The brigade's current leader was never drawn into that process because he was not then a member of the UDA's decision-making inner council.

BBC: UDA godfathers 'directing murders'

UDA's announcement this time was undermined by the refusal to hand over its guns.

ECONOMIST: Violence threatens, but less than before

UDA's threat, it was yet another reminder that is unwise to assume that Northern Ireland will stay quiet for long.

ECONOMIST: Northern Ireland

The UDA's formal rejection of the Agreement in a statement last summer was followed by the dissolving of the UDP as a political party.

BBC: UDA godfathers 'directing murders'

The 1977 strike of the United Unionist Action Council (UUAC), led by Rev Ian Paisley and supported by the UDA and Ulster Workers Council, features heavily in this year's release of previously confidential files by the Public Record Office in Belfast.

BBC: The loyalist strike did not meet with the "success" of 1974

At the memorial of flowers placed by Mr Branagh's friends and family at the spot where he died, there were also messages of support from the UDA and the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

BBC: Bomb youth was UDA member