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The Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) was an Ulster loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast, an area immediately to the north of the Shankill Road.
The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups. It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street, a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some birds. Sources differ on its actual date of foundation; many claim it was founded in 1969, around the same time as the Shankill Defence Association, which covered a neighbouring area, but Ian Wood's detailed study of the Ulster Defence Association dates its origin to June 1970, when a loyalist pipe band on the
The Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) was an Ulster loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast, an area immediately to the north of the Shankill Road.
The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups. It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street, a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some birds. Sources differ on its actual date of foundation; many claim it was founded in 1969, around the same time as the Shankill Defence Association, which covered a neighbouring area, but Ian Wood's detailed study of the Ulster Defence Association dates its origin to June 1970, when a loyalist pipe band on the Springfield Road
The Springfield Road ( ga, Bóthar Chluanaí) is a residential area and road traffic thoroughfare adjacent to the Falls Road in west Belfast. The local population is predominantly Irish nationalist and republican. Parts of the road form an int ...
was attacked by Catholic protesters, leading to a riot.Wood, Ian S., ''Crimes of loyalty: a history of the UDA'', pp.1–2
The WDA was initially led by Alan Moon, with Sammy Smyth acting as its main spokesman, although Moon was soon replaced by Harding Smith. Initial membership of the WDA was primarily middle-aged and disinclined to take violent action. However, Davy Fogel
David "Davy" Fogel, also known as "Big Dave" (born 1945), was a former loyalist and a leading member of the loyalist vigilante Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) which later merged with other groups becoming the Ulster Defence Association (UDA ...
interrupted an early meeting to call for members to receive military training. Harding Smith instructed him to start this, members bringing both legally held guns and dummy weapons.
In 1971, many local loyalist groups merged to form the Ulster Defence Association. Its core components were the Woodvale and the Shankill Defence Associations, the Woodvale organisation being the largest of its forerunners. The new organisation was a loose confederation, and the Woodvale group continued to publish a newsletter, the ''WDA News''. Its 1 May 1972 issue carried a notorious article justifying genocide
''Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler'' is a 2016 book by Stefan Ihrig which explores how violence against the Ottoman Armenians, from the Hamidian massacres to the Armenian genocide, influenced German views and ...
against Roman Catholics and calling for racial purity. When the UDA was restructured, the WDA became its "B" Company.
Several leading members of the UDA started out in the WDA, including Jim Anderson, Davy Payne
H. David "Davy" Payne (c. 1949 – March 2003) was a senior Northern Irish loyalist and a high-ranking member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during the Troubles, serving as brigadier of the North Belfast Brigade. He was first in com ...
, Ernie Elliott and John White.Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, ''UDA: inside the heart of Loyalist terror'', p.55
References
{{Ulster Defence Association, state=collapsed History of Belfast The Troubles in Belfast Ulster Defence Association Vigilantes