Ulster Service Corps

A Loyalist paramilitary / vigilante group established in 1976. The USC had links with the United Unionist Action Council (UUAC). The group had many ex-members of the Ulster Special Constabulary ('B-Specials') in its ranks. The USC carried out overt and covert patrols, some armed with legal weapons, in rural areas of Northern Ireland. In September 1976 five Portadown USC members were arrested and charged with operating illegal roadblocks; the five men appeared in court on 19 April 1977. In November 1976 Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), while speaking in the House of Commons stated that he had been on patrol with the USC (Moloney and Pollak, 1986; p.368). The USC was involved with the UUAC strike between 3 and 13 May 1977 and helped to organise road blocks. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) claimed that there was collusion between the USC and the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) in some rural areas of Northern Ireland.