De-proscription of unlawful organisations (added May 2018)
Declassified 1974 NIO discussion doc on de-proscription of UVF and Sinn Fein. The juxtaposition of Sinn Fein (as opposed to the IRA) with the UVF tells us much about British government attitudes to loyalist paramilitary organisations. At the time the UDA remained legal and it would be another 18 years before London finally accepted that the UFF was nothing more...
Ministerial Memo- role of RUC in interrogation of "Hooded Men"
Memo outlining the details of a meeting between the Secretary of Sate for Northern Ireland and the Minister of State, the General Officer Commanding (Army), Private Under Secretary, Chief of General Staff and Chief of Defence Staff dated 20th October 1971. Discussion of how to get around the difficulties that the interrogations were carried out by RUC Special Branch, not...
"SECURITY FORCE" ACCESS TO ACTIVE UDA "TERRORISTS" USEFUL
In this June 1981 memo, a NIO official calls to mind a concern expressed by the Northern Ireland Secretary, Humphrey Atkins, that banning the UDA would deprive the "security forces" of the access they had to its members "active in terrorism". Accordingly, "it would not be right at present to proscribe the UDA".