Preaching a hard-line and somewhat esoteric brand of loyalism, Tara enjoyed some influence in the late 1960s before declining amid a high-profile sex abuse scandal involving its leader William McGrath.
[5][6] The group espoused a form of historical revisionism, arguing that the early inhabitants of Ireland had come from modern Scotland before being displaced by the Irish, whilst also utilising Gaelic terms and symbols.
[12] A more formalised structure was adopted with Garland as deputy leader, Clifford Smyth as Intelligence Officer and leading roles for Frank Millar Jr and Protestant Telegraph journalist David Browne, whilst Davy Payne was also associate with the group, albeit at a lower level.
[21] In an attempt to inject some life into the group, which unlike the UVF, RHC and UDA was not active in shooting or bombing attacks, McGrath imported a quantity of rifles, machine guns and ammunition from hard-line Protestants in the Netherlands with whom he had close links.
[23] Many Tara members were Royal Ulster Constabulary reservists with access to standard police weapons like 9mm Walther pistols and Sterling submachine guns.
Near Dromore, County Down, Tara members assembled home-made submachine guns based on the Sterling, with a rifled barrel which made them far more reliable than those manufactured by the UDA.
In June 1981 a Tara member from Dromore, Walther Crothers, walked free from Belfast Crown Court after being fined £600 for possessing detonators, firearm components and a quantity of assorted ammunition.
[23] The group continued to speak of a coming "doomsday" scenario in which they would have to take the lead in battling the Irish government and returning the island to its pre-Catholic roots, although beyond some drilling Tara undertook no real activity.
[25]In June 1974 Tara published a full-page advertisement in Belfast newspapers calling for the Catholic Church to be proscribed under the law and claiming civil war was inevitable.
[28] McGrath pleaded guilty to fifteen charges related to child sex abuse in December 1981 and was sentenced to four years imprisonment, representing the effective end of the by then near-moribund Tara.
[29] The name reappeared in 1986, when a leaflet denouncing the Anglo-Irish Agreement and predicting again the onset of the doomsday scenario was circulated, although this seems to have been the work of a handful of die-hards rather than a reorganised movement.