Catholic Reaction Force
The Catholic Reaction Force is a cover name used by paramilitary groups to issued death threats against Protestants in Northern Ireland and claimed responsibility for murders since at least 1983. BBC
"The Catholic Reaction Force" was a cover name used by members of the Irish National Liberation Army group to carry out murders of Protestants in retaliation for killings of Catholics in the Troubles in the early 1980s. The cover name was used either because the INLA did not want to admit responsibility for the attacks or because they were not sanctioned by the INLA leadership. In 1983, men claiming to represent the Catholic Reaction Force used machine guns to attack a Pentecostal Church in Keady, Armagh. Three members of the congregation were killed
Thomas Crosbie Media quotes Jim Rodgers, lord mayor of Belfast in a January 9, 2002 news report where Rodgers describes The Catholic Reaction Force as a cover name for the Provisional Irish Republican Army. [1] Another report by the same news service cites Gerry Kelly of Sinn Féin, who denied that The Catholic Reaction Force exists and attributes reports about it to loyalist attempts to increase tension. [2]
External links
Sources
- Henry MacDonald, INLA -Deadly Divisions