THE Ulster Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary organization outlawed after two Catholic men and a Protestant pensioner were killed by the group in 1966.
It is one of several militant Protestant groups that emerged in the mid-1960s, with Shankill loyalist Gusty Spence among its leaders.
Claiming the name of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), which had formed in opposition to Home Rule more than half a century earlier, it carried out the first sectarian killing of the modern Troubles, three years before republicans claimed their first victim.
The group emerged at a time of unionist fears of a growing republican threat and coincided with the rise of Ian Paisley's firebrand style of politics. Although small, the UVF initially had pockets of support and membership outside Belfast. It is understood Gusty Spence was initiated into the group in the Pomeroy area of Co Tyrone.
Who were the first victims of the UVF?
The murders of John Scullion, Peter Ward and Matilda Gould led to then Stormont Prime Minister Terence O'Neill outlawing the UVF.
John Scullion was shot dead by a Shankill Road UVF gang outside his home in Clonard, off the Falls Road in west Belfast in 1966 and became the first victim of the Troubles.
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Mr Ward was shot dead after he and several friends left the Malvern Bar on the Shankill Road in west Belfast on June 26 1966.
Ms Gould (77) died a day later, seven weeks after being badly burned when the UVF fire-bombed her home in the Shankill Road area of Belfast.
She lived next door to a Catholic-owned bar and off licence, which the gang had intended to torch.
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When did the UVF call a ceasefire?
The UVF, along with affiliate group, the Red Hand Commando, went on to carry out more than 500 sectarian murders during the Troubles before finally calling a ceasefire in 1994.
Historian and Irish News columnist Brian Feeney said the loyalist paramilitary group was responsible for introducing the gun into Irish politics twice during the last century.
"They brought the gun into politics in '66 and brought explosives into Northern Ireland," he said.
"They also brought the gun into politics in 1913 when they formed and started to import weapons."
The organisation was responsible for a series of cross-border bomb attacks in early 1969, which at the time were blamed on the IRA.
It was only when Thomas McDowell from Kilkeel in Co Down died after being injured in an attack at a power station at Ballyshannon in Co Donegal that it emerged the UVF was behind the attacks.
The dead loyalist was also a member of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers.
Mr Feeney said the UVF existed to resist "any kind of change" both towards Home Rule and Terence O'Neill's reforms in the 1960s.
Commentator Roy Garland, who wrote a book about Gusty Spence, said in the lead-up to the 1966 murders, unionists feared that republicans were planning a fresh rising in Belfast.
“There was actually concern that there was going to be an attempt to redo 1916 in 1966, that was a real fear,” he said.
“Rumours were being spread, I think deliberately, that the IRA was going to take City Hall and do what they did in 1916.
“I think people were being influenced, including the UVF.”
Mr Garland said global fears about communism also played their part in loyalist thinking, after the leadership of what was left of the IRA following the 1950’s border campaign had lurched to the left.
“Anything to do with the Cold War was frightening."
He said both John Scullion and Peter Ward were branded communists in some loyalist circles in a bid to justify their murders.
“Gusty Spence said that was a lot of nonsense and they were ordinary Catholics in his view," he added.
Did the British Army work with the UVF?
Mr Garland believes that British intelligence along with some in the unionist establishment may have had a hand in the creation of the UVF.
"One theory to this day is that someone wanted to stir up tensions between the two communities," he said.
Gusty Spence would later be the man chosen by loyalists to declare their 1994 ceasefires.
He spoke of "abject and true remorse" for the suffering caused during the Troubles.
Mr Garland said he always denied involvement in the 1966 murders.
"He denied anything to do with those killings but did not deny being involved in the situation at that time," he said.
The former British soldier is regarded by some as having been a major influence in nudging the paramilitary group towards ending its sectarian campaign.
Mr Garland said he took "big risks" later in life.
"Some unionists will not recognise that because they say he had blood on his hands," he said.
"Whether he had or not, you have to give credit where it is due."
Was the UVF linked to the Shankill Butchers?
During the Troubles the UVF was linked to some of the most sadistic killings carried out with one of its units, branded the Shankill Butchers, often cutting the throats of their innocent victims.
Since their 1994 ceasefire, the UVF has been linked to multiple murders.
It has also been caught in the grip of several feuds with rival loyalist gangs including the UDA and LVF.
In 2007, the group renounced violence while it is claimed that it decommissioned its weapons two years later.
However, its killing spree continued and in 2010 it shot dead loyalist Bobby Moffett on the Shankill Road.
In subsequent years, the group has been linked to drug dealing and various other forms of criminality, including murder.
Its east Belfast unit has been a regular target of the Paramilitary Crime Task Force due to its drug dealing activities.
Last weekend the leadership of the east Belfast UVF were ordered to stand down by the organisation’s central command.
How that faction chooses to respond remains to be seen.