Legion called to shun UVF
BY Ciaran Barnes
30/06/2006
The British Legion is coming under pressure to distance itself from Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members who plan to take part in weekend Somme commemorations.
The charity is involved a series of events throughout the North and in France in memory of the thousands of Irishmen who died in the bloody World War I battle.
Saturday is the 90th anniversary of the start of the fighting, and to mark the date up to 100 UVF men have travelled to the Somme to lay wreaths honouring the dead.
Many of those who died at the Somme were members of the old UVF, which was a legal organisation unlike the present day paramilitary version.
Victims of modern-day UVF violence are unhappy at what they see as an attempt by current UVF members to muscle in on the commemorations.
Belfast man Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond McCord Jnr was murdered by the UVF, called on the British Legion to distance itself from the paramilitary group.
At the time of his death Mr McCord Jnr was a member of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Every year on July 1, his grieving father leaves a wreath of poppies, bought from the British Legion, at the war cenotaph at Belfast’s City Hall in memory of his son.
“I want the British Legion to call on the UVF to stay away from the Somme commemorations in France and Northern Ireland,” said Mr McCord.
“The UVF has been trying to muscle in on these commemorations for years.
“They think they are carrying on the fight of those brave men who died at the Somme, when nothing could be further from the truth.
“The modern-day UVF is simply a drug-dealing and criminal gang that has caused more damage to the Protestant community than republicans ever did.”
A spokesman for the British Legion said that although it is taking a lead role in the weekend Somme commemorations the event is being organised by the British embassy in Paris.
He said the charity has no connection with and is not responsible for any other group taking part in the Somme commemorations.
