MESSAGE from the Ulster Volunteer Force leadership calling for stringent security measures against the IRA in the Republic is due to be delivered to the Government today. The loyalists' message points out that the State was able to mount a major response to the IRA in Munster after the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe and against drug barons after the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin earlier this year.
There should be a similar response to the murder of Warrant Officer Jim Bradwell, who was killed in the IRA bomb attack on British army headquarters in Lisburn, Co Antrim, they say.
The message was passed to an intermediary in Belfast late last week and is expected to be conveyed to the Government today.
It is the first message from the loyalists since the party that represents them, the PUP broke off direct communications with the Government in February last in a dispute over the Government's position on parallel talks on a political settlement in the North.
It has also been learned that a key group of loyalists has confirmed support for the loyalist ceasefire, which reached its second anniversary yesterday.
The west Belfast brigade of the UVF held a meeting to discuss the ceasefire last Tuesday night and decided it should continue. It is believed the full brigade, of maybe more than 200 members, attended.
Other UVF brigades are to discuss the ceasefire, but the west Belfast group is one of the core elements of the loyalist paramilitary world and its views will be likely to have a significant impact.
It is now known that the UVF prisoners, who were being briefed by members of the PUP when the Lisburn bombs exploded, have drawn back from taking a position on the ceasefire.
The UVF prisoners, according to loyalist sources, have indicated to their leadership they do not want to be seen as "hostages" to influence the decision making by the organisation on the outside.
A week previously, prisoners belonging to the other loyalist organisation, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) said they were withdrawing support for what they termed the "peace process". However, UDA sources have made clear that this did not amount to a withdrawal of support for the loyalist ceasefire.
The umbrella body which represents the UDA, UVF and the small loyalist group, the Red Hand Commando, met on Saturday but had issued no statement by last night.
The Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) is expected to issue a statement in the coming days, however, and the expectation in loyalist circles was it would indicate a continuation of the loyalist ceasefire.
According to senior loyalist sources, the loyalist paramilitary leaders believe the IRA has made a strategic political and military error in restarting its campaign of violence.
They say the IRA campaign is a "threat to the peace, not the Union (of Northern Ireland with Britain)."
The loyalist message to the Government is understood to suggest that if the Government's condemnation of the IRA is not followed up by action, then the comments of both Government and opposition leaders would be regarded as "weasel words".
An important factor in support of the ceasefire lobby in the loyalist paramilitaries has been the isolation of the Mid Ulster loyalist figure, Mr Billy Wright, who had posed a challenge to the loyalist leadership during the Drumcree crisis in July.
In September, the CLMC issued a statement threatening elements who attempted to challenge the existing leadership, and this appears to have worked. Mr Wright has been silent since then. It is also known that dissident loyalist elements in the MidUlster area have been hit by RUC arrests.
Meanwhile, the leader of the splinter republican group, Republican Sinn Fein, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, yesterday issued a statement suggesting the Government was already reacting to the demands of unionists and loyalists for a "security response" against republicans.
Mr O Bradaigh, whose party's political stance is supported by the republican splinter group known as the Continuity Army Council, said homes of three of his party members in Roscommon, Donegal and Dublin had been raided by the Garda.
"Such action will not stop our members from campaigning for a British declaration of intent to quit Ireland," he said.