A new Open University archive project spotlighting the decommissioning of arms as part of the peace process is to be unveiled next week as part of Féile an Phobail.
And '28 July 2005 - 4 o'clock and all is well', a book by journalist Brian Rowan and online resource to supplement the growing OU 'Troubles' archive, includes the first-ever account of how the UDA put its arsenal beyond use.
A handwritten note penned last month by UDA brigadier Jackie McDonald describes how "on a cold snowy morning" (in 2010), the UDA, responding to an earlier decision by the IRA to decommission, brought a truck with weapons and explosives to Ballykinler British Army camp in Co Down.
"General John (de Chastelain - head of the decommissioning body) and his colleagues were waiting to destroy the weapons, count the ammunition, before detonating the explosives," he writes.
"The General invited me to help use the electric saw to cut up a few machine guns which I did with mixed feelings; but the time was right for them to be destroyed. General John asked me if they were all of the UDA/UFF weapons and I told them they were all that we had access to. All weapons and ammunition logged and recorded, we retired to the 'bunker' to watch and listen to the detonating of the explosives."
The launch of '28 July 2005 - 4 o'clock and all is well' will take place in St Mary's University College at 12 noon on Friday 8 August when Brian Rowan and guests will speak about the announcement by the IRA — on 28 July 2005 — that its armed campaign was over and the momentous events that flowed from that decision.
