The Red Hand Commando are a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary group closely linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ... The Ulster Volunteer Force (more commonly referred to as the UVF) are a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. ...

The RHC were formed in 1972 in the Shankill area of west Belfast by John McKeague (who was also involved with Tara). Membership was strong in the Sandy Row and Shankill Road areas of Belfast, as well as east Belfast and parts of County Down. In 1972 the RHC agreed to become an integral part of the UVF. It retained its own structures but in 'operational' matters agreed to take their lead from the UVF and share arms and personnel (Garland 2001 pg.151). The group was declared illegal in 1973.^[1] Shankill is an area in Belfast, Northern Ireland. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... John McKeague (died 29 January 1982) was an Ulster Loyalist figure. ... Tara was a loyalist movement in Northern Ireland that espoused a brand of evangelical Protestantism. ...

The RHC were part of the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC). The Loyalist Retaliation and Defence Group (LRDG) was believed to be associated with the RHC. The UVF and Red Hand Commando supported the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and maintained a ceasefire from 1994 until the autumn of 2005. On May 3, 2007, along with the UVF, the Red Hand Commandos declared they were renouncing violence and ceased to exist as a paramilitary organisation. The organisation stated that they would retain their weapons but put them "beyond reach" and "under the control of the UVF leadership, but not accessible for use by members". The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning stated this was not acceptable.^[2] The Combined Loyalist Military Command was an umbrella body for Loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s. ... The Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement and, more rarely, as the Stormont Agreement) was signed in Belfast on April 10, 1998 by the British and Irish Governments and endorsed by most Northern Ireland political parties. ... The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) was established to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Ireland, as part of the peace process. ...

According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN project, the RHC have killed 13 people, including 12 civilians and one of its own members.^[3] The University of Ulster (UU) is a multi-centre university located in Northern Ireland and is the largest single university on the island of Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland. ...

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