[40] However, Spence's ideas were abandoned as the UVF ceasefire fell apart that same year following the Ulster Workers' Council strike and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings; the carnage of the latter had shocked and horrified Spence. Independentie. [76][77][78], In January 2008, the UVF was accused of involvement in vigilante action against alleged criminals in Belfast. The funeral of 78-year-old Gusty Spence, the former leader of the UVF paramilitary organisation, has taken place in Belfast. [34] Spence was arrested along with around thirty other men at a UVF drinking club in Brennan Street; but after giving a false name, he was released. [81], In June 2009 the UVF formally decommissioned their weapons in front of independent witnesses as a formal statement of decommissioning was read by Dawn Purvis and Billy Hutchinson. [37], The IRA had split into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA in December 1969. What's he waiting for? The chip shop has since been closed down. [7] His family had a long tradition of Orange Order membership. "On behalf of Sinn Fein I would wish to extend my condolences to his family at this time.". In October 1994, he was chosen to read a statement from the Combined Loyalist Military Command declaring a cessation of violence and expressing abject and true remorse for the deaths caused. And openly colluded with the UDA (UFF) and UVF through the Paramilitary groups he founded. The family of the former UVF leader Gusty Spence is planning a funeral with the emphasis on his British army past rather than his time in the paramilitary group. In 1984, the UVF attempted to kill the northern editor of the Sunday World, Jim Campbell after he had exposed the paramilitary activities of Mid-Ulster brigadier Robin Jackson. [48] When Spence's wife died three years later, he said that C Company had been responsible for her death, such was the toll that the events had taken on her health. [35], Spence's time on the outside came to an end on 4 November when he was captured by Colonel Derek Wilford of the Parachute Regiment, who identified Spence by tattoos on his hands. [22] Spence's involvement in the killings gave him legendary status among many young loyalists and he was claimed as an inspiration by the likes of Michael Stone. In the 1960s, he founded the modern Ulster Volunteer Force, an organisation which was responsible for hundreds of sectarian murders during the Troubles. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly said many nationalists would remember Spence as someone "who was central to the sectarianism that gave birth to the modern loyalist paramilitary". Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings, Prince Andrew offered Frogmore Cottage - reports, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Beer and wine sales in Canada fall to all-time low, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US. The group concluded a general acceptance of the need to decommission, though there was no conclusive proof of moves towards this end. Spence grew increasingly frustrated with UVF leadership, and left the organization altogether in 1978. From that time until the early 1990s the Mid-Ulster Brigade was led by Robin "the Jackal" Jackson, who then passed the leadership to Billy Wright. [127] A British Army report released in 2006 estimated a peak membership of 1,000. Gusty Spence was a significant figure in loyalist Belfast for most of his life. In the 1960s, he founded the modern Ulster Volunteer Force, an. [117] Members were trained in bomb-making, and the organisation developed home-made explosives. Read about our approach to external linking. [125] Historically, the number of active UVF members in July 1971 was stated by one source to be no more than 20. It comprises high-ranking officers under a Chief of Staff or Brigadier-General. [46] Some of the new Brigade Staff members bore nicknames such as "Big Dog" and "Smudger". Former Ulster Volunteer Force leader Gusty Spence has died aged 78. Berenice's Cremation & Burial Care offers qualified funeral services in La Habra, CA, 90631. [8], From an early age Spence was a member of the Prince Albert Temperance Loyal Orange Lodge, where fellow members included John McQuade. "He was an Irishman and looked upon himself as an Ulster Irishman as well as being British. Veteran anti-UVF campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son, Raymond Jr., a Protestant, was beaten to death by UVF men in 1997, estimates the UVF has killed more than thirty people since its 1994 ceasefire, most of them Protestants. It was alleged that Colin Armstrong had links to both drugs and loyalist terrorists. [45], In 1974, hardliners staged a coup and took over the Brigade Staff. The latter had formally asked Spence for his daughter's hand in marriage during a prison visit. At his funeral yesterday, Mr Spence said he was not there to deify Mr Lynch, whom he described as "a simple man but a wealthy one in terms of his friends and his love for his country". Two of those later convicted (James McDowell and Thomas Crozier) were also serving members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), a part-time, locally recruited regiment of the British Army. [2] He ran his part of the Maze along military lines, drilling inmates and training them in weapons use while also expecting a maintenance of discipline. [40] Following Merlyn Rees' decision to legalise the UVF in 1974, Spence encouraged them to enter politics and supported the establishment of the Volunteer Political Party. [44], The brigade formed part of the Glenanne gang, a loose alliance of loyalist assassins which the Pat Finucane Centre has linked to 87 killings in the 1970s. [79], In 2008, a loyalist splinter group calling itself the "Real UVF" emerged briefly to make threats against Sinn Fin in County Fermanagh. Another loyalist paramilitary organisation called Ulster Resistance was formed on 10 November 1986. Read about our approach to external linking. Correspondence includes Spence's correspondence with leaders and imprisoned members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and letters concerning his imprisonment originally . "Shortly after he was jailed, Gusty, after a period of reflection on his own life, quickly started to challenge other loyalists coming into prison to reflect on their own lives.". His funeral service is taking place at Saint Michael's church off the Shankill Road. [150] The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee noted in its report that "in 1992 it was estimated that Scottish support for the UDA and UVF might amount to 100,000 a year. [34] In December, the UVF detonated a car bomb near the Garda central detective bureau and telephone exchange headquarters in Dublin. [4] He married Isabella "Bella" Hayes, Gusty Spence's mother, in 1919. [106] Later, in September 1972, Gusty Spence said in an interview that the organisation had a strength of 1,500. [53] These men had overthrown the "hawkish" officers, who had called for a "big push", which meant an increase in violent attacks, earlier in the same month. [40] These were all subordinate to the Brigade Staff. The family of the former UVF leader Gusty Spence is planning a funeral with the emphasis on his British army past rather than his time in the paramilitary group. 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In keeping with his wishes, there will be no UVF trappings and his coffin will be draped in the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles in which he served. This development came soon after the UVF's Brigade Staff in Belfast had stood down Wright and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade, on 2 August 1996, for the killing of a Catholic taxi driver near Lurgan during Drumcree disturbances. [2] He rose to the rank of Provost Sergeant (battalion police). The damage from security service informers started in 1983 with "supergrass" Joseph Bennett's information, which led to the arrest of fourteen senior figures. [6] He was also a member of the Church Lads' Brigade, a Church of Ireland group and the Junior Orange Order. LocationLa Habra, CA 90631 EmailGet a free estimate Call(562) 579-5980. Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation. [49] A political wing was formed in June 1974, the Volunteer Political Party led by UVF Chief of Staff Ken Gibson, which contested West Belfast in the October 1974 general election, polling 2,690 votes (6%). The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [42], Spence was increasingly disillusioned with the UVF and he imparted these views to fellow inmates at Long Kesh. In keeping with his wishes, there were no paramilitary trappings and his coffin was draped with the regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles, in which he served. "[140], Protestants in Canada also supported the loyalist paramilitaries in the conflict. An article published by the newspaper fingered Wright as a drug lord and sectarian murderer. DeSantis won't say he's running. The UVF's declared goals were to combat Irish republicanism particularly the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and to maintain Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom. [29], Spence was granted two days leave around in early July 1972 to attend the wedding of his daughter Elizabeth to Winston Churchill "Winkie" Rea. [39], Spence began to move towards a position of using political means to advance one's aims, and he persuaded the UVF leadership to declare a temporary ceasefire in 1973. Anderson, Malcolm & Bort, Eberhard (1999). This move came as the organisation held high-level discussions about its future. The statement also included a warning that activities could "provoke another generation of loyalists toward armed resistance". The group had been proscribed in July 1966, but this ban was lifted on 4 April 1974 by Merlyn Rees, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in an effort to bring the UVF into the democratic process. While republicans were the expressed target, the attacks that followed were explicitly sectarian. But despite the statement, the UVF was subsequently involved in sporadic violence, including several murders. In keeping with his wishes,. 2023 BBC. The party's former leader Dawn Purvis told his funeral in the loyalist heartland of Belfasts Shankill Road that Mr Spence became involved in violence in the 1960s. According to the Belfast Telegraph, "70 separate police intelligence reports implicating the north Belfast UVF man in dealing cannabis, Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. [9] According to the book Lost Lives (2006 edition), it was responsible for 569 killings. However, the UVF spurned the government efforts and continued killing. In 1990, the UVF joined the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) and indicated its acceptance of moves towards peace. In 2007, he announced that the UVF and an associated group, the Red Hand Commando, would cease to exist in their previous form. Others who attended included Jeanette Irvine, the widow of the former PUP Assembly member, David Ervine, Dawn Purvis, the former PUP Assembly member who resigned from the party over the UVF's activities and the former Assembly member and former Human Rights Commissioner, Monica Mc Williams. During the service, mourners were told there is a campaign to have overturned the conviction for which Gusty Spence served a jail sentence, the killing of 18-year-old Belfast Catholic Peter Ward in 1966. [91], In July 2011, a UVF flag flying in Limavady was deemed legal by the PSNI after the police had received complaints about the flag from nationalist politicians. [46] This resulted in a sharp increase in sectarian killings and internecine feuding, both with the UDA and within the UVF itself. [29] The loyalists "intended to force a crisis which would so undermine confidence in O'Neill's ability to maintain law and order that he would be obliged to resign". "He was an Irishman and looked upon himself as an Ulster Irishman as well as being British. Augustus 'Gusty' Spence (born 28th June 1933) is a former leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force, Loyalist politician and soldier in the British Army. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. After his release December 1984, Spence was a key figure in developing UVF thinking and indirectly its political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party. In the 1960s, he founded the Ulster Volunteer Force, which was responsible for hundreds of murders during the Troubles. [66] The UVF also killed senior IRA paramilitary members Liam Ryan, John 'Skipper' Burns and Larry Marley. This was in retaliation for attacks on Loyalist homes the previous weekend and after a young girl was hit in the face with a brick by Republicans. [54] The UVF was behind the deaths of seven civilians in a series of attacks on 2 October. After several years away from the spotlight, Spence was again asked to read the statement, a role which senior loyalists said was indicative of his significance within Northern Ireland loyalism. The former loyalist paramilitary leader Gusty Spence has died in hospital. A former leader of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, described him as "one of the pivots on which a page of Irish history turned". He was OC of the IRA in the Cavan area during the Border campaign in the late 1950s and early 1960s. [36], Spence soon became the UVF commander within the Maze Prison. "While the talks may be slow, they are the only glint on the horizon, he said. THE self described "old UVF man", Mr Gusty Spence (64), gave a brief oration at the funeral of Mr Jim Lynch (72), a former officer commanding (OC) of the IRA, at Cootehill, Co Cavan,. [9] He was also associated loosely with prominent loyalists such as Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal and was advised by both men in 1959 when he launched a protest against Gerry Fitt at Belfast City Hall after Fitt had described Spence's regiment as "murderers" over allegations that they had killed civilians in Cyprus. [20], In October 1966, Spence was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Ward, although Spence has always claimed he was innocent. "[18], In November 2013, after a series of shootings and acts of intimidation by the UVF, Police Federation Chairman Terry Spence declared that the UVF ceasefire was no longer active. [84] The Progressive Unionist Party's condemnation, and Dawn Purvis and other leaders' resignations as a response to the Moffett shooting, were also noted. for a proxy bomb attack targeting a "peace-building" event in Belfast where Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney was speaking. 2023 BBC. [38] By this time Spence polarised opinion within the UVF, with some members fiercely loyal to a man they saw as a folk hero and others resenting his draconian leadership and increasing emphasis on politics, with one anonymous member even labelling him "a cunt in a cravat". [27] Spence appointed Samuel McClelland as UVF Chief of Staff in his stead. THE self described "old UVF man", Mr Gusty Spence (64), gave a brief oration at the funeral of Mr Jim Lynch (72), a former officer commanding (OC) of the IRA, at Cootehill, Co Cavan, yesterday. This gang was led by Lenny Murphy. He later became involved in politics and announced the landmark loyalist paramilitary ceasefires in 1994. However, following significant political pressure, the UVF claimed in 2007 that it was decommissioning its weapons. 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