What was once dismissed as a conspiracy theory has been proven fact after it was revealed that the main weapons supplier to Loyalist death squads in the North of Ireland for the duration of the Troubles was the British army.
Former civil servant Micheál Smith reveals the British government was aware of collusion between the Ulster Defence Regiment and the sectarian terror organizations the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association since the early 1970s.
“The flow of weapons from the UDR to the UDA in the early days was stunning,” Micheál Smith, told the Sunday World.
“The extent of weapons losses from UDR armouries, or from the homes of UDR personnel, amounted to a steady flow of modern military equipment from the British Army straight into the hands of loyalist gangs.
“Most significantly, the Subversion in the UDR report found that the UDR was the single ‘best’ source of weapons for loyalist gangs, and their ‘only significant source of modern weapons’.”
Mr. Smith published the book following three years of detailed research of unsealed British government and Ministry of Defence files which revealed the first references to collusion appeared as early as 1971, the year of the UDR’s founding.
Many British army soldiers in the UDR were also members loyalist terrorist groups and involved in numerous atrocities including the Miami Showband Massacre while others formed the murderous “Glenanne Gang” along with thugs from the RUC and UVF.
At least one member of Lenny Murphy’s Shankhill Butchers gang was a UDR soldier and the gang of psychopaths, who would attack, torture and murder random civilians they believed, sometimes falsely, were Catholics enjoyed the cooperation of the British army regiment.
Explaining how the horrific situation came about the six counties Mr Smith said:
“The British brought their colonial expertise to Northern Ireland. Wherever they’ve been around the world they have sought out loyal elements in the local population and recruited them for their cause,” said the author.
“Very much a case of divide and conquer.”
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