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Volunteers faded from public view, and many believed jeopardized and the release of the prisoners provided
the organization to be defunct by the 1980s. for in the Good Friday Accords would have ceased.
In late 1997, peace negotiations had again begun in (These releases began in 1998 and have been largely
Northern Ireland, with all parties—the governments of completed.)
Britain and Ireland, the major political parties, and
See also IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY; ULSTER DEFENSE
paramilitaries—involved. The negotiations covered a
ASSOCIATION; ULSTER FREEDOM FIGHTERS; ULSTER
provision that persons imprisoned for terrorist activi-
VOLUNTEER FORCE
ties on behalf of the paramilitary groups would be
released gradually. On April 10, 1998, preliminary Further Reading
negotiations were concluded and the Good Friday
BBC News In-Depth Guide to Northern Ireland: Orange
Accords were signed. The accords laid out a plan to
Volunteer Profile. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/
achieve political stability in Northern Ireland; this plan
northern_ireland/understanding/parties_paramilitaries/
included the provision for the release of prisoners.
orange_volunteers.stm.
Hard-line factions in both Loyalist organizations
Bruce, Steve. The Red Hand: Protestant Paramilitaries in
(representing Protestants; also called Unionists) and Northern Ireland. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,
the Republican organizations (representing Catholics; 1992.
also called Nationalists) split over the Good Friday Holland, Jack. Hope Against History: The Course of
peace plan and formed their own groups. Members of Conflict in Northern Ireland. New York: Henry Holt,
the re-formed Orange Volunteers (at first believed to 1999.
be a separate splinter group of one of the larger McKay, Susan. Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People.
Loyalist organizations) gave a televised interview to Belfast: Blackstaff, 2000.
journalist Ivan Little in November 1998, stating that Orange Volunteers “Back to War” Statement. February 4,
2001. http://www.scottishloyalists.com/paramilitaries/
they were taking up arms for the express purpose
ovolunteers.htm.
of killing newly released Republican prisoners.
Ryder, Chris. The RUC 1922-1997: A Force Under Fire.
Comments by the group during the interview and ref-
London: Mandarin, 1997.
erences made to the biblical Book of Revelations may
Taylor, Peter. Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern
indicate that the group has some connection to funda- Ireland. New York: TV Books, 1999.
mentalist Protestants. The Orange Volunteers have
been linked to about a dozen sectarian attacks on
Catholic homes, mostly with mortar and pipe bombs, THE ORDER
and to violent Loyalist protests at Drumcree centered
around a route for a Protestant march in 1999 and
2000. In February 2001, the group issued a “Back to Best known for the assassination of Alan Berg, a
War” statement—once again declaring its intention to Jewish radio talk show host, the Order planned to start
murder released Republican prisoners. They have also a revolution against the U.S. government. Although
threatened to bomb Dublin, the capital of the Republic its founder, Robert Jay Mathews, preferred the name
of Ireland. They have also been linked to the murder Bruders Schweigen, meaning Silent Brotherhood, the
of Northern Irish journalist Owen Martin O’Hagan. group’s organization and activities were so closely
The group was declared illegal in Great Britain and modeled on the fictional group called the Order in
Ireland in 1999 and was placed on the U.S. State William Pierce’s The Turner Diaries (1978) that sev-
Department’s list of banned terrorist organizations in eral of its members as well as authorities adopted
January 2002. this name.
Many observers now believe that the Orange In the 1970s, Mathews became involved with the tax
Volunteers are not a separate organization but merely a protest movement that sees taxation as a design of the
cover name employed by members of one of the larger federal government to take money from white Christian
Loyalist groups—possibly the UDA or the Loyalist Americans and put it in the hands of Jews. He became
Volunteer Force (LVF), both of which have observed somewhat disenchanted with the movement when he
a cease-fire since 1994 and 1998, respectively. If the was arrested in 1973 for falsifying tax forms and, dur-
UDA or LVF could have been shown to be responsible ing the period between his arrest and trial, received
for the attacks, their political goals would have been no support from his associates in the movement.