Editing Red Hand Defenders (section)

==Links with the wider loyalist movement==
It has been alleged that the name "Red Hand Defenders" is merely a covername for members of the [[Loyalist Volunteer Force]] (LVF) and [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA) so the organizations can claim on the surface to have honoured their [[ceasefire]] agreements.<ref name="start.umd.edu"/><ref name="cdi.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cdi.org/program/document.cfm?documentid=2737&programID=39&from_page=../friendlyversion/printversion.cfm|title = Center for Defense Information| date=5 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/rhd.htm|title=Red Hand Defenders|access-date=30 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="state.gov">{{Cite web | title=Technical Difficulties | url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/31947.pdf | access-date=2025-02-18 | website=2009-2017.state.gov}}</ref> Similar accusations have been made regarding the name "[[Orange Volunteers]]", another loyalist paramilitary group that emerged in 1998.<ref name="cfr.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations/northern-ireland-loyalist-paramilitaries-uk-extremists/p9274|title=Northern Ireland Loyalist Paramilitaries (U.K., extremists)|work=Council on Foreign Relations|access-date=30 January 2015|archive-date=20 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620111722/http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations/northern-ireland-loyalist-paramilitaries-uk-extremists/p9274|url-status=dead}}</ref> Claims of responsibility by the RHD for certain attacks have overlapped with those of the Orange Volunteers.<ref name="state.gov"/> The [[Council on Foreign Relations]] indicates the membership of the RHD, LVF and Orange Volunteers likely overlap.<ref name="cfr.org"/> These organizations are generally composed of young [[Ulster Protestant]] males from Northern Ireland.<ref name="cfr.org"/>

McDonald (2001) characterizes the LVF and UDA ceasefire agreements as "official fiction".<ref name="guardian.co.uk">[http://guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/sep/30/northernireland.northernireland] 2001-09-29</ref> The LVF denies these claims, stating that its armed campaign has ended.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/northern_ireland/focus/205596.stm] 1999-03-16</ref> LVF members were aware that any breach of the ceasefire could result in the return to jail for those paramilitary prisoners freed as part of the [[Good Friday Agreement]] of April 1998.<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> This essentially served as an incentive for the groups to create a cover name.<ref name="cain.ulst.ac.uk">{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/rorgan.htm|title=CAIN: Abstracts of Organisations – 'R'|access-date=30 January 2015|archive-date=6 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206180554/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/rorgan.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> As a result, the actual existence of the RHD has consistently been called into question.<ref name="cdi.org"/> Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald have argued that the RHD and the Orange Volunteers are both overseen by a [[Christian fundamentalist]] preacher they identify only as the Pastor. The Pastor, a former associate of [[William McGrath (loyalist)|William McGrath]], [[John McKeague]] and [[George Seawright]] and a long-established British intelligence agent, is said by the authors to provide his own form of fundamentalist, [[anti-Catholic]] Protestantism to the two groups' fluid membership of young men, most of whom are also UDA or LVF members.<ref>Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF: Endgame'', Poolbeg, 2008, pp. 376-382</ref>