February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Summer 1972: The UDA becomes the most powerful loyalist paramilitary organization, with about 30,000 members. It seals off large sections of Protestant Belfast. Of the 121 victims of loyalist death squads that year, the UDA is responsible for 71.
April 1973: UDA invents cover name Ulster Freedom Fighters to claim responsibility for attacks.
July 1973: UFF outlawed.
May 1974: UDA provides street muscle to back loyalist strike to bring down the first power-sharing government.
May 1977: The UDA fails to bring Northern Ireland to a halt in an attempt to force the British government to take sterner measures against republicans. It goes into decline. The number of its victims drops to two in 1978. The UDA declines through the mid-1980s
March 1988: Andy Tyrie, supreme chairman of the UDA, forced to resign. New leadership takes over, vowing to increase its violence.
February 12, 1989: UDA murders lawyer Patrick Finucane amid widespread accusations of collusion with intelligence services.
December 1989: Ulster Democratic Party formed as political wing of the UDA.
1990: Increase in UDA killing rate, mainly thanks to