Paramilitaries, peace, and politics: Ulster loyalists and the 1994 truce

Abstract

In 1994, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) called a ceasefire and the two loyalist paramilitary organizations (the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association) reciprocated. This article examines loyalist thinking just prior to and since the ceasefires and considers the prospects for the Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Democratic Party, the fringe political parties associated with the loyalist paramilitaries.