A group set up following the disbanding of the “B Specials” has paraded in Derry this afternoon.

Seventy members of the Ulster Special Constabulary Association paraded in the Waterside.

The event marked the “standing down” of the Derry branch of the association on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of its formation.

The parade, headed by the Churchill Flute Band and 13 flag bearers, left the car park at the former Waterside Health Centre on Glendermott Road and made its way to All Saints Church of Ireland on Clooney Terrace via Bond Street, May Street and Clooney Road.

Among those who took part in the parade was Willie Ross, former Ulster Unionist MP for East Derry.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Thomas Kerrigan, Foyle DUP MLA Gary Middleton and Derry City and Strabane District Council Alderman Maurice Devenney were among the congregation at the church service.

Following the service, the parade returned to Glendermott Road.

The British Government, on the recommendation of the Hunt committee on policing in Northern Ireland, disbanded the Ulster Special Constabulary, known as the “B Specials,” in 1970.

The report followed its involvement in the "Battle of the Bogside" in the summer of 1969.

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