Ulster Volunteer Force

In Northern Ireland, most recently a loyalist (pro-Union) paramilitary group, especially active in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Originally a paramilitary wing of the Ulster Unionists, the first UVF was formed in 1912 to coordinate ad hoc paramilitary activity. A second UVF, active in the Anglo-Irish War, became part of the Ulster Special Constabulary. The name was revived in 1966 for a Belfast-based group, which was legalized in 1974 but banned the following year. In 1994 the UVF was one of the signatories to a loyalist ceasefire.