page_title: Young Citizen Volunteers (1972)
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Young Citizen Volunteers (1972) / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: Mural in support of the banned Ulster Volunteer Force and their youth wing, the Young Citizen Volunteers, Donegall Pass, Belfast. Note: The wall featuring this mural was demolished c. June 2014
context_page_description: The Young Citizen Volunteers of Ireland, or Young Citizen Volunteers for short, was an Irish civic organisation founded in Belfast in 1912. It was established to bridge the gap for 18 to 25 year olds between membership of youth organisations—such as the Boys' Brigade and Boy Scouts—and the period of responsible adulthood. Another impetus for its creation was the failure of the British government to extend the legislation for the Territorial Force—introduced in 1908—to Ireland. It was hoped that the War Office would absorb the YCV into the Territorial Force, however such offers were dismissed. Not until the outbreak of World War I did the YCV—by then a battalion of the UVF—become part of the British Army as the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.
context_section_description: The modern UVF was established in Belfast's Shankill Road area by Gusty Spence and others in 1966. The new group quickly undertook a sectarian campaign of arson and murder. During the early 1970s a group of loyalist youths who supported local football teams congregated on the Shankill Road and were regularly involved in clashes with the nationalist Unity Flats area on their way to and from football matches. One of their number was Billy Hutchinson who was close to the UVF and who organised these youths into a new UVF youth group, resurrecting the old YCV name in the process. Along with Billy Spence, Hutchinson oversaw a recruitment drive for the new group, which expanded quickly in its first few years of existence. The reformation of the YCV had been organised by Gusty Spence following his escape from prison, which dates the event to 1972.
caption: YCV mural off Belfast's Donegall Pass
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