Red Hand Defenders

Red Hand Defenders
LeaderUnknown
Dates of operationSeptember 1998 onwards (current status unknown)
Active regionsNorthern Ireland
IdeologyUlster loyalism

The Red Hand Defenders (RHD) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1998 by loyalists who opposed the Belfast Agreement and the loyalist ceasefires.[1] Its members were drawn mostly from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).[1] The name had first been used by Red Hand Commandos dissident Frankie Curry in 1996 and he was the leading figure in what was a somewhat unstructured organization until he was killed in 1999.[2] It is named after the Red Hand of Ulster.[3]

The RHD emerged when it claimed responsibility for a blast bomb attack on 7 September 1998 during a loyalist protest in Portadown. Loyalists had been protesting against the decision to ban the Orange Order from marching through the town's mainly Catholic and Irish nationalist quarter (see Drumcree conflict). The attack killed a Catholic Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer.[1] Since then, the RHD has claimed responsibility for killing a further ten people. It has also claimed responsibility for many pipe bomb attacks, mostly on the homes of Catholics.[1] One of the RHD's most notable attacks was the assassination of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson on 15 March 1999.[1] She had represented alleged Irish republican paramilitaries, the family of Robert Hamill, and the Garvaghy Road Residents Association. Of the eleven people the RHD claimed to have killed, nine were civilians, one was a former UDA member and one was an RUC officer.

The RHD are a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000.[4]

  1. ^ a b c d e Red Hand Defenders, Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
  2. ^ Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror, Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2004, pp. 307-308
  3. ^ "Terrorist Organization Profiles – START – National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism". Archived from the original on 21 December 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Proscribed Organisations". Terrorism Act 2000 (c. 11, sched. 2). UK Public General Acts. 20 July 2000. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013.