The Ulster Service Corps (USC) was a

loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

vigilante group with a paramilitary structure active in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in the late 1970s. Although short-lived it briefly had a sizeable membership. One of a number of small independent loyalist paramilitary groups active in the mid 1970s, alongside the Orange Volunteers, Ulster Volunteer Service Corps, Down Orange Welfare and the Ulster Special Constabulary Association (USCA), the USC was the largest of these minor groups.Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand'', Oxford University Press, 1992, p. xii Made up of former members of the

Ulster Special Constabulary The Ulster Special Constabulary (USC; commonly called the "B-Specials" or "B Men") was a quasi-military Military reserve, reserve special constable police force in what would later become Northern Ireland. It was set up in October 1920, short ...

it retained much of that organisation's structure and enjoyed strong support in some rural areas of

. Most of those who established the group had been members of the USCA, which had disbanded around a year before the establishment of the USC.Henry Patterson, Eric P. Kaufmann, ''Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945: The Decline of the Loyal Family'', Manchester University Press, 2007, p. 185 The group was established in 1976 by the United Unionist Action Council, a sub-committee of the

United Ulster Unionist Council The United Ulster Unionist Council (also known as the United Ulster Unionist Coalition) was a body that sought to bring together the Unionism in Ireland, Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland. Formation The UUUC was e ...

(UUUC).W.D. Flackes & Sydney Elliott, ''Northern Ireland A Political Directory 1968-1993'', The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 336 It had links to the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...

and held meetings at Orange halls but the Order decided against establishing any formal links with the USC, instead continuing to encourage its members to join the official security forces rather than vigilante groups. During early 1977 it set up roadblocks in parts of

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

and

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

and also claimed to have spent time observing

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

"safe houses" in order to collect data on them. During its roadblocks and related patrols some members of the USC carried guns, although these were generally legally held firearms. During a speech in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and ...

even claimed that he had participated in these patrols and both he and Ernest Baird promoted the USC and encouraged their supporters to seek membership of the group. Baird hoped that he could use the USC as his private army in the event of civil unrest resulting from the UUAC strike of 1977. Its relationship with the security forces was complicated and subject to a number of counter-claims. The

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (M ...

claimed that the group was involved in collusion with the

Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements,Potter p25 their offi ...

(UDR) and that the two groups even conducted joint patrols in Mid-Ulster. The USC itself confirmed that it worked with members of both the UDR and the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...

although the security forces strenuously denied that any such activity took place. A number of its members were brought to court for public order offences and it was condemned by the government, who accused the group of wasting time by forcing them to divert much needed security forces away from their activities in order to deal with USC roadblocks and obstruction. Nonetheless its claims to be purely a defensive organisation were accepted and, as was the case with the

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

at the time, no attempt was made to ban the group. The fate of the USC is unclear although the failure of the 1977 strike saw the collapse of the UUUC and an end to the Baird-Paisley alliance.Flackes & Elliott, ''Northern Ireland'', p. 346

References

{{Reflist Paramilitary organisations based in Northern Ireland 1976 establishments in Northern Ireland Ulster loyalist militant groups