This note concerns the UVF only by this stage, 1979, Thatcher is the Prime Minister. In a hand written note she urged mention of the ‘Volunteer Ulster Defence Regiment (? Is that the name)’.
Letter from Secretary of State William Whitelaw to General Officer Commanding Harry Tuzo outlining criteria for internment orders and why loyalists 'may not fall' within the new Order.
The memo from the CLF (Commander Land Forces) to the CGS (Chief of the General Staff) shows that the military command were preparing for direct rule nine months before Stormont was abolished. It includes a fictional account of the "Battle for Belfast".
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...
CJ4-266 - Extract from document prepared by General Officer Commanding NI (GOC NI), Harry Tuzo, sent to SSNI Wm. Whitelaw on 9 July 1972
This document was sent in advance of the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire later that day. Tuzo anticipates its breakdown and writes of his plan for an all-out military offensive against the IRA. He proposed to deal with the threat of civil war being posed by the UDA by taking action against the IRA and by acquiescing in allowing UDA...