These UVF posters urge residents of east Belfast who owe money to loan sharks not to sell drugs or find some other way to pay it back but instead to get in touch with a political representative. The Sunday World reported that repayments are being withheld after the Shankill UVF ordered the leadership in East Belfast UVF to stand down (in November 2023 – IRN | BBC) and took over the operation. The posters thus come from the old (East Belfast) guard, trying to thwart the new bosses and hopeful of resuming collection themselves.
SDLP councillor Séamus De Faoıte commented (in the Irish News), "Anyone who has knowledge of criminal activity or exploitation of vulnerable people should report it to the relevant authorities, but people do not need to take any lessons from the UVF when it comes to upholding the law." (Also: BelTel)
Meanwhile, the the endingtheharm.com campaign (part of the Executive/DOJ's programme designed to tackle "paramilitary activity and organised crime") continues. See They Control You for a 2019 version. For the mural on the right of the final image, see Herbie McCallum.
Click image to enlarge
T = Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
X = Copyright © 2024 Extramural Activity
T04279 Castlereagh Pl [X14983 Ardenvohr St]
X14581 Yorkgate
X14012 Longlands roundabout
X15043 [X15042] Ainsworth Ave Shankill/Woodvale
The posters have been circulated after the UVF's leadership in east Belfast was stood down, including its alleged former commander Stephen 'Mackers' Matthews.
Matthews denies any link to either criminality or the UVF.
The UVF's east Belfast unit has in the past been linked to drug dealing and other criminality, including murder.
It is understood the posters may have been put up by UVF's new command, which is aligned to the organisation's Shankill Road leadership.
Ongoing hostilities were reflected in a social media post last month ahead of a commemoration for two UVF men killed in a premature bomb explosion almost 50 years ago.
The event was organised to remember Joe Long (33) and James Cordner (23) who died after a bomb they were carrying exploded at Corporation Street in Belfast in February 1977.
In a statement, Action for Community Transformation (ACT) Initiative (Central) urged loyalists not to attend the event, which has been organised by the rival East Belfast ACT Initiative.
In its post the ACT Initiative (central) said its rival East Belfast grouping has "no association" with the "regional" initiative.
The ACT charity, which was founded "to facilitate the civilianisation" of the UVF, gained charitable status in 2012.
Dr Aaron Edwards, a leading expert on loyalism and author of 'UVF: Behind the Mask', was the first to report that the organisation's east Belfast leadership had been deposed last year.
He believes the latest development is evidence of the turning tide in east Belfast.
"It seems they are moving to isolate those friendly with the former east Belfast leadership and from what I am hearing they are panicking," he said.
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