Why was the Ban lifted on the UVF in 1974?

tdv123

A month before the Dublin & Monaghan bombings the worst massacre of the troubles?

There was never a ban lifted on any other terrorist group by either Irish or British government (although it did 20 years for the UDA to be claimed illegal.)

Balaclava1991

tdv123 wrote: »

A month before the Dublin & Monaghan bombings the worst massacre of the troubles?

There was never a ban lifted on any other terrorist group by either Irish or British government (although it did 20 years for the UDA to be claimed illegal.)

The ban was lifted in 1974 by Northern Ireland Secretary Merlyn Rees to try and bring the group into the democratic process.

A political wing was formed called Volunteer Political Party led by Ken Gibson which contested the West Belfast constituency in the 1974 general election and only won 6% of the vote.

At the time John Colin Wallace, claims to have been a member of the "Clockwork Orange" plot by right wing elements in the British security services as well as Airey Neave MP, who was later blown up by an INLA bomb at Westminster. Then Prime Minister Harold Wilson is said to have believed they plotted a coup d'etat in the UK. Wallace also claims a group of rogue British intelligence and RUC Special Branch members conspired to create a fake UVF gang to undermine the Volunteer Political Party. Robert Nairac, the SAS officer who was later murdered by the IRA, is said to have been involved in these operations.
As a result the UVF were banned again in October 1975.
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 occurred during the Ulster Workers' Council Strike, which was a general strike called by hardline loyalists and unionists in Northern Ireland, who were opposed to the moderates' Sunningdale Agreement and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The bombings brought home the Troubles to people in the south and influenced the then Irish government to introduced hard line measures against Irish republicans.

The official line of the British would seem to be that a bunch of their agents went on a solo run and worked together with loyalists to return the serve.

Busted Flat.

No one has the guts to raise this with the brits.

The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974

40 years on and still no answers.

https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDublin_and_Monaghan_bombings&ei=rId2U7SkJOn07Ab_04D4DA&usg=AFQjCNHDAEFkM_uW0a__G1_vXJpwO30ELA&bvm=bv.66917471,d.ZGU



On 7 July 1993, Yorkshire Television broadcast a documentary about the bombings, named Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre.[26] The documentary-makers interviewed former Irish and British security force personnel, as well as former loyalist militants. They were also given access to Irish police documents.[27]

The programme claimed the bombings were carried out by the UVF, with help from members of the British security forces.[27] It named a number of UVF members whom it said were involved, and who had since been killed in the Troubles. These included Billy Hanna (a sergeant in the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment - UDR), Robert McConnell (a UDR corporal), Harris Boyle (also a UDR soldier), and a loyalist referred to as "the Jackal". He was later identified as former UDR soldier Robin Jackson, who was still alive at the time of broadcast.[27] The documentary claimed that all of these men were working as agents for British Military Intelligence and RUC Special Branch.[27] William Marchant was named as leader of the Belfast UVF gang who hijacked the cars used.[28][29] The documentary also suggested that British Army officer Robert Nairac, a member of the covert Special Reconnaissance Unit/14 Intelligence Company, may have been involved. The narrator said: "We have evidence from police, military and loyalist sources which confirms [...] that in May 1974, he was meeting with these paramilitaries, supplying them with arms and helping them plan acts of terrorism".[27]

Reference was made to the complexity of the attack and the sophistication of the bombs. Former British Army officer Fred Holroyd, former Garda Commissioner Eamon Doherty, and retired bomb disposal experts Lieutenant Colonel George Styles (British Army) and Commandant Patrick Trears (Irish Army) all suggested the bombs were not characteristic of the UVF and that it could not have mounted the attack without help from the security forces.[27]

It was suggested that elements of the British security forces were using loyalist paramilitaries as proxies. It was said that a significant element within the security forces favoured a military solution to the conflict, and opposed a political solution, which was being pursued by the UK's Labour government.[27] Merlyn Rees, the British government's Northern Ireland Secretary, believed that his polices in pursuit of peace in 1974 had been undermined by a faction in British Army Intelligence.[27] The inference was that the bombings were intended to wreck the Sunningdale Agreement and to make both governments take a stronger line against the IRA.[27]

Ooops, thought you said IVF...........

Busted Flat.

Deleted User wrote: »

Ooops, thought you said IVF...........

Sick comment 13 days after the 40th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings,

Read this.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDublin_and_Monaghan_bombings&ei=ge6IU8_BKNCV0QX-_YHQBg&usg=AFQjCNHDAEFkM_uW0a__G1_vXJpwO30ELA&bvm=bv.67720277,d.d2k


The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of co-ordinated car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. Three exploded in Dublin during rush hour and a fourth exploded in Monaghan almost ninety minutes later. They killed 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child, and injured almost 300. The bombings were the deadliest attack of the conflict known as the Troubles, and the deadliest terrorist attack in the Republic's history.[2] Most of the victims were young women, although the ages of the dead ranged from five months to 80 years.