Gareth Mulvenna
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781781383261
- eISBN:
- 9781786944061
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781383261.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries is a new oral history of the loyalist backlash of the early 1970s in Northern Ireland. In the violent maelstrom of Belfast in 1971 and 1972 many young members of ...
More
Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries is a new oral history of the loyalist backlash of the early 1970s in Northern Ireland. In the violent maelstrom of Belfast in 1971 and 1972 many young members of loyalist youth gangs known as ‘Tartans’ converged with fledgling paramilitary groups such as the Red Hand Commando, Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers. This fresh account focuses on the manner in which the loyalist community in Belfast reacted to an increasingly vicious Provisional IRA campaign and explores the violent role that young loyalist men played in the period from 1970 – 1975. Through the use of unique one-on-one interviews former members of Tartan gangs and loyalist paramilitaries explain what motivated them to cross the Rubicon from gang activity to paramilitaries. The book utilises a wide range of sources such as newspaper articles, loyalist newssheets, coroners’ inquest reports and government memorandums to provide the context for a dynamic new study of the emergence of loyalist paramilitarism.Less
Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries is a new oral history of the loyalist backlash of the early 1970s in Northern Ireland. In the violent maelstrom of Belfast in 1971 and 1972 many young members of loyalist youth gangs known as ‘Tartans’ converged with fledgling paramilitary groups such as the Red Hand Commando, Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers. This fresh account focuses on the manner in which the loyalist community in Belfast reacted to an increasingly vicious Provisional IRA campaign and explores the violent role that young loyalist men played in the period from 1970 – 1975. Through the use of unique one-on-one interviews former members of Tartan gangs and loyalist paramilitaries explain what motivated them to cross the Rubicon from gang activity to paramilitaries. The book utilises a wide range of sources such as newspaper articles, loyalist newssheets, coroners’ inquest reports and government memorandums to provide the context for a dynamic new study of the emergence of loyalist paramilitarism.
Gareth Mulvenna
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781781383261
- eISBN:
- 9781786944061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781383261.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Chapter Four continues from the second half of 1971, highlighting the increasing fear among journalists and politicians that the Tartan gangs were more than mere hooligans. As violence increased, the ...
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Chapter Four continues from the second half of 1971, highlighting the increasing fear among journalists and politicians that the Tartan gangs were more than mere hooligans. As violence increased, the Tartans began to receive growing support among the adult population in Protestant working-class communities. In this chapter the oral histories describe the first experimentations by many of the young loyalists in paramilitary activity in late 1971 and early 1972 and how the loyalist paramilitary response related to the perceived defence of Protestant working-class communities.Less
Chapter Four continues from the second half of 1971, highlighting the increasing fear among journalists and politicians that the Tartan gangs were more than mere hooligans. As violence increased, the Tartans began to receive growing support among the adult population in Protestant working-class communities. In this chapter the oral histories describe the first experimentations by many of the young loyalists in paramilitary activity in late 1971 and early 1972 and how the loyalist paramilitary response related to the perceived defence of Protestant working-class communities.
Conor Mulvagh
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099267
- eISBN:
- 9781526115164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099267.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines how the First World War transformed the leadership of the IPP. John Redmond’s unilateral declarations regarding the Irish Volunteer force – a nationalist alternative to the ...
More
This chapter examines how the First World War transformed the leadership of the IPP. John Redmond’s unilateral declarations regarding the Irish Volunteer force – a nationalist alternative to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force – caused tensions, specifically with John Dillon. Redmond’s pledge of the force to Home Defence and subsequently to full participation in the war effort signalled a radical realignment of policy. It builds upon a historiographical tradition that sees the First World War as the defining moment in modern Irish history. It examines the ways in which the Irish party were called upon to assist in wartime recruitment and how the war began a stagnation of the Home Rule movement which had appeared to achieve its goals in September of 1914 with the signing of the Home Rule Bill into law. By mid-1915, correspondence shows that Redmond and Dillon had patched up their differences, at least to the extent that they could find a modus vivendi.Less
This chapter examines how the First World War transformed the leadership of the IPP. John Redmond’s unilateral declarations regarding the Irish Volunteer force – a nationalist alternative to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force – caused tensions, specifically with John Dillon. Redmond’s pledge of the force to Home Defence and subsequently to full participation in the war effort signalled a radical realignment of policy. It builds upon a historiographical tradition that sees the First World War as the defining moment in modern Irish history. It examines the ways in which the Irish party were called upon to assist in wartime recruitment and how the war began a stagnation of the Home Rule movement which had appeared to achieve its goals in September of 1914 with the signing of the Home Rule Bill into law. By mid-1915, correspondence shows that Redmond and Dillon had patched up their differences, at least to the extent that they could find a modus vivendi.
