Journalists have never been noted for their ‘terminological exactitude’!
Freelance journalist, Hugh Jordan, is a prime example of that. The article he has written and headlined, ‘Lifelong loyalist and founder of Ulster Resistance says united Ireland now ‘inevitable’, manifests his ‘skill’!
He could not even publish the truth in the headline that was employed!
I was not the founder of the ‘Ulster Resistance’. It was founded before I had any part in it. I joined it in order to give what support I could to Dr Ian Paisley.
His statement: ‘The group’s formidable arsenal of deadly weapons remains stored and “ready for use”, according to loyalist sources’, is likewise totally untrue.
‘Ulster Resistance’, as it was formed in November 1986, was to all intents and purposes, brought to an end quite some time before a few former members, who retained the use of its name, were involved in the importation of arms.
That was months after I informed the men I was involved with, that it was no longer a viable organisation, for the political leadership it had at the start had evaporated.
Edward Carson on July 12, 1919, spoke at a large 12th July gathering near Belfast and demanded the repeal of the Home Rule Act.
He told to the crowd: ‘I tell the British people from this platform here in your presence, and I say it now with all solemnity—I tell them that if there is any attempt made to take away one jot or tittle of your rights as British citizens… I will call out the Ulster Volunteers’.
He also threatened to assemble an Ulster Provisional Government if Home Rule was not repealed.
Leadership
In the absence of that sort of leadership, I personally felt that there was no real substance to the organisation and I encouraged those with whom I was acquainted in the organisation that that they should cease to have any more to do with it.
Some time later, I was approached by men who had linked up with others of the mindset of the UDA and the UVF, asking me to return as they had great plans for the future.
I sincerely warned them that whatever the plans they had were vain and more than foolish. I recall pointing out of the window of my home at that time to a wooded area and saying, ‘It is very likely that there are those amongst those trees listening even now, by means of a powerful directional microphone, to what you are saying.’
The meeting was brief and I utterly rejected their notions. A few days later they were arrested in Paris!
Hugh Jordan’s repeated reference to ‘Ulster Resistance weapons’ is maliciously misleading and venomous.
I believe in the legitimate use of arms, duly and publicly authorised, as was the Ulster Volunteer Force of the early 1900s. I do not believe in terrorism by self-appointed, hooded groups who murder whomsoever they consider fit, oftentimes totally innocent victims!
Why?
Why Hugh Jordan should wish to link the members of the original ‘Ulster Resistance’ with the unlawful actions of some who took upon themselves to act under that name, only he can explain!
I went to the officer commanding the RUC in Fermanagh and openly informed him in the police headquarters in Enniskillen of my position within the ‘Ulster Resistance’.
I told him of our plans. Had what I said been in breach of the law, he surely would not have allowed me to leave his office!
All the time the organisation existed in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone area, I was in constant touch with senior members of the RUC in our area.
I was told by one Superintendent that we could cease to act as we were doing for he had set up a new group which had adopted our simple and lawful tactics!
An endorsement indeed!
Of course, the existence and efforts of the Ulster Resistance were loudly mocked by loyalists terror groups and others. Irrespective of that, those original members were honest men who desired to do something to curb the activities of the then rampant IRA, especially since the Chief Constable had gone on record as saying the RUC could not protect everyone in our area from the IRA. That was something that was evidenced by the sad procession of funerals of those murdered by Republicans, almost on a daily basis.
The men who went out onto the roads close to the border with County Monaghan in the Irish Republic, from whence had come many terrorist attacks, were volunteers, not motivated by money, but simply anxious to do what they could.
They acted in the spirit of the first ‘B Men’ back in the 1920s.
They were well aware of the danger they put themselves in for those of us who live in this part of Ulster, knew from personal experience and from what our parents had told us, just how murderously evil the IRA is and how treacherous were those of our neighbours who supported them.
Our fellow citizens in the rest of the United Kingdom have little or no knowledge of what the Ulster Protestant has had to face from Republican terrorists since the 17th century!
The Bible
The Bible record has many accounts of the efforts of honest men to hinder evil, but which gained little success!
Just this morning I read of Josiah’s efforts to change the nation from its pursuit of idolatry and rebellion against the Lord, 2 Kings 22 & 23.
Despite his immense, godly efforts, the hearts of the people had become merely superficially compliant but fundamentally unchanged. Immediately after Josiah’s tragic death in battle, the nation instantly reverted to severe wickedness, and God’s decree of Babylonian exile went forward exactly as planned. His lifelong effort could not stop the impending judgment.
I am happy to await the evaluation Christ will place upon our actions in 1986 when we, like all men, shall stand before Him on that great day to give an account of actions and our words please note, Mr Jordan.
“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” Romans 14:12.
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,” Matthew 12:36-37.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
10th November 2026