In January 1913, Ulster Unionist resistance to Home Rule entered a more militant phase with the establishment of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Work published on the UVF to date (most notably, A.T.Q. Stewart, The Ulster Crisis: resistance to Home Rule 1912-1914 [London 1967]) has concentrated largely on the Larne gunrunning of 24 and 25 April 1914, when, in a meticulously planned operation 24,600 rifles were landed in Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee and dispersed throughout the province. But what about more mundane issues, such as the organisation, officering and personnel of the UVF between January 1913 and July 1914? Were the Ulster Volunteers an efficient military ‘force’, or simply a theatrical ‘farce’, designed to frighten Liberal politicians and boost attendance figures at Ulster Unionist demonstrations?
The organisation of the UVF was a constant problem for the Belfast Unionist leadership. The UVF itself largely grew out of the Orange Order and the Unionist Clubs, which had started to drill by March 1912. Other UVF units had more obscure origins. In Magherafelt, the ‘Catch my Pal’ Temperance Society had started drilling twice weekly by May 1912; while in Londonderry, the Church Lads’ Brigade provided a precursor to the UVF in that city. Elsewhere, many units were formed on purely private initiative. By October 1912, Osbourne Young, a former sergeant in the Imperial Yeomanry, had established a small cavalry unit in Omagh. Some of these units only reluctantly came under the control of UVF headquarters in Belfast. As late as October 1913 Newry Unionist Club was trying to reassert its control over the local UVF.
