Real Ulster Freedom Fighters

Irish Political History series
Loyalism
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The Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, otherwise known as the Real UFF is a loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland.^[1][2]

There is debate whether this group does indeed exist, and academics - who manage the peace process rather than journalists who report it - provide much scepticism. The academic facts are:

• provisions in the PTA and EPA legislation, by which the Secretary of State can proscribe an Irish terrorist organisation, leaves this supposed group unproscribed by the government
• it has no senior names in its membership even from so-called hard-line or breakaway brigades
• it has no membership list or structure

^[3]

Many feel it is a construction by the Sunday tabloid press, or of self-serving factions within the intelligence services. Neither does it get credence on the streets of Belfast where the community does not believe it exists. From one's own research, "The Real what?" is the common reply you will get when asking those on the heartland of loyalism, Belfast's Newtownards Road. ^[4]

On the 24 July 2009 the Real UFF claimed responsibility for a pipe bomb attack on a house in Brantwood Gardens, Antrim. Five people narrowly escaped injury when the device exploded in the front garden of the property ^[5]. On the 25 September 2009 the Real UFF claimed responsibility for a small bomb, described as viable by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, left outside a house in the Fountain Lane area of Antrim ^[6].

Targets of the RUFF

The Real UFF has stated that they have drawn up a death list (or hit list) of individuals including:-

• Leadership council of the Ulster Defence Association
• Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair
• Alleged Special Branch agents William 'Mo' Courtney and north Belfast crime boss Jim Spence
• Suspected loyalist drug dealers
• Continuity and Real Irish Republican Army leaders.^[7]

References