Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee

The Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee (ULCCC) was set up in 1974 in the aftermath of the Ulster Workers Council Strike, in order to facilitate meetings and policy co-ordination between the Ulster Workers Council, the loyalist paramilitaries and the political representatives of loyalism.

Original version

Seen as an important links between grassroots loyalism and more mainstream unionist politics, the ULCCC was chaired by Glenn Barr and met in the Belfast offices of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party on a weekly basis. Initially committed to unionism, the ULCCC began to move towards the idea of Ulster nationalism and, in 1976, published Towards an Independent Ulster, a document containing firm proposals for the transition of Northern Ireland to an independent state. The issue did not gain across the board support, being more of a pet project of the Ulster Defence Association and, as a result, the ULCCC soon broke up. Some supporters of the document formed the Ulster Independence Party.

Refounded version

The ULCCC was revived in 1991 under the leadership of Ray Smallwoods (the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party who was killed by the IRA in July 1994), although it did not gain much importance due to the existence by that time of the Combined Loyalist Military Command, which brought together the leaderships of the UDA and UVF.

"The Committee"

The revived ULCCC was at the centre of controversy when Sean McPhilemy alleged that its members...
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