The Third Force was the name given to a number of attempts by Northern Irish politician Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to create an Ulster loyalist 'defensive militia'.

At a number of these rallies, large groups of men displayed what were purported to be firearms certificates.

[2] At Gortin the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) were attacked and two vehicles overturned.

It grew from opposition to the increasing pace of co-operation between the governments of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, as well as in response to the murder of Robert Bradford.

In May 1987, in revenge for the killing of former UDR soldier Charles Watson, a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer who had just attended Watson's wake fired several shots into a restaurant in Castlewellan, County Down, with a Third Force armband on his person.