Watch Paper Trail's recent videos on Andy Tyrie, Loyalist paramilitary and Supreme Commander of the Ulster Defence Association.
Andy Tyrie, a name that evokes a complex legacy in Northern Ireland’s troubled history, recently passed away. While he was remembered as a peacemaker in his later years, it is crucial to remember his victims too. Tyrie was the Supreme Commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during one of the most violent and turbulent periods in Belfast’s history. Under his command, the UDA was responsible for the deaths of over 300 civilians, mostly Catholic. Yet, despite this staggering toll, the British state allowed the UDA to operate openly for two decades, raising profound questions about collusion, selective justice, and the rule of law.
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Who Infiltrated Who?
Secret British military files the Paper Trail discovered also prove that the British armed forces including the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) were privy to some of the periods most gruesome close-quarter murders.
As well as murders committed by Andy Tyrie's paramilitary units, the files proved that the British military were running agents in the "Romper Room" killer gang.
📖 Read: British Soldiers, British Agents and the UDA's Romper Rooms >>
The British military at the same time ran agents within Republican paramilitary groups too.
These included agents or "Freds" run by the covert Military Reaction Force.
📖 Read: Smoke and Mirrors - The Mysterious Case of Ranger Hammond.
The Military Reaction Force committed its own share of murder and mayhem which ended in the murder of civilians as well as the death of its own operatives and disappearance of it agents.
Paper Trail has been researching the MRF for over a decade.
🎥 Watch Paper Trail's webinar we launched at Féile below: Shooter and Freds
