Editing Ulster Defence Association (section)

== Support from other groups ==
{{See Also|Paramilitary finances in the Troubles}}
The UDA had links with [[Neo-Nazism|Neo-Nazi]] groups in Britain—specifically [[Combat 18]]<ref>Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. ''Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity''. NYU Press, 2003. Page 45.</ref> (formed in 1992) and the [[British Movement|British National Socialist Movement]]<ref>Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. ''Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity''. NYU Press, 2003. Pages 40–41.</ref> (formed in 1985). Members of these groups helped to smuggle weapons for the UDA. The UDA has received backing from Combat 18, the [[British National Front|National Front]] and the [[British National Party]].<ref>Wood, Ian S. ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Page 339-40.</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5101420.stm |title=Why UDA expelled 'unlikely loyalists' |work=BBC News |date=8 June 2010 |access-date=16 June 2010 |archive-date=8 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208174933/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5101420.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The links may not have been politically motivated, but for mutually beneficial arms deals. On one occasion the UDA sent Louis Scott, one of a few black members of the UDA, to make the transaction.<ref>The UDA: Inside the Heart of Loyalist terror. Henry McDonald, Jim Cusack</ref> [[Johnny Adair]], who had been in Combat 18 before the UDA, established stronger links once he became a brigadier.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jul/13/northernireland|title=Why the streets of Bolton echo to the sounds of a loyalist vendetta|first=Henry|last=McDonald|newspaper=The Observer |date=12 July 2003|via=The Guardian|access-date=13 December 2016|archive-date=21 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221112423/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jul/13/northernireland|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=How loyalists got out of step with fascism |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/how-loyalists-got-out-of-step-with-fascism-28657619.html |website=belfasttelegraph |access-date=3 August 2021 |archive-date=20 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420214155/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/how-loyalists-got-out-of-step-with-fascism-28657619.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Red Hand Defenders]] is a cover name used by breakaway factions of the UDA and the LVF.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The term was coined in 1997 when members of the LVF carried out attacks on behalf of Johnny Adair's "UFF 2nd Battalion, 'C' Company (Shankill Road)" and vice versa.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The relationship between the UDA (specifically Adair's West Belfast Brigade, not the wider leadership of the UDA) was initially formed after the death of [[Billy Wright (loyalist)|Billy Wright]], the previous leader of the LVF, and grew from Adair's personal friendship with [[Mark Fulton (loyalist)|Mark 'Swinger' Fulton]], the organisation's new chief.

The necessity for a cover name resulted from the need to avoid tensions between the UDA and the UVF, the organisation from which the LVF had broken away. It was perceived that any open co-operation between the UDA and the LVF would anger the UVF, something which proved to be the case in following years and resulted in a [[loyalist feud]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/> There has been debate as to whether or not the Red Hand Defenders have become an entity in their own right<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/rhd.htm |title=FAS |publisher=FAS |access-date=16 June 2010 |archive-date=27 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090927072130/http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/rhd.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> made up of dissident factions from both the UDA and the LVF (both of which have now declared ceasefires whilst the RHD has not), although much intelligence has been based on the claims of responsibility which, as has been suggested,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> are frequently misleading.

A 1985 [[MI5]] assessment reported that 85% of the UDA's "targeting material" came from security force records.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-july-august-2015-john-ware-collusion-cut-both-ways-in-the-troubles?page=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2|title=Collusion Cut Both Ways in the Troubles – Standpoint|access-date=4 March 2017|archive-date=4 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304194530/http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-july-august-2015-john-ware-collusion-cut-both-ways-in-the-troubles?page=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2|url-status=live}}</ref>

Scotland was a source of fundraising and other types of aid. Former [[MI5]] agent Willie Carlin said: "There were safe houses in Glasgow and Stirling. The ferry [between Scotland and Northern Ireland] was pivotal in getting arms into the north—and anything like checkpoints, or armed police and Army in Scotland would have b******d that all up."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17965179.inside-story-ira-never-attacked-scotland/|title=Inside story: Why the IRA never attacked Scotland|author=Neil Mackay|date=12 October 2019|publisher=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]}}</ref> An Irish government memo written by David Donoghue stated: "The commonest contribution of Scots UDA and UVF is to send [[gelignite]]. Explosives for the north were mostly shipped in small boats which set out at night from the Scottish coast and made contact at sea with vessels from Ulster ports." Donoghue noted the links between Orange Lodges in Scotland and loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and that membership of the [[Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland|Orange Order in Scotland]] at the time was 80,000, and was concentrated in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Inverness.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12445506.revealed-how-scots-loyalists-sent-gelignite-to-paramilitaries-secret-memo-says-explosives-were-shipped-in-small-boats/|title=Revealed: how Scots loyalists sent gelignite to paramilitaries. Secret memo says explosives were shipped in small boats|date=30 December 2005|publisher=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]}}</ref> The [[Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee]] noted in its report that "in 1992 it was estimated that Scottish support for the UDA and UVF might amount to £100,000 a year."<ref>{{cite report|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmniaf/978/97806.htm|title=Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs - Part One: The continuing threat from paramilitary organisations|date=26 June 2002|website=UK Parliament}}</ref>

Protestants in Canada also supported the loyalist paramilitaries in the conflict. Sociologist Steven Bruce described the support networks in Canada as "the main source of support for loyalism outside the United Kingdom ... [[Ontario]] is to [[Ulster Protestants]] what [[Boston]] is to [[Irish Catholics]]." After the Troubles began, an [[Orange Order in Canada|Orange-Canadian]] loyalist organization known as the Canadian Ulster Loyalist Association (CULA) provided the 'besieged' Protestants with the resources to arm themselves.<ref name="FDWD">McDonald, Henry & Cusack, Jim ''UVF - The Endgame''</ref> A Canadian branch of the UDA also existed and sent $30,000 to the UDA's headquarters in Belfast by 1975. In 1972, five [[Toronto]] businessmen shipped weapons in grain container ships out of [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]], bound for ports in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland which were destined for loyalist militants.<ref name="FDWD"/><ref name="FADD">{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27041321|title=The Canadian Dimension to the Northern Ireland Conflict|author=Andrew Sanders and F. Stuart Ross|date=2020|page=195|journal=The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies|volume=43 |jstor=27041321 }}</ref> 

Between 1979 and 1986, Canadian supporters supplied the UVF/UDA with 100 machine guns and thousands of rifles, grenade launchers, magnum revolvers, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition.<ref name="FDWD"/><ref name="FADD"/> These shipments were considered enough for the UVF/UDA to wage its campaign, most of which were used to kill its victims.<ref name="FDWD"/> On 10 February 1976, following the sudden uptick of violence against Catholic civilians by loyalist militants, Irish [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]] [[William Conway (cardinal)|William Conway]] and nine other Catholic bishops met with British Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] and his cabinet, asking them as to where the loyalist militants had acquired guns, to which [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]] [[Merlyn Rees]] replied "Canada".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1998|author=Margaret M. Scull|page=72|date=2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-1925-8118-1}}</ref>