In March and April 1969 the UVF and Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) carried out a number of sabotage bombings in and around Belfast and blamed them on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in an attempt to get rid of the current Northern Ireland Stormont government who hardline Loyalists felt was too liberal towards Irish nationalism.

RTÉ security officer Vincent Brien was knocked to the ground when he was standing 25 feet from the blast, but he was uninjured.

The statement read "the attempted attack was a protest against the Irish Army units still massed on the border in Co Donegal".

[9][10] The UVF carried out two more bomb attacks in the Republic that year: on the Wolfe Tone memorial in Bodenstown, County Kildare on 31 October,[11] and on 26 December on the O'Connell Monument in Dublin.

On 18 February 1970, it bombed a 240-foot radio mast on Mongorry (or Mongary) Hill, near Raphoe, County Donegal, putting the transmitter out of action.