Tara (Northern Ireland)
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Tara was a loyalist movement in Northern Ireland that espoused a brand of evangelical Protestantism.
The group was first formed in 1966 by William McGrath from an independent Orange Lodge that he controlled. It was intended as an outlet for virulent anti-Catholicism, with accussations of British Israelism having been made. Infiltration of the Ulster Volunteer Force was undertaken and Roy Garland, a leading UVF man during the 1970s and now an author, was a member. As a movement Tara sought to establish a Protestant Northern Ireland in which law and order would be paramount and Catholicism would be outlawed. Tara viewed Catholics as being in a grand conspiracy with communism and felt that a conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was inevitable. As a result members of Tara were expected to be proficient in weapon use and were encouraged to join the security forces.
Tara failed to attract much interest as its ideas were too esoteric for most loyalists. McGrath and his deputy John McKeague (also a leading member of the Red Hand Commandos) were both members of the Free Presbyterian Church, although the influence of Tara did not spread far beyond sections of this church. A 1981 arms find damaged the group whilst McGrath had already been caught up in the Kincora House scandal [1]. The movement faded soon afterwards.
