Editing Ulster Defence Regiment (section)

===Recruitment summary===
By March 1970, there had been 4,791 applications to join, of which 946 were from Catholics and 2,424 from current or former members of the B-Specials. 2,440 had been accepted, including 1,423 from current or former B-Specials.<ref>{{hansard|1970/mar/23/ulster-defence-regiment-applicants|house=written|access-date=15 October 2008}}</ref>

As the percentage of recruits from both communities did not reflect the religious [[demographics of Northern Ireland]], it never became the model Lord Hunt intended.<ref name=":0">Potter, p376</ref> Catholics continued to join the regiment, but the numbers were never representative. They were highest in 3 UDR, which had the highest percentage of Catholics throughout the Troubles, beginning with 30%, although this was a much lower percentage than that of the battalion area. Some [[Section (military unit)|sections]] were staffed entirely by Catholics, which led to protests from the B Specials Association that in 3 UDR "preference for promotion and allocation of appointments was being given to Catholics".<ref>Potter, pp57–58</ref> This was partially explained by the fact that in the mostly Catholic town of Newry, the Territorial Army company of the Royal Irish Fusiliers had been disbanded in 1968 and the vast majority of its soldiers had joined the UDR en masse.<ref name=Potter35>Potter, p35</ref>

The company commander of C Company, (Newry), 3 UDR, was the former commander of the TA unit and was pleased to see that virtually all of his TA soldiers were on parade, in the TA Centre, in exactly the same drill hall as they had previously used, for the first night of the new regiment. He noted there were some former B Specials in the room and observed they did not initially associate with the others – not on the grounds of religion but because the former TA soldiers all knew each other socially and sat together on canteen breaks whereas the former specials kept to their group of comrades, but within a week both had melded together.<ref name="Potter35" />

By 1 April 1970, only 1,606 of the desired 4,000 men had been enlisted, and the UDR began its duties much under strength.<ref name="Potter-p31">Potter, p31</ref> The regiment continued to grow, however.  In 1973 numbers peaked at 9,100 (all part-time) and at the time of amalgamation had stabilised its numbers at 2,797 permanent cadre soldiers and 2,620 part-time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/ni/security.htm#01|title=CAIN: Northern Ireland Society – Security and Defence|first=Dr Martin|last=Melaugh|website=cain.ulst.ac.uk}}</ref>