UDR DECLASSIFIED—SECOND EXCERPT

Posted By: May 29, 2022

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING

Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus

UDR DECLASSIFIED—SECOND EXCERPT

Smith, Michael. (2022). UDR: Declassified. 

Merrion Press. Kildare, Ireland.  Pages 181-182.

        The problem of the UDR’s credibility was raised by the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Douglas Hurd, who requested ‘an in-house discussion with Ministers about the UDR ‘in November 1994.

 Ahead of this, an official in the NIO produced a paper about the present and future role of the UDR in which it was admitted that ‘the UDR has become a symbol of sectarian division.’

This really quite damning note continues to say that ‘the regiment is mistrusted, even hated, in much of Catholic community, and by many Catholic politicians … More significantly, it is not held in the highest regard by the RUC itself (including the Chief Constable …) even amongst regular soldiers it is not universally popular. In support of this, the note makes reference to a case raised by James Molyneaux of the Ulster Unionist Party, who had reportedly voiced his concerns privately with the NIO ‘about the way in which some UDR patrols abused their position in relation to members of the Catholic community’.