An outlawed Northern Ireland group that attacked the province’s Catholic minority for decades and committed Ireland’s deadliest terror strike renounced violence Thursday and pledged to disarm, a surprise breakthrough for peace….

The Ulster Volunteer Force will formally cease involvement in all illegal activities at midnight, said the group’s elder statesman, 73-year-old Gusty Spence, who was convicted of the UVF’s first murders in 1966.

From The New York Times