The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is a loyalist paramilitary criminal organization in Northern Ireland, outlawed as a terrorist group in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and which claims its aim is to defend the loyalist community from Republican terrorism. Its main objective has been to reject Unification of Ireland seeking to do so through either Ulster independence or maintenance of the Act of Union.
Its military branch has operated under the name Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF). Its activities, which have included attacks against civilians as well as members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, were originally intended by the UDA as retaliatory acts for Irish Republican violence against Protestants in Northern Ireland. The UDA/UFF has also killed at least three Irish republican paramilitary members.
The UDA officially ended its violent campaign in 2007 when it ordered its militant wing, the UFF, to stand down.
