Ulster Protestant Action

Ulster Protestant Action (UPA) was an Ulster loyalist and Protestant fundamentalist vigilante group in Northern Ireland that was founded in 1956 and reformed as the Protestant Unionist Party in 1966.

The group was founded at a special meeting at the Ulster Unionist Party's (UUP) offices in Glengall Street, Belfast, in 1956. Among the attendees were many loyalists who were to become major figures in the 1960s and 1970, such as Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal. The independent unionist MP Norman Porter also attended, but took no further part in the group. The meeting's declared purpose was to organise the defence of Ulster Protestant areas against anticipated Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity, based on the old Ulster Protestant Association immediately after the partition of Ireland in 1920, who organised assassination missions into Catholic areas of Belfast. The new body decided to call itself "Ulster Protestant Action", and the first year of its existence was taken up with the discussion of vigilante patrols, street barricades, and drawing up lists of IRA suspects in Belfast and rural areas.

The initial executive of the UPA consisted of John McQuade, Billy Spence, Charles McCullough, Richard Fenton, Frank Millar, Sammy Verner, Herbert Ditty, Bob Newman and Noel Doherty, with Paisley as an ex officio member.

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