Afterword

Abstract

In July 2007, as a result of ongoing tensions between south east Antrim and the mainstream UDA, a police officer was shot while attending to a dispute in Carrickfergus, County Antrim. This incident was followed on 1 August by riots on a housing estate in Bangor, County Down, when petrol bombs were thrown at police and live rounds were fired. Such action was seen as serious enough for the Minister for Social Development of the new Assembly, SDLP member Margaret Ritchie, to threaten the withdrawal of £1.2 million of Conflict Transformation Initiative money if the UDA did not commence decommissioning within 60 days. The deadline for the 60 days was 9 October 2007. Although faced with a range of objections from within the Assembly (mostly from the DUP), statements from senior officials that the UDA had commenced ‘meaningful engagement’ with General John de Chastelain’s decommissioning body, and requests from a range of senior clergy for Ritchie to reconsider her deadline, progress at the 60-day deadline was deemed to be insufficient by Ritchie and CTI funding was subsequently withdrawn. The UPRG continue to challenge the removal of CTI funding on legal grounds.