This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group since 1966. It includes actions carried out by the Red Hand Commando (RHC), a group integrated into the UVF shortly after their formation in 1972. It also includes attacks claimed by the Protestant Action Force (PAF), a covername used by the UVF. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

The UVF's declared goal was to destroy Irish republican paramilitary groups. However, most of its victims were Irish Catholic civilians, who were often chosen at random.^[1] Whenever it claimed responsibility for its attacks, the UVF usually claimed that those targeted were Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members or sympathisers.^[2] At other times, attacks on Catholic civilians were claimed as "retaliation" for IRA actions, since the IRA drew most of its support from majority-Catholic areas. Such retaliation was seen as both collective punishment and an attempt to weaken the IRA's support.^[3] Many retaliatory assaults on Catholics were claimed using the PAF covername. Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and the British Army colluded with the UVF in a number of incidents.^[4][5]

1960s

1966

• 1966: sporadic petrol bomb attacks and vandalism targeting Catholic-owned property started in early 1966, particularly in and around the Shankill Road.^[6]
• 6 April 1966: UVF members threw petrol bombs at a Catholic primary school—Holy Cross Girls' School—in Belfast. The attack happened two days before Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, was to address a Catholic-Protestant reconciliation meeting there.^[7]
• 16 April: UVF members fired two shots through the front door of the home of a Unionist politician, Johnny McQuade, in the hope Republicans would be blamed.^[6]
• 7 May: UVF members petrol bombed a Catholic-owned pub on Upper Charleville Street, in the Shankill district of Belfast. Fire also engulfed the house next door, badly burning the elderly Protestant widow who lived there. She died of her injuries on 27 June.^[8] A Catholic woman escaped injury in another petrol bomb attack at her home in Northumberland Street twenty minutes later.^[9]
• 8 May: two petrol bombs were thrown into the grounds of St. Mary's Training College on the Falls Road, Belfast, where an annual conference of Catholic organisations was being held.^[9]
• 21 May: the UVF issued a statement:

  From this day, we declare war against the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups. Known IRA men will be executed mercilessly and without hesitation. Less extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them, but if they persist in giving them aid, then more extreme methods will be adopted... we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches of appeasement. We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this cause.^[10]

• 27 May: Gusty Spence sent four UVF members to kill a man they believed to be an Irish Republican Army volunteer. When they arrived at his house on Baden Powell Street in Belfast, he was not at home. The men then drove around the Falls district in search of a Catholic. They shot John Scullion, a Catholic civilian, as he walked home. He died of his wounds on 11 June.^[8] Spence later wrote: "At the time, the attitude was that if you couldn't get an IRA man you should shoot a Taig, he's your last resort".^[11]
• 11 June: the UVF fired several shots at the home of a Catholic man in Eden near Carrickfergus, County Antrim.^[12]
• 25 June: the UVF tried to kill a well-known Republican in the Falls area of Belfast. He wasn't home so they broke into his house and set fire to it.^[6]
• 26 June: the UVF shot three Catholic civilians as they left a pub on Malvern Street, Belfast. One of them was killed.^[8]
• 28 June: the UVF was declared illegal.^[8]

1967

• 24 April: a Catholic man was shot and seriously wounded in Dunville Street off the Falls Road, Belfast. The police blamed the IRA but a statement purporting to be from the UVF refuted any IRA involvement and claimed the UVF's "Shankill Road Division" were responsible.^[13]

1968

• 20 June: shortly after Nationalist Party MP Austin Currie and others began squatting in a house allocated to an unmarried 19-year-old Protestant woman in Caledon as part of the emerging civil rights movement, a statement was issued purporting to be from "Captain William Johnston of the Ulster Volunteer Force":

  As and from Saturday we resume our activities. We are resuming our activities against the IRA and Roman Catholic extremists because of Mr. Currie's statements at Stormont yesterday and his action in barricading himself in a house at Caledon today.^[14]

1969

January–June

• 1 January: a bomb planted by UVF members destroyed a republican memorial at Toomebridge, County Antrim, on the route of the People's Democracy march.
• March–April 1969, members of the UVF and Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland. The loyalists hoped the attacks would be blamed on the dormant IRA and on elements of the civil rights movement, which was demanding an end to discrimination against Catholics. The loyalists intended to bring down Ulster Unionist Party Prime Minister Terence O'Neill, who had promised some concessions to the civil rights movement. At the time, the bombings were indeed blamed on the IRA, and British soldiers were deployed to guard installations.^[15]
  • On 30 March, loyalists bombed an electricity substation just outside Belfast, causing blackouts across much of the city's south and east.^[15]
  • On 4 April, they bombed a water pipeline at Dunadry, County Antrim.^[15]
  • On 20 April, they bombed Silent Valley Reservoir and an electricity pylon in Kilmore, County Armagh.^[15]
  • On 24 April, they again bombed the water pipeline at Dunadry.^[15]
  • On 26 April, they bombed a water pipeline at Annalong, County Down, cutting off the water supply to much of Belfast.^[15]
  • On 28 April, Terence O'Neill resigned and was replaced by fellow Ulster Unionist James Chichester-Clark.^[15]

July–December

• 5 August: RTE Studio bombing – a bomb damaged the front of the RTÉ Television Centre in Donnybrook, Dublin.^[16] The UVF claimed responsibility.^[17] This was the first attack the group claimed credit for in the Republic of Ireland.^[18]
• 12–17 August: 1969 Northern Ireland riots: fierce clashes erupted across Northern Ireland, between Irish nationalists and unionists, including the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Eight people were killed, hundreds were wounded, and hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed (the majority owned by Catholics and nationalists). The British Army were deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland. The Irish Army also set up field hospitals near the Irish border.^[19]
• 12 October: UVF members shot dead RUC officer Victor Arbuckle during street violence in the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast. Loyalists "had taken to the streets in protest at the Hunt Report, which recommended the disbandment of the B Specials and disarming of the RUC. A Catholic officer was standing next to Constable Arbuckle when he was shot". Arbuckle was the first RUC officer to be killed during the Troubles.^[20]
• 19 October: Thomas McDowell, a member of the UVF and UPV, was badly burnt while planting a bomb at a hydroelectric power station near Ballyshannon, County Donegal. He was electrocuted as he touched a live cable whilst attempting to plant a bomb at the base of a pylon, suffering serious burns, and he died of his injuries two days later, aged 45.^[21] This is when it was realized that the earlier bombings had also been carried out by loyalists, not republicans. The UVF issued a statement saying the attempted attack was a protest against the Irish Army units "still massed on the border in Co Donegal". The statement added: "so long as the threats from Éire continue, so long will the volunteers of Ulster's people's army strike at targets in Southern Ireland".^[18]
• 31 October: The UVF claimed responsibility for bombing the memorial to Wolfe Tone (leader of the United Irishmen) in Bodenstown, County Kildare, Republic of Ireland.^[22]
• 26 December: The UVF was believed to have been responsible for bombing the O'Connell Monument on O'Connell Street, Dublin. Little damage was done to the statue but the blast smashed windows in a half-mile radius.^[23][24]
• 28 December: A car bomb exploded outside the Garda Síochána central detective bureau in Dublin. Gardaí believed that the UVF was responsible and said that the nearby telephone exchange headquarters may have been the target.^[25]

1970s

1970

• January: The UVF began bombing Catholic-owned businesses in Protestant areas of Belfast. It issued a statement vowing to "remove republican elements from loyalist areas" and stop them "reaping financial benefit therefrom". The UVF carried out an estimated 27 bomb attacks in Northern Ireland in 1970^[26] and another four bombings in the Republic.^[27] During 1970, 42 Catholic-owned licensed premises in Protestant areas were bombed, mainly by the UVF.^[28]
• 13 January: The UVF bombed a row of shops fronting on to the Crumlin Road from the predominantly Catholic Ardoyne area of Belfast.^[26]
• 26 January: The UVF bombed the Catholic-owned Eagle Taxi Depot, in Agnes Street, off the Shankill Road. The UVF setup its own taxi service shortly afterwards.^[26]
• 2 February: A UVF bomb caused minor damage at Drumaness Catholic church near Ballymena, County Antrim.^[29][28]
• 3 February: The UVF bombed the offices of the New Ulster Movement, a moderate Unionist pressure group from which the Alliance Party later emerged. Neighbouring shops on Botanic Avenue were also damaged.^[28][30]
• 8 February: It is believed that the UVF was responsible for exploding a bomb at the home of Sheelagh Murnaghan, a staunchly anti-physical force and anti-republican Roman Catholic Ulster Liberal Party MP.^[31] This was the beginning of a campaign against critics of militant loyalism.^[28]
• 18 February: The UVF bombed a TV relay station near Raphoe in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland. The mast transmitted television and radio signals from RTÉ, (the Irish national broadcaster), which could be received in Northern Ireland.^[32]
• 18 February: The UVF detonated a small bomb in the corridor of Crumlin Road courthouse following an earlier explosion at Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast, during the trial of several loyalists (including John McKeague) associated with the UVF, UPV, and Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) charged with bomb attacks the previous year.^[32]
• 7 March: The UVF claimed responsibility for exploding a bomb at the home of Nationalist Party MP Austin Currie.^[31] On 2 July, shots were fired through the living room window of Currie's house while he and his wife and children were inside.^[28][31]
• 7 March: The UVF was blamed for an explosion at St. Thomas Aquinas Hall, the Catholic students' hostel at Queen's University Belfast.^[28]
• 26 March: A bomb damaged an electricity substation in Tallaght, near Dublin. An anonymous letter claimed responsibility on behalf of the UVF.^[32]
• 28 April: It is believed that the UVF was responsible for exploding a bomb at the home of liberal Ulster Unionist MP Richard Ferguson.^[31]
• 2 July: UVF gunmen fired several shots into the living room of Nationalist MP Austin Currie but his family escaped injury.^[28][31]
• 22 July: A bomb exploded at St. Mary's Catholic social club off Great Patrick Street in Belfast city centre.^[33]
Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=1994_Dublin-Belfast_train_bombing
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