Tara (Northern Ireland)

Tara was an Evangelical Protestant loyalist group founded in 1966 by William McGrath. McGrath was a prominent member of the Ulster Orange Order and has close links to Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). McGrath promoted an 'Irish' rather than 'Ulster' identity, combining historic protestant claims that the Celtic Church had been protestant with 'British Israelite' beliefs that the Anglo-Celtic race was one of the lost tribes of Israel. Tara's main believes were that the Catholic Church was a satanic conspiracy. They advocated for a reunited Ireland under the British crown, with the Roman Catholic Church to be treated as an illegal organisation and all Catholic institutions to be destroyed as idolatrous. Tara thought that all Protestants should be prepared to bear arms in preparation for a final battle with the enemy, Catholicism. Practices of Tara included promoting and pamphleteering an esoteric, hard-line brand of evangelical Protestantism, viewing the troubles as a spiritual battle. It was involved in operating along military lines and in clandestine arms acquisition and smuggling as well as engaging in political organising and lobbied unionist politicians to establish localised protestant militias. McGrath did not directly participate in violence but engaged in gun running as well as establishing contacts with British Israelite and racist groups abroad. The main controversy associated with Tara was the sexual abuse investigations that took place after former member, Roy Garland, repeatedly tried to have McGrath's role as housemaster in Kincora Boys' School investigated. in 1980 newspaper allegations about Kincora led to the arrest of McGrath and five other council staff. McGrath pled guilty in December 1981, and after receiving a four-year sentence, was expelled from the Orange Order. This ultimately led to the disbandment of the organisation.