The U.D.A.

THE Protestant counterpart of the I.R.A. is the Ulster Defense Association, a formidably organized group of street-fighting soldiers who wear masks, combat jackets, British army chevrons and shoulder pips. Self-proclaimed saviors of Ulster's "Prods," they carry clubs and boast of having an arsenal of automatic pistols, rifles, submachine guns and grenades. As a group, U.D.A. members are mostly young and working-class; many are British army veterans, others graduates of the tough Tartan gangs. From Belfast, TIME'S London Bureau Chief Curtis Prendergast filed this report on their activities:

The Shankill district is a Protestant Bogside, barricaded and bellicose. Just off the Shankill Road, past a checkpoint of steel pipe driven into the pavement, is the headquarters of C Company, Ulster Defense Association. P:Company patrols, some riding Land Rovers, mount round-the-clock guard over the area's narrow back streets. From C Company headquarters, a two-way radio network keeps the patrols in contact, while a clandestine broadcasting station--named Radio Free Nick, for nearby Nixon Street--keeps up local residents' morale with pop-record requests and Orange marching songs. P:Company is one of eleven U.D.A. units in Belfast. The U.D.A. claims it has 37,000 men in Northern Ireland, and the number may eventually swell to 60,000. For all its size, the U.D.A. has not displayed its weaponry openly in the streets yet, although 16 men (not yet officially identified as U.D.A.) were arrested while driving around the streets of Belfast carrying shotguns.

Last week, after the I.R.A. called off its ceasefire, the U.D.A. threatened to become the "Ulster Offensive Association" and to "take steps to eliminate the terrorists from this country" if William Whitelaw, Britain's proconsul in Northern Ireland, does not. In one U.D.A. office, I was shown purported I.R.A. lists, giving names, addresses and, in some cases, brief physical descriptions of members of the Catholic underground.

U.D.A. leaders insist that they are not seeking confrontation with the British army. "We couldn't tackle the British army as regards firepower," a company commander admitted. "But if the British army wasn't here, we could look after ourselves." The U.D.A.'s objectives, its leaders claim, are political, not military. They want to pressure Whitelaw by challenging British authority in the U.D.A.'s barricaded areas until he orders British troops to clean out the I.R.A. sanctuaries of Bogside and Creggan in so-called "Free Derry." As a slap at the British, the U.D.A. has set up free zones of its own. A sign in the U.D.A.-controlled area of Belfast reads:

YOU ARE NOW ENTERING FREE WOODVALE. Four such areas in Belfast, plus one in Londonderry, are now permanently "nogo" for British troops, with entry blocked by steel girders, cement slabs, or masked U.D.A. men.

Two weeks ago, 8,000 U.D.A. men massed to extend one of Belfast's barricaded areas and were met by British troops. Fortunately for both sides, a compromise was worked out. Said one U.D.A. commander afterward: "If anyone had told me a year ago that we'd have 8,000 men standing eyeball to eyeball with the British army in the pouring rain, and then say 'All right, you're going home,' and the men went home, I wouldn't have believed it. The determination of these men, properly channeled, can do a lot."

Ulster Protestant politicians know this only too well and are rushing to woo the U.D.A. The love is not returned, however. The U.D.A. is a working-class movement and wants no truck with Unionist politicians who "let the Ulster people down." What the U.D.A. really fears is Ulster's being "sold out" to a united Ireland--and it swears it will fight that prospect to the death.

Most U.D.A. leaders insist on anonymity and refuse to let their pictures be taken by newsmen. An exception is Dave Fogel, 27, a tough, salty Londoner and ex-soldier in the British army who commands the Woodvale Defense Association. "My business now?" asks Fogel bitterly. "I'm the one in eight unemployed in Northern Ireland." Fogel is contemptuous of the middle-class politicians who dominate the Unionist Party. His view of a local Unionist M.P., who was seeking his vote: "He was wearing a mohair suit. There are no mohair suits around here. His face was brown as the wood over the mantel. My face is lily white because I can't go off to the Bahamas on a holiday. I chased him down the bleedin' street."

What about the argument of Catholic Firebrand Bernadette Devlin that there could be a natural political alliance linking deprived Protestants and Catholics alike? Some day, concedes Fogel, but settling scores comes first. "I make no bones about it. If any people who look to me for protection are found with a bullet in their head or a bullet in the back, the consequences will be the severest I can imagine. I cannot allow people to go unavenged."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.