Ulster Volunteer Force (1912)
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The Ulster Volunteer Force was a unionist militia founded in 1912 to block Home Rule for Ireland. A modern loyalist paramilitary group founded in 1966 shares the same name (UVF), and lays claims to a direct descendancy from the older organisation, but there were no organisational links between the two.
The original UVF was formed by Edward Carson and James Craig as a Unionist militia in the tensions surrounding the potential success of the third Home Rule campaign. Some contemporary estimates put its membership at over 100,000. Carson and Craig, supported by some English Conservative politicians, threatened to establish a Provisional government in Ulster should the province be included in any Home Rule settlement. Over half a million people signed a Solemn League and Covenant (or Ulster Covenant). Thousands of German rifles were landed at Larne, but the authorities did not intervene (see Larne gunrunning). During this time the unionists enjoyed the wholehearted support of the British Conservative Party, even when threatening rebellion against the British government.
The home rule issue was put on hold by the outbreak of World War I. Many UVF men enlisted, mostly with the British 36th (Ulster) Division.[1] The division suffered heavy casualties in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. Northern Ireland was established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which many Ulstermen saw as a reward for their loyal service during the war.
Certain remnants of the group reformed in 1920 and were used as special constables (B-Specials). They were widely accused on attacks on the Catholic/Irish nationalist population of northern Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War 1919-1921, in reprisal for Irish Republican Army attacks on civilian, police, and military targets.
[edit] FootNotes
- ^ Fisk says 35,000 enlisted. 5,000 being killed during the attack on German lines at Thiepval on the Somme. P.15.
[edit] Sources/Further Information
- Proclamation by the UVF in the Larne Times newspaper January 1914 here.
- Details on UVF links to the 36th Ulster Division which fought at the Somme here.
- Fisk, Robert "In time of War: Ireland, Ulster, and the price of neutrality 1939 - 1945" (Gill & Macmillan) 1983 ISBN 0-7171-2411-8
