Ulster Protestant Action (UPA) was an

Ulster loyalist Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a u ...

political party and Protestant fundamentalist

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

group 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 ...

that was founded in 1956 and reformed as the

Protestant Unionist Party The Protestant Unionist Party (PUP)Not to be confused with the Progressive Unionist Party. was a unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1966 to 1971. It was the forerunner of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and emerge ...

in 1966.

Founding

The group was founded at a special meeting at the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

's (UUP) offices in Glengall Street,

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, 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 Ulster Protestants ( ga, Protastúnaigh Ultach) are an ethnoreligious group in the Irish province of Ulster, where they make up about 43.5% of the population. Most Ulster Protestants are descendants of settlers who arrived from Britain in the ...

areas against anticipated

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

(IRA) activity, based on the old Ulster Protestant Association immediately after the

partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...

in 1920. 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.

Change in focus

Even though no IRA threat materialised in Belfast, and despite it becoming clear that the IRA's activities during the Border Campaign were to be limited to the border areas, Ulster Protestant Action remained in being. Factory and workplace branches were formed under the UPA, including one by Paisley in Belfast's Ravenhill area under his direct control. The concern of the UPA increasingly came to focus on the defence of "Bible Protestantism" and Protestant interests where jobs and housing were concerned.See Wood, Ian S., 'The IRA's Border Campaign' p.123 in Anderson, Malcolm and Eberhard Bort, ed. 'Irish Border: History, Politics, Culture'. Liverpool University Press. 1999

Venture into politics

Although initially opposed to professional politicians, specifically banning them from membership of the group, the UPA stood the former Belfast City Councillor and superintendent of an independent gospel mission, Albert Duff, against

Brian Maginess William Brian Maginess, QC (10 July 1901 – 16 April 1967), was a member of the Government of Northern Ireland, who was widely seen as a possible successor to The 1st Viscount Brookeborough as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Life He was ...

Iveagh Iveagh ( ; ) is the name of several historical territorial divisions in what is now County Down, Northern Ireland. Originally it was a Gaelic Irish territory, ruled by the ''Uí Echach Cobo'' and part of the overkingdom of Ulaid. From the 12th ...

at the

1958 Northern Ireland general election The 1958 Northern Ireland general election was called on 27 February by 1st Viscount Brookeborough to be held on 20 March 1958. Like all previous elections to the Parliament of Northern Ireland, it produced a large majority for the Ulster Uni ...

Clifford Smyth Clifford Smyth (born 1944) is a historian and former politician in Northern Ireland. Smyth stood for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in North Antrim in the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election, narrowly missing out on a seat. Following ...

, ''Ian Paisley: Voice of Protestant Ulster'', p.9 Maginess was perceived as being sympathetic to Catholics, having banned an Orange Order parade in 1952, and Duff was able to take 41.5% of the vote, although he failed to win the seat. Duff was more successful in May 1958, when he regained a seat on Belfast City Council, with Charles McCullough also taking a seat for the UPA, while, in 1960, Boal won the Belfast Shankill constituency at Stormont as an official UUP candidate.

Split with Paisley

As Paisley came to dominate Ulster Protestant Action, he received his first convictions for public order offences. In June 1959, a major riot occurred on 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 ...

in Belfast following a rally he had spoken at. His moves to form a Protestant unionist political party caused tensions in the group, and Paisley's supporters formed their own "Premier" branch of the UPA, reinforcing their control of the group.

Campaign against Terence O'Neill

In the 1960s, Paisley and the UPA campaigned against

Prime Minister of Northern Ireland The prime minister of Northern Ireland was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920; however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as with governo ...

Terence O'Neill Terence Marne O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of the Maine, PC (NI) (10 September 1914 – 12 June 1990), was the fourth prime minister of Northern Ireland and leader (1963–1969) of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). A moderate unionist, who sought ...

's ''rapprochement'' with the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

and his meetings with

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...

of the Republic,

Seán Lemass Seán Francis Lemass (born John Francis Lemass; 15 July 1899 – 11 May 1971) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1959 to 1966. He also served as Tánaiste from 1957 to 1959, 1951 to 1954 ...

, a veteran of the Easter Rising of 1916 and the

anti-Treaty IRA The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...

. They opposed efforts by O'Neill to deliver

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

to the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland, especially the proposed abolition of

gerrymander In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

ing of local electoral areas for the election of urban and county councils. In 1964 his demand that the Royal Ulster Constabulary remove an

Irish Tricolour The national flag of Ireland ( ga, bratach na hÉireann), frequently referred to in Ireland as 'the tricolour' () and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour is a vertical tricolour of green (at the hoist), white and orange. The proportions of the ...

from

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

's Belfast offices led to two days of rioting after this was followed through. In the aftermath of these protests, Duff and James McCarroll were elected to Belfast City Council for the UPA.Ed Moloney and Andrew Pollak, ''Paisley'', p.100 In 1966, the group reformed as the Protestant Unionist Party.

References

{{DUP, state=collapsed 1956 establishments in Northern Ireland 1966 disestablishments in Northern Ireland Far-right politics in Northern Ireland History of Northern Ireland Organizations established in 1956 Organizations disestablished in 1966 Ulster loyalist militant groups Vigilantes