page_title: Woodvale Defence Association
hierarchical_section_title: Woodvale Defence Association
caption_attribution_description: English: Mural commemorating the Woodvale Defence Association, Disraeli Street, Belfast
context_page_description: The Woodvale Defence Association was an Ulster loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast, an area immediately to the north of the Shankill Road.
  The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups. It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street, a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some birds. Sources differ on its actual date of foundation; many claim it was founded in 1969, around the same time as the Shankill Defence Association, which covered a neighbouring area, but Ian Wood's detailed study of the Ulster Defence Association dates its origin to June 1970, when a loyalist pipe band on the Springfield Road was attacked by Catholic protesters, leading to a riot.
  The WDA was initially led by Alan Moon, with Sammy Smyth acting as its main spokesman, although Moon was soon replaced by Harding Smith. Initial membership of the WDA was primarily middle-aged and disinclined to take violent action. However, Davy Fogel interrupted an early meeting to call for members to receive military training. Harding Smith instructed him to start this, members bringing both legally held guns and dummy weapons.
context_section_description: The Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) was an Ulster loyalist vigilante group in the Woodvale district of Belfast, an area immediately to the north of the Shankill Road.
  The organisation grew from a few smaller vigilante groups.  It initially met in a pigeon fancier's club on Leopold Street, a location found on the initiative of Charles Harding Smith, who kept some birds.  Sources differ on its actual date of foundation; many claim it was founded in 1969, around the same time as the Shankill Defence Association, which covered a neighbouring area, but Ian Wood's detailed study of the Ulster Defence Association dates its origin to June 1970, when a loyalist pipe band on the Springfield Road was attacked by Catholic protesters, leading to a riot.
  The WDA was initially led by Alan Moon, with Sammy Smyth acting as its main spokesman, although Moon was soon replaced by Harding Smith.  Initial membership of the WDA was primarily middle-aged and disinclined to take violent action.  However, Davy Fogel interrupted an early meeting to call for members to receive military training.  Harding Smith instructed him to start this, members bringing both legally held guns and dummy weapons.
  In 1971, many local loyalist groups merged to form the Ulster Defence Association.  Its core components were the Woodvale and the Shankill Defence Associations, the Woodvale organisation being the largest of its forerunners.  The new organisation was a loose confederation, and the Woodvale group continued to publish a newsletter, the WDA News.  Its 1 May 1972 issue carried a notorious article justifying genocide against Roman Catholics and calling for racial purity.  When the UDA was restructured, the WDA became its "B" Company.
  Several leading members of the UDA started out in the WDA, including Jim Anderson, Davy Payne, Ernie Elliott and John White.
caption: WDA mural on Disraeli Street, February 2012
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix J10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix J10 Ver1.00", "Image DateTime": "2010:10:19 22:19:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "2278", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/240", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:10:19 22:19:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:10:19 22:19:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "199/25", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2971/1000", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "64/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1728", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "4032", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "4032", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4164"}