SUMMARY

Catholics and Protestants have a long history of animosity in Northern Ireland. Irish Catholics of Northern Ireland have been fighting for a reunion with Ireland and British Protestants fighting to maintain the status quo. The conflict escalated during the 1970s when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) intensified their battle attacking police and military as well as politicians and civilians. The Protestant loyalist group Ulster Defence Association (UDA) together with other paramilitary groups started avenging the republican attacks, carrying out tit-for-tat killings.

The main targets of UDA have been civilian Catholics, who often have been shot in their homes, workplaces, or in local pubs. The victims seem to have been selected randomly based on their religion as there have been many cases where Protestants have been killed as the perpetrators “thought the victim was Catholic”. Among the civilians killed, taxi drivers have been a reoccurring target for UDA attacks. UDA has been operating all over Northern Ireland, although the majority of the violence has taken place in Belfast.

UDA first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1993, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in October that year when UDA opened fire in a bar in Greysteel village and killed eight civilians.