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Ulster Defence Regiment

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The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army.

Formed in 1970, it was designed to replace the B Specials of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in the security of Northern Ireland. Throughout its history the UDR was dogged by accusations of collusion with loyalist terrorist organisations, many of whose members were also serving UDR soldiers. Brigadier David Millar, the former commandant of the Fifth Battalion, once admitted that if he expelled a soldier for belonging to an illegal unionist paramilitary group, he would be left without a regiment.

Two UDR soldiers, who were also members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, were convicted of the 1975 murder of three members of the Miami Showband in a Ulster Volunteer Force attack. In 1989, 28 UDR soldiers were arrested by the RUC as part of the Stevens Inquiry into security force collusion with loyalists. Six of those arrested were later awarded damages over the arrest. In 1999 David Jordon, a former UDR soldier, broke down in a bar and admitted to being part of a patrol that killed nationalist councillor Patsy Kelly in 1974. Jordan also implicated former Democratic Unionist Party Assembly member Oliver Gibson in the murder.

Initially, seven battalions were raised, immediately making it the largest regiment in the British Army. Within two years, a further four battalions were added, taking the total to eleven. To begin with, the regiment consisted entirely of part-time volunteers, before a full time cadre was added in 1976. At first, the regiment was 82 per cent Protestant and 18 per cent Catholic, but this ratio became 99:1 as intimidation prevented Catholics from joining up. The full time element of the regiment eventually expanded to encompass half the total personnel. The UDR was also the first regiment in the British Army to fully integrate women into its structure, when the so-called Greenfinches took over clerical and signals duties, which allowed male members of the regiment to return to patrol duties.

The regiment was reduced to first nine battalions in 1984, then to seven in 1991 through amalgamations, before being amalgamated as a whole with the Royal Irish Rangers in 1992 to form the Royal Irish Regiment. In 1990 British Secretary of State Peter Brooke described them as committed to "justice, decency and democracy".

Between 1 April 1970 and 30 June 1992, a total of 197 members of the UDR were killed during the Troubles. Two were killed by other British soldiers, three by loyalist paramilitaries, and the remaining 192 by republican paramilitaries (mainly the IRA). During this time the UDR killed (officially) six civilians and two members of the IRA.

Many unionist politicians in Northern Ireland today are former members of the UDR.

Battalions

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