ABSTRACT
Loyalists never managed to resolve the basic contradiction in their thinking – attacking the state to strengthen it. They brought some of this bafflement into custody. With few exceptions, this was a category of offender with little experience of imprisonment. They therefore lacked the organisational experience and prison traditions of Republicans, and their relations with the outside community were more restricted. Gusty Spence emerged as a leader, both in Belfast Prison and at the Maze. Several years into his life sentence, and with knowledge gleaned from extensive reading and observation, he adapted Republican structures and methods, making them palatable to his followers. The commonalities of the prisoner identity enabled Spence and other Loyalist leaders to negotiate acceptable relations with Republicans, who outside were their designated enemies. The differences between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association soon led to their segregation in the Maze and elsewhere.
