Tara

Irish Political History series
Loyalism
Key ideas/documents Unionism Ulster nationalism Monarchism Protestant fundamentalism Armed resistance Ulster Covenant Government of Ireland Act Parties Progressive Unionist Party Ulster Democratic Party Ulster Vanguard Volunteer Political Party Paramilitaries Ulster Volunteer Force Ulster Defence Association Real Ulster Freedom Fighters Loyalist Volunteer Force Orange Volunteers Red Hand Commandos Red Hand Defenders Ulster Protestant Volunteers Ulster Resistance Ulster Young Militants Young Citizen Volunteers CLMC UCDC ULCCC Other Organisations Loyalist Association of Workers Peep O'Day Boys Tara Ulster Political Research Group Ulster Protestant Action Ulster Workers Council Cultural "The Twelfth" Apprentice Boys of Derry Orange Institution Royal Black Institution Songs Billy Boys Derry's Walls God Save the Queen The Sash Symbols and Flags Coat of arms of Northern Ireland Orange order flag Red Hand of Ulster Ulster Banner Union Flag Other movements Anarchism {{IrishA}} Monarchism {{IrishM}} Nationalism {{IrishN}} Republicanism {{IrishR}} Unionism {{IrishU}}
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Tara was a loyalist movement in Northern Ireland that espoused a brand of evangelical Protestantism.

The group was first formed in 1966 by William McGrath from an independent Orange lodge that he controlled.^[1] It was intended as an outlet for virulent anti-Catholicism, with it claimed that the group endorsed British Israelism as it sometimes claimed that Ulster Protestant were descendants of the Lost tribe of Israel.^[1] The group espoused a form of historical revisionism, arguing that the early inhabitants of Ireland were Scots or Picts, whilst also utilisng Gaelic terms and symbols.^[2]

A short-lived alliance with the Ulster Volunteer Force was attempted and Roy Garland, a leading Orangeman in the 60s and 70s, and now an author, was one of Tara's members who worked closely with the UVF for a time.^[3] As a movement Tara sought to establish a Protestant Northern Ireland in which law and order would be paramount and Catholicism would be outlawed.^[1] Tara viewed Catholics as being in a grand conspiracy with communism and felt that a conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was inevitable. As a result members of Tara were expected to be proficient in weapon use and were encouraged to join the security forces.^[2]

Tara failed to attract much interest as its ideas were too esoteric for most loyalists. McGrath and his deputy John McKeague (also a leading member of the Red Hand Commandos) were both members of the Free Presbyterian Church,^[4] although the influence of Tara did not spread far beyond sections of this church. Indeed the group was known to spread rumours about senior unionist figures whom it felt were too moderate.^[1] A 1981 arms find damaged the group whilst McGrath had already been caught up in the Kincora House scandal.^[5] The movement faded soon afterwards.

References

External links

• Tara's 1973 declaration
• CAIN entry on Tara