The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalistparamilitary[8] group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups[9] and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of the participants of the Troubles. Its declared goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas[9] and to combat Irish republicanism, particularly the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the 1970s, uniformed UDA members openly patrolled these areas armed with batons and held large marches and rallies. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks that used the cover nameUlster Freedom Fighters (UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. The British government proscribed the UFF as a terrorist group in November 1973, but the UDA itself was not proscribed until August 1992.[10][11]
^ abDavid Lister and Hugh Jordan, Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair
^"How the RUC protected the UDA". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2019. On May 26th, 1981, the RUC searched UDA headquarters in Belfast ...
^Wright-Neville, David (2010). Dictionary of Terrorism. Polity. p. 194. Between the late 1960s and 2007, the UDA carried out more than 250 killings, the victims of which were mainly Catholic civilians.