Ulster Constitution Defence Committee

The Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) was established in Northern Ireland in April 1966. The UCDC was the governing body of the loyalist Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV). The UCDC coordinated parades, counter demonstrations, and paramilitary activities, in order to maintain the status quo of the government, lead a campaign against the reforms of Terence O'Neill, and stymie the civil rights movement.

The fourth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, who began his term in 1963, was trying to modernize industry to stave off an economic depression. This modernization brought foreign industry to Northern Ireland and threatened the Protestant, Unionist, power base. The Unionists held 90 percent of the jobs but foreign industries were hiring Catholics, thus reducing the strength of the Protestants. In 1965, Terence O’Neill also invited and met with Sean Lemass, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, to promote economic cooperation. The Unionists regarded the Republic of Ireland as the enemy and a report from Brian McConnell, the Home Affairs Minister, said there was a new IRA campaign of subversion.

Ian Paisley, a fundamentalist Presbyterian who was politically active, joined the Orange Order and supported the Unionist Party platform. The fundamentalists were associated with ‘traditional Unionism,’ that supported the Protestant power base with its advantages in jobs, housing, and political power. The ecumenical, liberal movement within Protestantism was thought to be aligning with the political elite and with the Catholics, thereby threatening the advantages enjoyed by working-class Protestants. Ian Paisley’s attempt to put four candidates into an election ended up with him withdrawing them when he identified the need for an electoral machine to obtain votes in the Westminster general election.(Boulton 34)

Noel Doherty, a member of Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster since 1956, was also a printer who with Paisley formed the Puritan Printing Company and created the first edition of the Protestant Telegraph in May 1966. Doherty was a great admirer or Gusty Spence, a member of the Ulster Protestant Action. Spence was a much harder character who recreated the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in March 1966, just prior to the creation of the UCDC. Doherty would propose the political vehicle Ian Paisley needed but Doherty’s motives were more aligned with Spence than with Paisley. Doherty used his position of trust with Paisley and began to organise a network of the ‘Ulster Protestant Volunteer Corps’ about two months prior to the creation of the UCDC.

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