Ulster's Defence Tradition
- part 2 -

By Robert K. Campbell
New Ulster, Spring, 1993

The next national Ulster militia was the famed Ulster Volunteer Force, created so that the Ulster Protestant nation could defend themselves against the threat of Irish Catholic nationalism and its English allies, including the Liberal government of the day. Officially established in January 1913, the UVF was organised into nine divisions, based on countries, which were in turn divided into regiments (like the German army but unlike the British army), then battalions, companies and platoons. Belfast City then raised a further four regiments. Apart from infantry, who formed the hulk of the militia, the UVF also possessed a pair of cavalry units - the Enniskillen and Ballymena Horse - a Medical Corps, a Nursing Corps, a Signalling and Dispatch Rider Corps and a Motor Car Corps. The existence of the Motor Car Corps indicated the modernity of thinking in the UVF.

Another area where the UVF was ahead of its time was in its use of women: they were not restricted to the Nursing Corps, but were also totally integrated into the Signalling and Dispatch Rider Corps. Recruits between the ages of 17 and 65 (though there were both under and overage volunteers who lied about their age) and command was vested in a retired English officer, Lt.-Gen. Sir George Richardson. In all the UVF numbered some 100,000 people, but its actual front line strength was just over 40,000, the number who bore arms.

Interestingly, the UVF was entirely legal: the law empowered two Justices of the Peace to authorize drilling and other military preparations in their jurisdiction, provided it was intended to uphold the constitution 'as now established', which is exactly what the UVF sought! The high level of efficiency achieved by the UVF was demonstrated in its famous gun-running operation in April 1914, centred on Lame. However, the Ulster crisis was overtaken by the First World War and the UVF as such never saw action, though volunteers from it formed the 36th (Ulster) Division that fought with such distinction on the Western Front. 10

The end of the Great War did not mean peace for Ireland. The Anglo-Irish War erupted in January 1919 and had spread to Ulster by early 1920. The IRA strategy, brilliantly conceived and ruthlessly executed, caused the collapse of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The British army, facing a totally new type of war which was based on revolutionary terrorism, failed to find an effective response. The people of Ulster found themselves without any meaningful protection from the literally murderous threat of the IRA. With the UVF no longer in existence, local unofficial militias were organised for self-defence.

One of these, at Lisbellaw, Co. Fermanagh, routed an IRA flying column on the night on 8-9 June 1920. Unable to provide security itself and faced by the creation of these unofficial self-defence forces of the British government agreed to the creation of an official national Ulster militia, the Ulster Special Constabulary.

The USC was divided into several different categories. Unlike all previous Ulster militias, the USC had a regular core - the full-timer of the 'A' category. Then there were the pan-timers of the 'B' category, who served in their home districts; the 'C' category, who served only occasionally and in static guard duties near their homes; and the 'C1' Specials, who formed the strategic reserve. The 'A' and 'B' Specials could be further suhdivided. About half of the 'A' men were assigned to duty in the police barracks and functioned as uniformed police. The other half were formed into some 44 motorized platoons, each with 67 officers and men, who functioned as soldiers. In the case of the 'B' men, those in Belfast City were trained and operated as police reservists, while those in the rest of the country served as territorial defence troops. The USC was commanded by a Chief Staff Officer, who reported to the Inspector-General of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (from 1922 on). It was the USC which saved Ulster from the IRA, 49 Specials of all categories being killed in the process.

Clearly, the USC, apart from the barracked 'A' men and the Belfast 'B' men and despite its 'Constabulary' title, was really a military service, an Ulster army. But it could not be called that, for Ulster was not a sovereign state and Britain, unlike the United States, did not have a tradition of 'National Guard' service. This disparity between the title and the function caused (and still causes) much confusion; especially outside Ulster.

In addition, the USC was subjected to a fierce campaign of denigration by the Irish. However, just one fact indicates the basic falsity of this propaganda: the British government was forced to introduce a policy of official reprisals in the south of Ireland to disguise the fact that it had lost control of its own security forces, who weretaking reprisals anyway; this policy never had to be adopted in Northern Ireland, a clear confirmation of the superior discipline of the USC in comparison with the rest of the Crown Forces.

With the end of the war, the USC was severely cut; the 'A', 'C' and 'C1' Specials were all completely disbanded. This was because the Northern Ireland par]iament did not have the money to maintain them and London saw no purpose in paying for them. The Act which created Stormont had also hamstrung it financially by forbidding it to levy any significant taxes (unlike, for example, the states of the USA). But the 'B' Specials were retained, as they were cheap and of proven effectiveness. In 1924 they had an establishment of 19,950, including a tiny full-time component to provide essential command and instructional cadres.

The 'B' Specials had to be maintained because of the continued existence of the IRA. Though there were no serious incidents in Ulster for some 11 years, outrages against the government of William Cosgrave in the Irish Free State occurred in 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927 (including the murder of Minister of Justice Kevin O'Higgins) and 1931.

The new administration of Eamonn De Valera 'unbanned' the IRA in 1932 and permitted it to organise openly. This was followed by the revival of IRA activity in Ulster: in October 1933, an RUC man was shot dead in Belfast and in a separate incident, a Unionist MP was wounded. Early 1934 saw an IRA raid which stole 16 'B' Special rifles in Co. Antrim; that year also saw sectarian clashes in Belfast. Worse sectarian violence occurred in Belfast in 1935 and the IRA was active in it: of the 12 people killed, 8 were Protestants, shot by the IRA.

these terrible days were the USC'S finest hour
... they maintained discipline...

In addition to this, there were explicit threats from the Free State: in March 1934 Sean O'Kelly, Vice-President of the Free State Executive, said: We will use every effon to establish a Republic for the thrity-two counties of Ireland. That is our aim and if the gun is necessary, the people have the Government to direct the army, and they have the volunteer force behind them.

O'Kelly made a similar speech in 1936; neither was ever repudiated by the Irish government. Despite being banned again in the Free State in 1936 (De Valera had concluded they had become a threat to his own position), the IRA remained active in Ulster during 1937,1938 and 1939.This last year also saw the IRA bombing campaign in Britain. On the very day that the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany (3 September 1939), the IRA shot and wounded a soldier in Belfast."

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