sam McCrory, joined UYM as a group in 1987.
Maps Ulster Young Militants
Activity
The UYM attached to the UDA West Belfast Brigade jumped in numbers under Johnny Adair and in 2000 they played a major role in helping to mobilize volunteer members and supporters of the Ulster Volunteer out of Lower Shankill as part of a loyal dispute between the two paramilitary groups. Their involvement was such that Father Jack McKee, a born-again Christian preacher noted for his anti-paramilitary activity, reported that in high school around Shankill some students had to be released at different times and from different gates depending on whether they were UYM members or Young Volunteer Volunteers.
In recent times members have been involved in the riots, especially during the marching season and in the interface area. The group is particularly active in this area in Tiger's Bay area, where they are deployed by UDA to attack homes in New Lodge and Newington adjacent nationalist areas. One of the local members, Glen Branagh (a distant relative of actor Kenneth Branagh), died in this clash when, on November 11, 2001, a pipe bomb he held exploded in his hand while he stood with his fellow UYM members at the Duncairn Gardens regional interface. They are also blamed for the arson attacks at schools and Catholic churches. In 1999, UYM was behind more than 230 pipe bomb attacks in the area of ​​the South Eastern Antrim Brigade UDA alone.
According to the Ulster University CAIN Project, the group is responsible for one death during the conflict. In 2001 UYM members attacked and killed Trevor Lowry at Newtownabbey, believing him as a Roman Catholic. It was later discovered that Lowry was a Protestant. Of the two convicted persons for his murder, Harry Speers, significantly exceeds the usual UYM age limit but is actually the Glengormley UYM commander and has direct responsibility for preparing UYM members for the transition to UDA. However, like the killing of Lowry, according to Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, a UYM member also killed Stephen Audley of the UDA on March 17, 1991 after the couple fought a gun at a party, with guns used during the fight and killing Audley..
See also
- Fianna ÃÆ' â € ° ireann
- Youth Volunteers
References
Note
Bibliography
- McDonald, Henry and Cusack, Jim. UDA: In the Heart of Loyalist Terror , Penguin Ireland, 2004
- Taylor, Peter. Loyalist London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 1999
- Wood, Ian S. Loyalty Crime: UDA History , Edinburgh University Press, 2006
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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