The UDA had its origins in the Protestant equivalent of the conditions which led to the formation of the Catholic Citizens’ Defence Committee. Barricades were going up and Protestants were fleeing, or being driven, from their homes in Catholic districts in the wake of internment. Volunteer vigilante groups were mushrooming amidst a general sense that since the abolition of the B-Specials a vital defensive wall had come down. It was time to look to their own defences. Many of the existing Loyalist paramilitary groups formed links with the new grouping, which at peak may have had a membership of
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