Unit 13: Loyalist Reassessment: "the other Peace Process"
Not all new political thinking came out of the IRA and Sinn Fein, and the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland. There were significant developments taking place within Loyalism. Although much slower and on a much smaller level a new politically astute cadre began to develop who began to shift the focus within Loyalism from the military to the political conflict. The role of this cadre in the eventual peace process was crucial, as Loyalism always retained the ability to wreck any peace agreement; as we well remember, in 1974 it was not the constitutional Unionists, but the Loyalist paramilitaries and the Loyalist working class who wrecked Sunningdale. Now a cadre was developing that would participate in the political process beyond the street and that was confident in its political skills and assessment. One of the prime movers behind this reassessment was Gusty Spence, the founder of the modern UVF and convicted of murder in the Malvern Street killings.
In this section we will investigate and analyze his influence in this reassessment. We will examine “Spence University,” (2 minute mark of video) and his running of the UVF compound in the Maze in the '70s. Spence ran the compound along military lines to maintain discipline and hope among the men. He also helped set up educational opportunities for his men and many did university degrees while in the Maze. He also challenged the men in that compound to question their assumptions and to learn from the struggle and violence rather than to mindlessly continue it. One way he did this and its affect was described by David Ervine, a convicted UVF man and inmate at the Maze, an eventual negotiator of the Good Friday Agreement and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly until his death, when Ervine first arrived in the Maze:
Gusty’s first question [to Ervine] was – where did he come from? Ervine replied, "From east Belfast." The second question was "Why are you here?" Ervine. . . said, "I’m here because I was fighting for Ulster." He still recalls Gusty’s response:
“He says, ‘No, no, no – why are you here?’ Not the fact that I’d been caught with explosives, he wanted to understand why I was in the prison and what beliefs had taken me there. I found it an arrogant question and yet it was a question that began to unlock a door to a different idea. He was confronting my attitudes and was forcing me to question why.
"I needed to understand what was happening to me in a society which, frankly, there was little sense to be made. But once I’d stepped from it and was looking back at it- that was the breath of life. I was beginning to understand the human being that I was and why generations had been prepared to sacrifice their liberty or lives for the defence of republicanism or loyalism. Given the that we’re a zero-sum society, what fuels us most is not what we want, but our desire to make sure others don’t achieve what they want. (Spence, pp. 192-193)
It would be this cadre of UVF prisoners who came out of prison and took part in the Progressive Unionist Party, who would help bring about the CLMC ceasefire in 1994 and negotiate the Good Friday Agreement.
At the same time Spence also challenged the leadership of the UVF on the “outside” who were carrying on the ‘war’ and the sectarian killings of the '70s and '80s. Roy Garland argues that Spence challenged the UVF to go beyond its often mindless sectarianism by appealing by saying to them: "Off you go and kill a thousand Catholics, but what have you proved? Even if you kill a hundred IRA men what have you achieved – nothing but ranks of martyrs" (Spence, p. 193).
Like those within Republicanism who began to realize in the early '80s that this war could not be won militarily, Spence’s vision and influence could not end the killing. However, as we will see, it was his influence in the Maze which helped create that generation of political leaders who gave the Loyalist working class a voice and helped bring about the Loyalist ceasefires and the Good Friday Agreement. Having said all this, the reality was that the killing did not stop, but the realization that one day it had to and that there had to be some sort of political compromise between the warring communities was gradually taking hold.
Go to the Primary Documents in this Unit to read what the UVF and its Political Representatives were doing in the 1970s.
Go to
Required Readings for this section:
1. Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) Common Sense – 1987 – This came out of the UDA in response to the AIA. It built on "Beyond the Religious Divide" from 1979. In this the UDA argued that the war could not go on forever and that some sort of political accommodation had to occur among the warring parties. This document came out of the Ulster Political Research Group and its two main authors were John McMichael (Sympathetic and interesting memorial to him) and Ray Smallwoods. McMichael was killed 22 December 1987 and Smallwoods 11 July 1994 by the IRA. This document came out of the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) and outlined the thinking of their military and political leaders. The UDA at this point realized, especially after the Anglo-Irish Accord (AIA), that they were Britain’s unwanted stepchildren, and so began to look at an Independent Ulster where the two communities would have to live together. (For further reading on this political initiative you can read the chapter entitled: “The Ulster Defence Association: A Questions of Uncertainty” in Padraig O’Malley’s, The Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today.)
2. pp. 123-124 in Loyalists – This outlines the political position that became the Progressive Unionist Party's (PUP) political position.
3. Seeking a Political Accommodation – A review of a pamphlet on the UVF’s political position
4. 1985-Sharing Responsibility - This is the document that the UVF developed in Long Kesh in 1973.
5. “Spence University" Before reading documents below go to Courseweb - video- loyalist - Spence University and watch video and listen to interview.
Courseweb- Course Documents - Long Kesh focusing on Gusty Spence
Courseweb -Course Documents- Spence University by Henry Sinnerton focusing on David Ervine
Courseweb under Colin Crawford in Primary Document: Common Ground in Long Kesh”
This is one of the most important readings of the term. Read it carefully.
“The Present Conflict” - PUP submission to James Prior (1981)
PUP "Devolution within the United Kingdom – a genuine way forward"
1977 - Oration of Gusty Spence- This has the UVF Response to the speech.
1977 - Spence's Oration - copy of original typed document.
Go to Courseweb - video files - Ervine and Mitchell - Stinking Polluted Politics and watch these videos again.
Paramilitary Cooperation, The Camp Council and Downtown Office Scheme
This is perhaps one of the most significant, and murkiest, initiatives that took place prior to the present Peace Process. It obviously failed and consequently the conflict lasted another 20 years. Read through these documents and listen to the audio files.
As you can see from the documents and readings above, cooperation and understanding began to develop among the various paramilitary groups in Crumlin Road Gaol and also Long Kesh. This cooperation eventually developed into a scheme supported by the UVF, UDA, PIRA, OIRA and the INLA that if left to develop on its own may have led to some sort of compromise settlement (This is an arguable point, but one that you need to consider.) We will deal with this more in class and discussions of why the political leadership failed in the UVF and why this initiative failed. This is the question you will deal with in this section.
Go to Courseweb - Primary documents -camp council documents by Colin Crawford to read these documents and see what went on inside Long Kesh. As I said above, the question you must ask yourself and we will deal with in class is why this scheme and cooperation failed. We will see many reasons for this. One is the UVF found itself under attack within its own community, the PIRA leadership outside Long Kesh did not support the scheme, and elements within the British, Irish and Northern Ireland establishments actively worked to undercut this cooperation. I would argue that "Criminalization" was one of the ways the authorities destroyed this possible peace process. In fact, David Ervine once argued that Criminalization set back the Peace Process by 20 years. Go to Courseweb Audio Files and then David Ervine to listen to Prison and the Peace Process and Republicanism in Long Kesh for more on this.
Watch a documentary on Long Kesh and the Maze. The earliest part of the documentary talks about the Camp Council.
Long Kesh
Former IRA and UVF Prisoner revisit Long Kesh
If you are struggling to understand the Prison Experience and how it changed people watch American History X. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6jCuiRjg4Q (You can watch online for $3.00)
Primary Documents: These are crucial documents that you should download and read. They give you a very different view of the UVF and what they tried to do in the 1970s.
Below are documents from the 1970s and 1980s, from the UVF and its political representatives, the VPP and the PUP. Although the VPP collapsed after a year and the PUP remains small, they represent the progressive thinking within certain elements of the UVF.
Highly Recommended: Principles of Loyalism by Billy Mitchell. To understand Progressive Loyalism you need to read this.
Different Peace Processes:
One point that you should also take from this Unit is that the Loyalist reassessment was very different from the IRAs. Where, as you have seen, the IRA embarked on a reassessment for the purpose of winning the war, the Loyalists embarked on a peace process in order to end the war with a compromise peace. This is not to say one was better than the other, it represents where each group stood in this period. The IRA believed it could win the war and then there would be peace and harmony. The Progressive Loyalists of this period believed that Catholics had a legitimate grievance, see Ervine's video on "Stinking Polluted Politics," and so they moved to arguing for some form of power sharing and compromise in the 1970s. (Note: In this they were far ahead of their own community and it took 20 more years to achieve a convergence.) However, as long as the IRA continued the war, Loyalism would strike back. Spence's speeches are key to the thinking here as are the Combat Articles listed above.
In essence, what you see from the last four units including this one is the following:
The British trying to find the "Great Middle Ground" in Northern Ireland and Failing
The British trying to cripple and destroy the IRA and nearly succeeding
The IRA reorganizing after its near defeat and adding the political struggle to its arsenal.
The unexpected emergence of Sinn Fein as a consequence of the Hunger Strikes.
The emergence, from Sinn Fein, of socialist politics after 1981.
Loyalism's move towards conciliation and compromise in the 1970s and embracing or at least trying out politics.
What else you should keep in mind is that Loyalism attempted compromise politics much earlier than the Provisional IRA, and attempted to move forward politically in the 1970s, whereas the Provisional IRA, really had no political thinking or program, other than Unification and Eire Nua, until the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the ascendancy of Adams and McGuinness in the Northern Leadership.
Study Questions
Explain why the UDA in the 1980s began to think in terms of an “Independent Ulster” and what type of change that represented for this organization.
Explain how “Common Sense” represented a step forward for Loyalism towards political accommodation. Also, consider how this document would be received by the British and Irish governments and also the Nationalist/Republican community.
Explain the process of the dawning of political awareness within the UVF in prison. How was it different from the IRA’s? How was it similar?Consider the developments within the UVF in prison and think about what their political import would be.
Analyze the PUP Manifesto. Explain how this document could be the basis for a settlement in Northern Ireland.
When going through these sections, be aware that we are not dealing with the “Constitutional” Unionist parties, but instead those small parties that represented those who fought the war. Then answer why this is more important, especially in this period, for understanding how the military struggle could be transformed into the political struggle.
Be able to explain and analyze how Gusty Spence’s regime and actions challenged the UVF to a rethink of the conflict.
Explain how and why after the reassessment both the UDA under McMichael and the UVF under Spence rejected not only a United Ireland but also a return to the Stormont Regime of 1922-1972.
Analyze the role education and the contacts made and the cooperation among Loyalist and Republican prisoners could have on the eventual peace process.
Terms and People to Know for this Unit
John McMichael
Gusty Spence
David Ervine
Spence University
NUPRG (New Ulster Political Research Group)
UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence)
Billy Hutchinson