Combined Loyalist Military Command The Combined Loyalist Military Command was an umbrella body for loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s , recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co - ordinating Committee . Bringing together the leaderships of the Ulster Defence Association , the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Red Hand Commandos , the CLMC sought to ensure that the groups would work towards the same goals . The group was made up of a number of ' Liaison Officers ' who were senior figures from the paramilitary groups themselves , as well as from the Ulster Democratic Party and the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party . The PUP was made up of representatives from both the RHC and UVF . 1991 Ceasefire . The CLMC first tested the idea of a ceasefire in 1991 when it called a halt to all action from 29 April to 4 July of that year . The only breach of the 10 - week ceasefire was the killing by the Ulster Freedom Fighters of Eddie Fullerton , a Sinn Féin Councillor in Buncrana , County Donegal . The UDA justified the killing , insisting that the ceasefire only applied within Northern Ireland . The ceasefire indicated that the CLMC was open to the possibility of ending its campaign and a line of negotiation was opened afterwards with Robin Eames , the head of the Church of Ireland . Paramilitary action . The only paramilitary action claimed in the name of the CLMC was a rocket attack on Crumlin Road Prison on 13 December 1991 , in retaliation for an IRA bomb in the prison on 24 November 1991 which killed two loyalist prisoners . An RPG - 7 was fired at the canteen block where republican prisoners were having their evening meal but the rocket bounced off a window grille and failed to explode 1994 Ceasefire . After a long process of consultation with members and activists across Northern Ireland , the CLMC called a ceasefire on 13 October 1994 , bringing loyalists fully into the peace process . The ceasefire was announced at a press conference at Fernhill House in the Glencairn area of the Shankill . Former UVF commander and PUP politician Gusty Spence read out the ceasefire statement which included an apology for the innocent victims of loyalist violence . " In all sincerity , we offer to the loved ones of all innocent victims over the past twenty years , abject and true remorse . No words of ours will compensate for the intolerable suffering they have undergone during the conflict . " Drumcree . The ceasefire , however , proved difficult to maintain and in 1996 the CLMC was forced to distance itself from the murder of Catholic taxi driver , Michael McGoldrick by the UVF ' s Mid - Ulster Brigade . They were further embarrassed by television pictures that year showing loyalists at Drumcree Church being led against the security forces by Billy Wright , at the time the leader of the Mid - Ulster UVF . Following the unsanctioned killing of a Catholic taxi driver by his brigade , Wright , along with the Portadown unit of the Mid - Ulster UVF , was stood down by the UVF ' s Brigade Staff ( Belfast leadership ) . Wright was soon expelled from the UVF for his renegade actions along with a number of his followers who soon reconstituted as the Loyalist Volunteer Force , continuing without ceasefire . Despite no longer having full control of Loyalism , the CLMC carried on and supported the signing of the Belfast Agreement . However since then the CLMC has effectively ceased to exist as the UVF and UDA were embroiled in a loyalist feud over Johnny Adair and commitment to the Agreement has wavered . Overall control of Loyalism has largely been lost to the CLMC and , whilst it is still theoretically maintained , it is no longer the important body that it once was . The subsequent Loyalist Commission ( LC ) represented the political work of the new McMichael - ite UDA politicos , known as the Ulster Political Research Group ( UPRG ) , which followed the now defunct UDP , and the David Ervine - inspired PUP . Led by the UPRGs liberal but tough East Belfast faction , Frankie Gallagher , and Dawn Purvis the new PUP leader , the testing post - Ervine vacuum murders by the CIRA - RIRA alliance were rendered ineffective when even the now larger hard - line Loyalist Volunteer Force refused to retaliate to several murders in March 2009 . Many duly credit the CLMC / LC bodies with the final say in the Northern Irish peace process , in that their groupings managed somehow to not only avoid retaliation to the March 2009 killings , but ( some argue ) that they brought , albeit unofficially , the un - aligned LVF more into the peace process . At the Belfast peace rally of 12 March 2009 a community - led body calling itself the Combined Loyalists for Peace appeared . Quoted in the Irish Independent they stressed that the loyalist communities had a peace strategy and would stick to it . UDA leader Jackie McDonald confirmed the group ' s thoughts on a BBC interview when he said loyalists would not be goaded into reaction adding that " clowns " would not spoil the loyalist peace strategy . In a carefully choreographed move Frankie Gallahgher met Belfast mayor , Tom Hartley of Sinn Féin in public that same day . Despite goading from rebel republicans , three levels of formerly hard - line loyalism were evident for the first time and in public – the community , the military , and the political . All were showing overt support for no return to violence . Subsequently , and merely weeks after the dissident republican murders , the groups which had made up the CLMC made separate announcements to the media that arms had been decommissioned . Dawn Purvis , now leader of the PUP mentioned above , quoting the input of influential liberal loyalists such as Billy Mitchell and Billy McCaughey , announced on behalf of the UVF and the RHC that all weapons had been put beyond use . Frankie Gallagher , speaking for the UDA / UFF via the UPRG , stated that their process was underway . This was confirmed by General de Chastelain hours later . The CLMC set out to see that any conflict resolution initiatives by Irish republicans in the peace process were matched by loyalist groups , and nearly 20 years after its creation , and despite that fact that ' in essence ' it no longer existed , it finally and successfully achieved its goals .