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The Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) was an Ulster loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast, an area immediately to the north of the Shankill Road. The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups. It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street,〔Steve Bruce, ''The red hand: Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland'', p.49〕 a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some birds.〔Peter Taylor, ''Loyalists'', p.101〕 Sources differ on its actual date of foundation; many claim it was founded in 1969, around the same time as the Shankill Defence Association, which covered a neighbouring area,〔Council of Europe, ''Yearbook of the European convention on human rights'', p.652〕 but Ian Wood's detailed study of the Ulster Defence Association dates its origin to June 1970, when a loyalist pipe band on the Springfield Road was attacked by Catholic protesters, leading to a riot.〔Wood, Ian S., ''Crimes of loyalty: a history of the UDA'', pp.1-2〕 The WDA was initially led by Alan Moon, with Sammy Smyth acting as its main spokesman, although Moon was soon replaced by Harding Smith.〔Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand'', pp.49, 59〕 Initial membership of the WDA was primarily middle-aged and disinclined to take violent action. However, Davy Fogel interrupted an early meeting to call for members to receive military training. Harding Smith instructed him to start this, members bringing both legally held guns and dummy weapons.〔 In 1971, a large number of local loyalist groups merged to form the Ulster Defence Association. Its core components were the Woodvale and the Shankill Defence Associations,〔Steve Bruce, "Unionists and the Border", in Malcolm Anderson and Everhard Bort, ''The Irish border: history, politics, culture'', p.129〕 the Woodvale organisation being the largest of its forerunners.〔Peter Taylor, ''Loyalists'', p.100〕 The new organisation was a loose confederation, and the Woodvale group continued to publish a newsletter, the ''WDA News''.〔Chris Curtin, ''Irish urban cultures'', p.250〕 Its 1 May 1972 issue carried a notorious article justifying genocide against Roman Catholics and calling for racial purity.〔Frank Burton, ''The politics of legitimacy: struggles in a Belfast community'', p.52〕 When the UDA was restructured, the WDA became its "B" Company.〔Peter Janke, ''Ethnic and religious conflicts: Europe and Asia'', p.116〕 Several leading members of the UDA started out in the WDA, including Jim Anderson,〔Ian S. Wood, ''Crimes of loyalty: a history of the UDA'', p.347〕 Davy Payne, Ernie Elliott and John White.〔Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack, ''UDA: inside the heart of Loyalist terror'', p.55〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Woodvale Defence Association」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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