Loyalism

They wanted dead for whatever reason.

Like, suddenly Loyalists became very, very good at what they did.

Okay.

I'm in no means like saying like what they did was good, but when the amount of rationality, you know, and that, um, Kitson's whole point was, look, you know, and he was comparing in punitive terms where the British do things, the Americans and the Germans.

They were the fourth largest party, um, they were, they were the largest party after the Lib Dems in the UK for a minute, okay? [coughs] They were founded by A.K.

Chesterton, who had been, um, who, who had been affiliated with Mosley.

Um, he came from, uh, he came from the League of Empire Loyalists and the first British National Party.

Um, and he was related to, uh, he, he was related to G.K. Chesterton.

So sharply after this, the new UVF was formed by Gusty Spence.

This paramilitary group was made up of Loyalists, who after said parades, petrol bombed a Catholic pub.

The fire spread to next door, killing an elderly Protestant widow, the 74-year-old grandmother, Matilda Gould.

Later that month, the UVF declared war on the IRA and anyone helping it, stating that known IRA men would be executed mercilessly and without hesitation.

So this led to Republicans and Nationalists to side eye the police force.

ACAB, innit? Their fears were solidified when the RUC were caught beating peaceful marchers, and this led to riots.

In 1969, another civil rights march was attacked by Loyalists, including off-duty police officers in Belfast.

Later that night, Loyalists rampaged through Bogside in Derry, attacking Catholic homes, and residents actually barricaded the streets to stop police from entering for their own safety, 'cause they were terrified that the police were just gonna come in and make it worse.

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unrest, including a month-long uprising that forced thousands of families out of their homes and accelerated recruitment into both Republican and Loyalist ranks as communities sought protection or retribution.

Bloody Sunday in January 1972, when British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed protesters marching toward the city centre of Derry, killed 26 and injured many more, galvanising support for the IRA and eroding any remaining trust in state security forces.

The aftermath saw the IRA's paramilitary campaigns intensify, with bombings escalating into a nationwide campaign that targeted London, Birmingham and even mainland Europe as part of an attempt to pressure Britain into negotiating Irish sovereignty.

At the same time, Loyalist violence grew, with bomb blasts against Catholic homes, churches and schools that caused civilian casualties and heightened sectarian terror, reinforcing a vicious spiral of retaliation.

Political negotiations remained stalled until the early 1970s when the British government began to consider constitutional reforms, yet any attempts at power-sharing were consistently obstructed by entrenched Unionist fears of losing control over Northern Ireland's affairs.

The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 finally offered a framework for shared governance, yet its implementation revealed deep-rooted distrust among communities and highlighted the fact that constitutional arrangements alone could not erase years of collective trauma.

The lessons learned on those early Mediterranean horizons echoed into the age of empire, where sea control mattered more than any single land battle.

After the American Revolution, between forty thousand and one hundred thousand Loyalists fled north, reshaping the demographics of what would become Canada.

These refugees carried not just families but a profound sense that allegiance to Britain mattered more than their old homes.

Their arrival forced London to rethink governance across the Atlantic.

The influx concentrated around Nova Scotia, but it was so far from Halifax's political center that the eastern settlers demanded representation.

In seventeen eighty-four, Parliament severed the western portion and formed New Brunswick as a separate colony, giving these Loyalists a voice closer to home.

That split marked an early acknowledgment of colonial diversity within British North America.

By the seventeen nineties, the tensions between English-speaking settlers in Upper Canada and French-speaking Acadians in Lower Canada were becoming too sharp for a single administration to manage peacefully.