He also reproached the unionists for their role of inciting paramilitary activity through their rhetoric but publicly distancing themselves from organisations like the UVF, contrasting it with the commitment of Edward Carson who made his leadership of the original Ulster Volunteers a matter of public record. Ī ceasefire followed with Mitchell claiming at the time that he was tired of the failures of unionist politicians and felt that it was time for the UVF to take on a larger political role. Like many loyalists of his generation Mitchell had been of the belief that the Troubles would be short and that the republicans would be defeated fairly quickly but this had not proven to be the case. However, by 1973 Mitchell had become weary of the constant struggle and became one of the main advocates within the group for a ceasefire and attempts to build a resolution. When writing for Combat he used the pseudonym 'Richard Cameron' which he took from one of his idols the Scottish Covenanter of the same name. He also served as editor of the UVF magazine Combat. Mitchell rose through the ranks to become one of the senior figures within the movement and was a member of its Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership). As a consequence the UVF became much more active as violence escalated on both sides. Soon after Mitchell joined the UVF, the socio-religious and political conflict known as The Troubles broke out with an explosion of violence from both sides of the religious/political divide. With the UPV a spent force following Doherty's jailing, Mitchell joined the UVF sometime in the late 1960s. Doherty was caught however and in November 1966 was sentenced to two years imprisonment for explosives offences. Through Mitchell Doherty made contact with the Shankill Road UVF and obtained gelignite for them from a UPV contact in Loughgall. Indeed, before long Mitchell became Doherty's right-hand man. Doherty supposedly kept this plan from the group's other founder Ian Paisley - an assertion that’s been refuted by since uncovered evidence - by but allowed his closest confidantes, including Mitchell, to become involved in his attempts to set up a paramilitary group. He was close to Noel Doherty, one of the group's founder, who sought to establish an armed paramilitary structure within the UPV. Mitchell would later state that he was prompted to join the UPV by scare stories circulating about plans for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the Easter Rising, with a rumour even suggesting that the Irish Republican Army intended to use it as pretext to take control of Newry. Mitchell first came to loyalism with the Ulster Protestant Volunteers in 1966. He had been raised as a member of the Baptist faith. Mitchell was attracted to the message of Ian Paisley and in the mid 1960s joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and served as a Sunday school teacher. Īfter leaving school Mitchell briefly worked as a copy boy on the Belfast Telegraph but found it difficult to advance his position and so left to work as a lorry driver. The area, which at the time was the end of the city's tramline network, has subsequently been redeveloped as Glengormley. Although based in the Shankill Road during his adult life, Mitchell was raised just outside Belfast in what he described as "a wooden hut". 5.1 Alleged involvement in the 1974 Dublin bombingsīorn in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1940 into a poor family, Mitchell's father died when he was two years old."We know who they are and their day will come. She said she could not forgive the assailants. Other baby clothes on the washing line were dragged off and danced upon. I can't even put the nappies on the child because of the glass in them. "I have an eight-week-old baby and look at the state of this place. In some cases, the assailants entered houses and ransacked them.Ī woman on the Castlemara estate whose home was attacked said it had been an awful night. Broken windows, doors and car windscreens. The UVF did eventually retaliate after the UDA attacked homes." "UVF personnel only came on to the streets to guard PUP personnel's homes. Ms Caroline Howarth, of the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing, said the UDA had attacked the house itself to stir up trouble in Carrickfergus. The UVF nearly killed that wee girl, Charlene Daly, the night before in Coleraine and we weren't going to allow them to do the same in Carrickfergus." A UDA source said the UVF started it all by attacking the home of a man injured in the UVF attack on a loyalist prisoners' office on the Shankill last week.
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