Fortieth Anniversary of Disbanding of B-Specials and Formation of UDR

Part of Private Members’ Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 6:15 pm on 24 May 2010.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord Maurice Morrow Lord Maurice Morrow DUP 6:15, 24 May 2010

I have listened with interest to what Members have said in the debate. I am amazed at what some people can conjure up, some of the words that they can use and some of the actions that they seem to justify. I listened to the Sinn Féin/SDLP pan-nationalist front take a strident approach to the motion. On the one hand, those Members tell us that they are sincere. Indeed, Mr McGlone said that it was with reluctance that he took part in the debate. I look, however, at the petition of concern and I see Mr McGlone’s signature, proud and in bold print. Mr McGlone had already taken part in the debate long before it reached the Chamber. Therefore, I am not sure that his crocodile tears suit in this instance.

Had the SDLP and Sinn Féin been sincere, would it not have been much better for them to have shown some backbone and resolution by tabling an amendment or a motion that they thought could secure support from right around the House. That was not to be. Instead, they used the blunt instrument of a petition of concern to jettison the motion that stands in my name and in that of my colleague Mr Storey. The motion is a genuine attempt to recognise the services of people who have gone before us.

Although I should comment on much of what has been said in the debate, to comment on everything would be nigh on impossible within 10 minutes. I will, however, digress from the speech that I had prepared to comment on what Gerry Adams had to say. In his usual belligerent manner, Gerry Adams stated that, in fact, the USC and the UDR were just forces of a unionist Government. I know the howls of protest that come from that quarter when Gerry Adams is reminded that the IRA was just the wing, the cutting edge, of Sinn Féin. There are all sorts of protestations that, in fact, the two had nothing to do with each other. It just so happens, by chance, that a number of those who sit on the Benches opposite have records of which they should not be proud.

I want to put on record my profound respect for and gratitude to the Ulster Special Constabulary and its successor, the UDR. I can also stand here and say that I was a member of the Ulster Special Constabulary. I have no apology to make for that, nor did I ever have intent or murder in my heart when I went out on cold wintery nights. That was not in my make-up at all.

May 2010 marked a significant anniversary for the forces of law and order in Northern Ireland. It was the fortieth anniversary of both the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary and the formation of the UDR. In my book, both of those forces of the Crown stand tall and proud in the annals of history in Northern Ireland. Some of us are not prepared to allow that anniversary to pass by or their heroism or, indeed, their memory to be airbrushed from those annals.

The Ulster Special Constabulary was made up of ordinary men and women who wanted to serve their country. Their role was vital in the protection of people and property, in counter-insurgency, and in helping the noble RUC, as it was then, to deal with terrorism. Those who stood against terrorists are to be commended for their selflessness in the face of republican brutality. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

The shameful treatment that those heroes and heroines received from the Government in efforts to placate republicans is to be deplored. They were stood down on the alter of political expediency. They were vilified for their sterling work and painted as wrong-doers simply for upholding law and order. It is remarkable that a force of such integrity should be pushed to one side to facilitate militant republicanism, the real intent and goal of which has been discovered and made manifest over the past 35 years.

During the 40 years since the Ulster Special Constabulary was disbanded in 1970, some 3,600 people lost their lives. That is a powerful statement in itself. We are left to pick up the pieces and to wonder how many lives might have been saved had a reckless Government not made those treacherous and dreadful decisions. Similarly, many were cut down in their efforts to maintain civil society or while protecting others. They paid the supreme sacrifice for upholding law and order, but their memories live on forever.

After the USC was disbanded, the UDR was formed. I pay tribute to that regiment of gallant men and women who, through the worst period of our history, stood between sanity and insanity. Regrettably, many were called to pay the supreme sacrifice, and graveyards across the Province pay tribute to the real heroes. Visit practically any graveyard in any border town in particular and one will see the poignant gravestones that tell us a very sad story of how some of the finest of this country were taken out by ruthless thugs.

Those individuals were not afforded high-scale pay or anything like that; that was not why they found themselves in the forces; they did not go in to earn lots of money. They enlisted with a sense of duty and purpose to bring some sanity and to protect their homes and the homes of the whole community — and I mean the whole community. I know that there are those who are reluctant to accept that and those who have it in their minds that the B-Specials were some sort of terror organisation because of the propaganda machine that was in full flight at that time. Therefore, many of the facts have got lost in the myths and hypocrisy that have been trotted out, particularly by the republican movement.

The republican movement slaughtered the innocent and it took mothers from their children and left orphans behind, and, yet, sadly, the SDLP feels comfortable aligning itself with the petition of concern lodged today. Would it not have been better for the SDLP to state its own position clearly and to divorce itself completely from Sinn Féin, whose hands are anything but clean? The SDLP has missed a trick. Its members should have been man — or woman — enough to say to Sinn Féin that the SDLP is not prepared to join with it because of its past and its support for an organisation that was deemed the most ruthless in the western world. Today, however, the SDLP clasped hands with that party to vote down a legitimate motion.

Mr Storey warned us that he will not stand by and see the memory of those two organisations being airbrushed from history, and he is to be commended on that. John O’Dowd deliberately painted a picture that bore little resemblance to reality. Tom Elliott spoke as an experienced UDR soldier; he testified first-hand that he had protected not only the Protestant community but the Catholic community along a porous, difficult and dangerous border.

I commend Tom Buchanan, who made a superb speech today. Allan Bresland stands today as a survivor who is to be commended for his courage and determination. He does not come across as a bitter man; he comes across as a caring man, because he recognises that, but for the grace of God, his life would have been taken. Why? Simply because he was a serving UDR soldier.

I could comment on others who made useful contributions. George Savage spoke eloquently of his admiration for the UDR and the USC, as did George Robinson, Mr Bell and Mr Moutray. I thank all those who spoke in defence of the motion, and I commend it to the House.