Northern Irish
Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...
loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
paramilitary who served as the Chief of Staff on the
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaig ...
's Brigade Staff (UVF) from 1966 until his internment in late 1973.
UVF leadership
Following the imprisonment of UVF leader
Gusty Spence
Augustus Andrew Spence (28 June 1933 . ''
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
military service, Spence also being a former
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
soldier.Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF'', Poolbeg, 1997, p. 21 McClelland had lied about his age in order to enlist in the
Royal Ulster Rifles
The Royal Irish Rifles (became the Royal Ulster Rifles from 1 January 1921) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army, first created in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot and the 86th (Royal County ...
.Ed Moloney, ''Voice from the Grave'', Faber & Faber, 2010, p. 334
Like Spence, McClelland was also a native of the
Shankill Road
The Shankill Road () is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill.
The road stretches westwards for about from central Belfast a ...
and had a reputation as a disciplinarian. He sought to continue Spence's work by keeping together the few UVF members left and slowly adding to their number. In keeping with Spence's ideals, he sought to lead the UVF as if it were a regular army, and based their internal structure loosely on that of the British Army in which both men had served. He shared with Spence a belief that the UVF should keep a small, tightly organised membership and as such did not compete with the burgeoning
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and Timeline of Ulster Defence Association act ...
(UDA) for either membership or public profile. Nonetheless, the late 1960s were characterised by UVF inertia, in part because as Officer Commander McClelland had little personal power and had to enact policies that he received from Spence when he visited him in prison.
Tara
In an effort to access any weapons it might have possessed, and to seek possible political guidance, McClelland and the UVF infiltrated the loyalist movement Tara, and under his leadership the two groups associated on the Shankill.Cusack & McDonald, ''UVF'', pp. 94–96 McClelland was even "commissioned" as an officer of Tara, although many in the UVF were uncomfortable with the group's insistence on emphasising a
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
cultural mission alongside loyalism.Cusack & McDonald, ''UVF'', p. 96 The relationship deteriorated in early 1971 when a number of people, including an unnamed unionist politician, contacted McClelland to inform him of Tara leader William McGrath's homosexuality and to claim that McGrath had only started the movement in order to "pick up" young men.
Roy Garland
Roy Garland is a newspaper columnist for the nationalist ''Irish News'' and a member of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Career
In the 1960s, Garland became convinced that the Northern Ireland civil rights movement was a front for the IRA and Roman Cat ...
stated that McClelland confronted McGrath about the allegations and at a stormy meeting burnt the Tara ledger containing the names of his UVF members and left their headquarters.Cusack & McDonald, ''UVF'', p. 95 By this time it had also become clear that Tara had little weaponry to speak of and few independent members and as such the link had become largely pointless anyway.
Later years
McClelland was interned in late 1973 along with a number of other leading figures in the UVF.Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand: Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland'', Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 117 By this point, however, ''de facto'' leadership of the UVF lay with Jim Hanna rather than McClelland"Dublin and Monaghan bombings: Cover-up and incompetence". page 1. ''Politico''. Joe Tiernan. 3 May 2007 /ref> whilst he had been succeeded as Officer Commander by Tommy West.