The Ulster Service Corps (USC) was a

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 ...

vigilante group with a paramilitary structure active in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

in the late 1970s. Although short-lived it briefly had a sizeable membership. One of a number of small independent loyalist paramilitary groups active in the mid 1970s, alongside the

Orange Volunteers The Orange Volunteers (OV) or Orange Volunteer Force (OVF) is a small Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1998 by loyalists who opposed the Belfast Agreement and the loyalist ceasefires. Over the following ye ...

Ulster Volunteer Service Corps The Ulster Volunteer Service Corps (UVSC) was an Ulster loyalist vigilante and paramilitary movement active in Northern Ireland during the early 1970s. Initially the steward group for the Ulster Vanguard (later the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Pa ...

Down Orange Welfare Down Orange Welfare was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary vigilante group active in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Operating in rural areas of County Down, the group faded after failing to win support away from larger groups such as the Ulster De ...

and the

Ulster Special Constabulary Association The Ulster Special Constabulary Association (USCA) was a loyalist group active in Northern Ireland during the early 1970s. The group was established following the dissolution of the Ulster Special Constabulary (commonly known as the B Specials) a ...

(USCA), the USC was the largest of these minor groups.Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand'', Oxford University Press, 1992, p. xii Made up of former members of the

Ulster Special Constabulary The Ulster Special Constabulary (USC; commonly called the "B-Specials" or "B Men") was a quasi-military reserve special constable police force in what would later become Northern Ireland. It was set up in October 1920, shortly before the par ...

it retained much of that organisation's structure and enjoyed strong support in some rural areas of

. Most of those who established the group had been members of the USCA, which had disbanded around a year before the establishment of the USC.Henry Patterson, Eric P. Kaufmann, ''Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945: The Decline of the Loyal Family'', Manchester University Press, 2007, p. 185 The group was established in 1976 by the United Unionist Action Council, a sub-committee of the

United Ulster Unionist Council The United Ulster Unionist Council (also known as the United Ulster Unionist Coalition) was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland. Formation The UUUC was established in Januar ...

(UUUC).W.D. Flackes & Sydney Elliott, ''Northern Ireland A Political Directory 1968-1993'', The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 336 It had links to the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots heritage. It also ...

and held meetings at Orange halls but the Order decided against establishing any formal links with the USC, instead continuing to encourage its members to join the official security forces rather than vigilante groups. During early 1977 it set up roadblocks in parts of

County Londonderry County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

and

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

and also claimed to have spent time observing

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...

"safe houses" in order to collect data on them. During its roadblocks and related patrols some members of the USC carried guns, although these were generally legally held firearms. During a speech in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First ...

even claimed that he had participated in these patrols and both he and

Ernest Baird Ernest Baird (1930 – September 2003) was a politician in Northern Ireland. Baird was born in County Donegal in the Irish Free State but moved with his family to Belfast at an early age. A pharmacist and political unionist, Baird became the de ...

promoted the USC and encouraged their supporters to seek membership of the group. Baird hoped that he could use the USC as his private army in the event of civil unrest resulting from the UUAC strike of 1977. Its relationship with the security forces was complicated and subject to a number of counter-claims. The

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...

claimed that the group was involved in collusion with the

Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements,Potter p25 their offi ...

(UDR) and that the two groups even conducted joint patrols in Mid-Ulster. The USC itself confirmed that it worked with members of both the UDR and the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...

although the security forces strenuously denied that any such activity took place. A number of its members were brought to court for public order offences and it was condemned by the government, who accused the group of wasting time by forcing them to divert much needed security forces away from their activities in order to deal with USC roadblocks and obstruction. Nonetheless its claims to be purely a defensive organisation were accepted and, as was the case with the

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 ...

at the time, no attempt was made to ban the group. The fate of the USC is unclear although the failure of the 1977 strike saw the collapse of the UUUC and an end to the Baird-Paisley alliance.Flackes & Elliott, ''Northern Ireland'', p. 346

References

{{Reflist Paramilitary organisations based in Northern Ireland 1976 establishments in Northern Ireland Ulster loyalist militant groups