Ryder Chris. The Ulster Defence Regiment: An Instrument Of Peace?

Methuen Publishing, 1991. — 304 p.The newest, and now the largest, regiment in the British Army, the UDR was raised in 1970 to replace the infamous, all-Protestant auxiliary policy force, the "B Specials". Despite a substantial number of Catholics originally joining the Regiment, it is now, after a campaign of intimidation and murder by the IRA, 97 per cent Protestant, and its reputation has been marred, in Catholic eyes, by the involvement of UDR soldiers in a catalogue of crime and Loyalist terrorism. A spate of leaks of sensitive security information in 1989, and evidence that this was used to target IRA suspects for murder, has now called the regiment's future into question. This book examines the history of the UDR and the future as its role is considered by the Government.