Samuel McClelland
Samuel "Bo" McClelland (d. 10 May 1983) was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary who served as the Chief of Staff of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) from 1966 until his internment in late 1973 and for a period in 1983 during the supergrass trials.
UVF leadership
Following the imprisonment of UVF leader Gusty Spence for murder in October 1966, Spence remained de jure leader of the group but needed a stand-in leader on the outside. He chose McClelland for this role, and appointed him Chief of Staff or Brigadier-General of the Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) largely because he respected him for his Korean War military service, Spence also being a former British Army soldier.[1] McClelland had lied about his age in order to enlist in the Royal Ulster Rifles.[2]
Like Spence, McClelland was also a native of the Shankill Road and had a reputation as a disciplinarian. He sought to continue Spence's work by keeping together the few UVF members left and slowly adding to their number.[1] In keeping with Spence's ideals, he sought to lead the UVF as if it were a regular army, and based their internal structure loosely on that of the British Army in which both men had served.[3] He shared with Spence a belief that the UVF should keep a small, tightly organised membership and as such did not compete with the burgeoning Ulster Defence Association (UDA) for either membership or public profile.[4] Nonetheless, the late 1960s were characterised by UVF inertia, in part because as Officer Commander McClelland had little personal power and had to enact policies that he received from Spence when he visited him in prison.[5]
Tara
In an effort to access any weapons it might have possessed, and to seek possible political guidance, McClelland and the UVF infiltrated the loyalist movement Tara, and under his leadership the two groups associated on the Shankill.[6] McClelland was even "commissioned" as an officer of Tara, although many in the UVF were uncomfortable with the group's insistence on emphasising a Gaelic cultural mission alongside loyalism.[7] The relationship deteriorated in early 1971 when a number of people, including an unnamed unionist politician, contacted McClelland to inform him of Tara leader William McGrath's homosexuality and to claim that McGrath had only started the movement in order to "pick up" young men.[7] Roy Garland stated that McClelland confronted McGrath about the allegations and at a stormy meeting burnt the Tara ledger containing the names of his UVF members and left their headquarters.[8] By this time it had also become clear that Tara had little weaponry to speak of and few independent members and as such the link had become largely pointless anyway.[7]
Later years
McClelland was interned in late 1973 along with a number of other leading figures in the UVF.[9] By this point, however, de facto leadership of the UVF lay with Jim Hanna rather than McClelland[10] whilst he had been succeeded as Officer Commander by Tommy West.[2]
References
- ^ a b Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, UVF, Poolbeg, 1997, p. 21
- ^ a b Ed Moloney, Voice from the Grave, Faber & Faber, 2010, p. 334
- ^ Moloney, Voice from the Grave, p. 375
- ^ Steve Bruce, The Red Hand, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 147
- ^ Cusack & McDonald, UVF, p. 87
- ^ Cusack & McDonald, UVF, pp. 94–96
- ^ a b c Cusack & McDonald, UVF, p. 96
- ^ Cusack & McDonald, UVF, p. 95
- ^ Steve Bruce, The Red Hand: Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 117
- ^ "Dublin and Monaghan bombings: Cover-up and incompetence". page 1. Politico. Joe Tiernan. 3 May 2007
- v
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- Gusty Spence (1966)
- Samuel McClelland (1966–1973)
- Jim Hanna (1973–1974)
- Ken Gibson (1974)
- Unnamed Chief of Staff (1974–1975)
- Tommy West (1975–1976)
- John "Bunter" Graham (1976-date)
- Robert Bates
- John Bingham
- Frankie Curry
- David Ervine
- Billy Giles
- Mark Haddock
- Billy Hutchinson
- Trevor King
- Bobby McKee
- Jackie Mahood
- William "Frenchie" Marchant
- Billy Mitchell
- William Moore
- John Murphy
- Lenny Murphy
- Clifford Peeples
- Brian Robinson
- George Seawright
- Robert "Squeak" Seymour
- William Smith
- Billy Spence
- Harry "Harmless" Stockman
- James "Tonto" Watt
- Harris Boyle
- Mark "Swinger" Fulton
- William James Fulton
- Billy Hanna
- Robin Jackson
- Richard Jameson
- Robin King
- Billy McCaughey
- Robert McConnell
- David Alexander Mulholland
- Lindsay Robb
- Wesley Somerville
- John Weir
- Billy Wright
- Frankie Curry
- Billy Elliot
- John McKeague
- Winston Churchill Rea
- Wiliam Smith
- Michael Stone
- Glenanne gang
- Shankill Butchers
- Protestant Action Force
- Young Citizen Volunteers
- RTÉ Studio bombing (1969)
- Battle of St Matthew's (1970)
- McGurk's Bar bombing (1971)
- Battle at Springmartin (1972)
- Imperial Hotel bombing (1972)
- Belturbet bombing (1972)
- 1972 and 1973 Dublin bombings
- Rose & Crown Bar bombing (1974)
- Dublin and Monaghan bombings (1974)
- 1975 Conway's Bar attack (1975)
- Bleary Darts Club shooting (1975)
- Strand Bar bombing (1975)
- Miami Showband killings (1975)
- Donnelly's Bar and Kay's Tavern attacks (1975)
- October 1975 Northern Ireland attacks
- Reavey and O'Dowd killings (1976)
- Hillcrest Bar bombing (1976)
- Charlemont pub attacks (1976)
- Chlorane Bar attack (1976)
- Ramble Inn attack (1976)
- Glasgow pub bombings (1979)
- Avenue Bar shooting (1988)
- 1991 Cappagh killings (1991)
- 1991 Drumbeg killings
- 1991 Craigavon killings
- Loughinisland massacre (1994)
- 1994 Dublin-Belfast train bombing (1994)
- Quinn brothers' killings (1998)
- Murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine (2000)
- Jim Hanna (1974)
- John Francis Green (1975)
- Billy Hanna (1975)
- The Miami Showband (1975)
- Maire Drumm (1976)
- Larry Marley (1987)
- Martin Doherty (1994)
- Jackie Coulter (2000)
- Tommy English (2000)
- Combined Loyalist Military Command
- Loyalist feud
- Loyalist Volunteer Force
- Progressive Unionist Party
- Tara
- Ulster Army Council
- Ulster Constitution Defence Committee
- Ulster loyalism
- Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee
- Ulster Volunteers
- Ulster Workers' Council strike
- Volunteer (Ulster loyalist)
- Volunteer Political Party