Forty-odd years ago there used to be what were called ‘butter mountains’, ‘milk lakes’ and ‘wine lakes’. They were the result of the then EEC’s guaranteed prices for farmers. They overproduced, knowing they’d be recompensed.
Anyway, it wasn’t all bad because the butter mountain was sold off at knockdown prices in supermarkets and in some cases distributed freely to pensioners and other people who met certain criteria.
Here, various charities and community groups were allocated butter to distribute. So naturally various organisations like the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul and the UDA were called into service.
The UDA, what? Seriously?
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Nationalists were aghast. After all, the UDA had already killed hundreds of Catholics, sometimes without even using their murder gang nom de guerre, the non-existent UFF. (Where was the UFF compound in Long Kesh?)
The inclusion of the UDA in distributing the EEC’s surplus butter confirmed the government and security forces’ ambivalent attitude to loyalist terrorists.
From early days the British army engaged with the UDA, allowed them to mount road checks and march around the........