The

,
murder of
LVF leader Billy
Wright has
ignited the most
violent spell in
the North's
recent history
and threatened
the peace
process.
He may well·
have· considered
it an appropriate
legacy.

By Emer Woodful

o
o

MAGILL 30

,"Billy Wright's death won't be mourned by nationalists. A sign daubed on
a wan near the area of the killing ~aid 'King .Rat: May He Rot In Hell:"
I
t's
New Year's Eve in Belfast. the
. '.~h:iS.tmas t.ree:s winking, and. we're all
. sitting at a .big fire, poppmg open a
bottle of champagne. We tum on the
radio to hear the midnight chimes of Big
Ben. To a New Year. And then the plummy
l Radio 4 newsreader announces the echoing,
silencing news that a Catholic. man's been
shot dead in Nqxth Belfast. Thirry-one-year-
old Eddie Treanor, shot dead while out
having a drink in.his girlfriend's local, the
Clifton Tavern, on Cliftonville Road. The
second reprisal for the killing dead ip. the
Maze prison, fou]" days earlier, of LVF
leader Billy Wright byjwo INLAmen.
Billy' Wright's death won't be mourned
by nationalists .. A sign daubed on a wall
near the area of the killingsaid "King Rat:
May He Roe.In Hell. "
Then, ten days later, 28-year-old
Catholic cross-community worker Terry
Enrightis gunned down outside a nightclub
in Belfast, in the next LVFkilling, At a press
conference the next day announcing the
Progressive Unionist Party's return to the
talks process, its l~ader, David Ervine, said
that "a fine young than has lost his life,
caused-by some obscure group of headcases
receiying polirical direction from
anonymous but respectable, politicjans."
Whatever about the long-terrn
implications of the killing of Billy Wright,
what we do know is that he was, for some,
the working-class hero vlrhorepresented the
fear and alienation that many unionists feel
-about what -theysee as the threat to their
culture, and a situation where the union"
would not be the same.
On New Year's Day; even the Church of
Ireland primate, Robin Eames, spoke of the
deep feeling of resentment among
Protestants over the British government's
handling of the peace process. He said that
Nortliern Ireland was "at the beginning of a
verydarkand very dangerous period."
What made Wright stand out, however,
.was that he openly supported violence and
was prepared to die for the union. He did
strike a chord among loyalists who believe
that the republican moverri~nt won
concessions through violence and that
loyalists should be following the same
course-s-and even, regardless of any
possible concessions, that it was Worth
dying rather than deny the union anyway.
Some commentators say he was nothing but
a maverick. But he was able to defy the
Combined Loyalist Military Command's
death threat against him in the summer of
1996, and in doing so he got the support of
about 5,000 people, and the DUP's Willie
McCrea, at a rally in his hometown of
Porta-down.
He did strike fear into the hearts of
Catholics. All the shops in Portadown, even
D\rnnes· Stores, closed obediently, "as a
mark of respect" for his funeral. His
constituency was not that of the Ulster
Unionist middle classes but of the poorer,
angry, younger men.
So just who was Billy Wright? "1 am a
mid-Ulster. loyalist. .. and 1 can equate my
feelings to 97 per cent of the unionist
population," he told/me when 1 met him
twice in the summer of 1996. Wright, said
to have been the former mid-Ulster
commander .ofthe UVF, had just played a
pivotal role in the Drumcree standoff. Our
last meeting was on 29 August 1996, the
day before the expiration of the Combined
Loyalist Military Command's death threat
"Billy Wright was,
for some, the
working-class hero
who represented
the fear and alienation
that many unionists feel
about what they see
as the threat to their
culture."
against him and Alex Kerr, the former UDA
commander in South Belfast.
The drill was that you phoned Wright,
got picked up in a car park and were driven
to his horne, via a number of safety checks.
The car slowed down at different houses,
and a wave was given, and returned, from
f
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".
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:D
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o
.:::
m
r-
r-
behind a curtain. Then, later, a mysterious
wave, and a nod to a dark figure concealed
in a~big hedge, just at the entrance to his
housing estate in Portadown.
And there, in his near-sitting-room, in his
fairly large detached house with a
manicured garden, rich with flowers, and
complete with a basketball hoop, sat Billy
Wright. A trim 36-year-old then, who didn't
drink or smoke, who had tattoos, dressed in
denim, wore a gold ear-ring, and talked
about his little dog Levi, who'd JUSthad an
operation. All around were ~he Iiule: china
religious plaques announcing things like
"Jesus' Name.Is Sweet To Every Ear." In the
Laura Ashley-style room, with bordered
wallpaper, his partner serves coffee in
pottery mugs. All so normal, except for a
feeling of tight control and anger that
sometimes seeps through the man who's
said to have ordered the random killing of a
Catholic man on 7 July, the day before the
Drumcree standoff. Lurgan taxi driver
Eddie McGoldrick had just had a new baby
and had also just graduated from Queens
University.
Wright denied having had anything to do
with it, and said that he was "arrested for
public consumption" and knew of no
loyalist involvement in the killing. The UVF
and the UDA also denied any involvement,
and Wright offered the completely
unfounded suggestion that it may have been
a drug-related killing.
That killing is said to have added to the
rift between Wright and the CLMC, who
were backing the cease-fire. There had been
growing unease among Wright and his
supporters, and the UVF, which Was said to
be angry about the violence at Drumcree,
the ,McGoldrick killing and the moving
continued on page 34
MAGILL 31

"There, in his neat sitting-room, in his fairly
large detached house with a ~anicured garden,
rich with flowers, and complete with a
basketball hoop, sat Billy Wright. "
further away from any dialogue. As a result, to comply with this directive [to leave
in August 1~96, after Drumcree, the UVF Northern Ireland within 72 hours] will
issued a statement saying ithad stood down result in summary justice for your
one of its units in Portadown, treasonable and subversive activities."
At the time, support for the
pair carne from the DUP's Ian
Paisley junior, who said that
"any death threat on any
individual by any organization is
contemptible and reprehensible,
and I condemn it with every
ounce of strength I have," he
said.
Therewas a quite a fuss about
Wright's having met the UUP
leader David Trimble at
Drumcree. Wright had manned
the barricades, fortified with a
mechanical digger and a slurry
tank filled with petrol that could
have been sprayed over the
security forces in the event of any
battle developing. The
newspaper headlines barked
banners like "Mallon Accuses
Trimble of Breaking the Law"
and "Trimble's, Talk with Wright
Raises Queries about His Refusal
to Meet Garvaghy Group."
The SDLP accused Mr Trimble
of "breathtaking hypocrisy," and
Bob McCartney of the UK
Unionists said the meeting was
"questionable." Wright. himself
said David Trimble had asked
It is believed th~t Wright, and Alex Kerr, him to intervene to prevent any violence.
then set up the Loyalist Volunteer Force, When asked why he was at Drumcree if he
which led to their being issued with the wasn't even a member of the Orange Order,
CLMC's death threat. It stated that "failure Wright replied, "How dare you, dear, how
MAGILL 34
date you ... my family's buried at Drumcree.
I will not let you tell me where I can or
cannot go, or that I cannot speak to my MP
ata time when your government is speaking
to the IRA."
It was difficult to try and figure out Billy
Wright, the man who described the cease-
fire as the "happiest day of my life," who
had worked in the past as a religious
preacher, but who'd abandoned practising
his beloved religion because of the dilemma
he Saw in his support for violence. He told
me, "I believe that true Protestantism is
about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
quite right to say that if you were practising
that faith then you couldn't align it to your
other beliefs."
Two of his sisters were married to
Catholics. He'd no problem with Catholics
per se, he said. "I lived among nationalist
people, I grew up with them," he said. "I'd
no difficulty with them. If only the IRA and
Sinn Fein would recognize our right to exist,
to be British, then I believe the two
communities ... could come together, and a
new form of life. within a British context
could evolve." , -
Indeed, he had grown up mixing with
Catholics in South Armagh. Although he
was born in England, he'd returned to
Northern Ireland at the age of four and
settled in the mainly Protestant village of
Mountnorris. He played Gaelic football
with Catholics in nearby Whitecross and,
unusually, also learned Irish history. He
moved to Portadown and, when he was 15,
was jailed for six years for possession of a
firearm and hijacking.
His involvement in violence started, he
told me, because he saw his neighbours
being "systematically murdered." Three of
his own family were killed: his uncle, who
was a member of the Salvation Army, his
father-in-law and his brother-in-law.
"You know," he said, "when you've
looked into the coffins of the ones you love,
and you've heard the feeble excuses corning
from nationalists, words weren't good
enough." ,
He would never condemn any loyalist
paramilitary killings. He always tried to
justify them by arguing that all the people
killed by the loyalists were involved. with
the IRA. But that simply was not the truth.
Many ordinary Catholics were among
the 41 people killed by the brutal band of
the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade.
Seventy-nine-year-old Rose Anne
Mallon, shot dead while answering the
phone in her Dungannon home. Two
teenage girls killed while serving in a mobile
shop ina Craigavon housing estate, and the
man who tried to help, also gunned down.
Two. young schoolboys shot on their lunch
break while in an amusement arcade in
Armagh, and the Foxes, a couple in their
late seventies, killed in their isolated
farmhouse in Moy.
What of their families? "I can
understand their feelings," he said, "and as
a man. who has buried three of his own
family' I can sympathize with them.
Nevertheless, I hold my views dear to' my
heart, and I think, by and large, that the
unionist population has been the biggest
victim in all of this conflict. " ..
A real family irony is that Wright's own
grandfather, a Presbyterian, is said to have
suffered discrimination from fellow
Protestants because he spoke out against
Catholic discrimination and actually stood
for election, as an independent, against the
big unionist party, and won. The grandson
also ,put it up to the Ulster Unionists, in a
different way.
. "King Rat" took the violent path. He did
two further spells in prison. In 1982, he was
charged with murder and attempted
murder, on the evidence of UVF supergrass
Clifford MacKeown, and Wright spent a
year in. prison on remand. But the charges
were dropped when McKeown retracted his
evidence. It was in prison, however, that'
Wright started reading the Bible, and when
he was released in 1983 he decided to "live
quietly through Christ." But two
developments propelled him back to. ,right, because of that'constit:Ul'ion, to take
violence and away from his faith: the
Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and the
publication of the Framework Document.
He saw the setting up of thejoint secretariat, yean; fi)r threatening to kill aPortadown
)""e'd one.eye on the Oprah WinfreyShow~rld the.othe,ron the bigrwindow,
vetting each car that· ~rove pp the cul-de-sac.i',J
at Maryfield and the role for the Irish woman,Gweri Reed, whom he'd known for
government as a betrayal; The man who 20 ,years. The incident happened in
told me that he "Was the "first leading Portadown, just two weeks before I~cfirst
loyalist to call {cir a loyalist cease-fire" met him-and heard his many denials of
believed. that th~ Framework Document any involvement in violence. What
meant that the "unionist people were to go ha.e,pened was that seven masked men,
into a united Irelaud. " But what of the factarmed withsledgehamil1ers and pickaxes.'
that, under the terms of t!:le Framework attacked the boyfriend of the woman's
Document, any uniry jcould only her daughter, .in a. punishment beating. The
happen i:f there was democratic consent for woman's daughtetNicola tried to shield her
it? "Now please. don't insult us," he said. boyfriend, and was injured. The next day,
"We have the Framework Dqcument,:and Wright told Mrs Reed that "l:m going to
fucking shoot you/ after he'd also warned
we have 'calls for it to. be imposed ... 'Please
don't tell Us nothing will be-imposed.' 'her son that "I'm corning after you." The.
The Irish Constitution was also one of judge said he fou,!'1d.Wright's evidence
his mantras. He felt it "justified the murder"utterly unconvincing."
of British citizens, and having spent many After telaehearing: the-Reed £amHy hail to
years in the H Blocks,"~esaid, and Having lea\,e~ortherp,. Ireland, and they .are 1\0W in
"listened to young nationalists singing theira witness-protection scheme in Britain.
$0 just where was the C0mprofi1isein this
man who- talked of dearly wanting peace?
The father o£ two vgiels-and two' boys,
divorced rand ill a second relationship, who
wisheli for 'his children that "there would be
peace .and reconciliation, and .that the
country -would flourish;"
It seemed what fie' teally wanted was
total victory.jand total peace, He didn't
think so. 'He' wanted the "consliirutionaf
issne solved"(within a British context}, he
said, and fdtthat then the "parades issue
ana similar things like that could be settled
without. the:U.nderlying threat of it being
more devious .than it appears."
1\nd there he was; c<i1mlydrinking coffee
in that same sitting room with the stripy
wallpaper, where the armed, and hooded'
colour party later stood guard over his
Lenin-lookalike corpse, with the thin face
and the tiny pencil-line beard.
He'd one eye on the Oprah 'Winfrey
Show and the other oa the big window,
vetting each car that drove up the cul-de-
sac. "My heart goes out to my family at a
time Iikerthis.' But he seemed so unafraid.
"Welf, if you thinkyou're right, thenyou're
risht. And I have done notihing wrong
except express an opinion that's the
prevalent qpirlion of the people of Northern
Ireland, and l will always do that, dear, n.o
mat~erwhatthe price." The weird calmness
from a man. who's surv~ved gun and bomb
attacks. "WeIl, I've been prepared to die for
long many a year. 1don'i wish to die, but at
the; end of the day no one will force their
opinions down my thro~t-:-no-one."
Since Billy Wright's death [and at the time
of jgQ~ngto press], eigne Cathplics a1\d one
Protestant have been murdered. And even
while Wright was in prison last year, the LVF
is believed to have been responsible for the
songs, believe me they: drawstheir opinions ki;Uings of tvy'o-G,fI.Amen, Sean Brown, in.
because of their education, 'and because Derry, and Gdhy Devlin, fr0ffi Glen.gorrnley.
they are brought llpto believe they have a There have also been the many attacks on
churches. Only" time will answer the
away this land'." . , questions 6f whether BillyWrightreally was
Billy Wright was back in prison last year, jU6~ a maverick, and whether he'll be an
listening to those songs. He was given eigp.t inspiration for others, and in his death
become a hydra-headed killer .•
MAGILL 3S

On August 29, 1996, shorJly before the
, work document came about, he understood like many loy"al-
CLMC'sdeath threat against him expired,
EllJer'WOJdfulinterviewedLVF leader
BUly Wright in his Porta down home
Emer Woodful: How did you hear about the death threat?
Billy Wright: Well, I was aware of a conspiracy after
Drumcree, I had been informed from Belfast that my name
was to be blackened, and an excuse sought to execute me. So .
this has been an ongoing process since I took- my stand with
the Orange Institution at Drumcree,
And who tipped you off?
Well, I'm not going to say that. But what I can say is that I
have a lot of fine friends in Belfast, and further afield, and
there are a lot of fine loyalists in Belfast. .
Why do you think this death threat was issued against you?
I have been very vocal in my opposition. to the form ofpoli-
tics that the PUP has espoused; Now, I respect their right to
hold their point of view, but ifthey claim to monopolize the
opinion of loyalists and claim''to be speaking oil behalf of
people that vehemently disagree with them; and then twto
impose a silence.well I think that's moraIfywrong, and I will
not allow people to impose their form'of politics onme. And
r most certainly wouldn't tty to impose my politics on them.
You have..been associated with! Alec Kerr, who was expelled
from the DDA in 1994. How did you get involved with him?
I knew Alec when the war 'Was on." He's a very asticulate
young man, and very presentable, and let me S3iY that, prior
to the cease-fire, Alec Kerr was-one of the men who strove to
try and bring about a settlement in Northern -Ireland.
However, he recognized, shortly into the process, that the
IRA were not sincere, and when the production of the frame-
ists that if the basis for peace was to be the framework doc-
ument, then the unionist people were to go into a united
Ireland.
The UVF leadership is obviously really angry with you.
Earlier this month they stood down what they called one of
 the units inPortado isn't forthCOming, and.If they continue to why do you feel so threatened?
w~re teferrutg to? take British lives, and if the security forces Well, consent, now, come on. Let's be total-
No, well;I'm not'"a,.m~{ll~erof any: organi- don't handle them in the mariner that they ly ~onest .We've1ieen the Irish Republic seal
.satiop, so they coulan't siand me down. ought to, then I can understand why loyal- the~border because of a cattle problem. Why
BUt~peJ1why do yOllugfoyalists look up to ist violence takes place. didn't they do it during the Troubles?
yeti s<;i!llUclias a hero 1fyou're not a mem- Allddoyou support loyalist violence? The constitution of the Irish Republic
bit e£ anyorganisaiion? I've always supported the right of the union- justifies the murder of British citizens ... and
Well, I'm nqt conscious of anyoae looking ist people to defend themselves. You know, hav;illg spent .many years in the H Blocks
up to me as:a hero. I think a lor' of people when you've looked into the coffins of and listened to young nationalists singing
see defianceifi me, and ram def{ant. .I feel loved ones, like I have, and you've heard the their songs, believe me they draw their opin-
aggrieved atene way that the unionist peo- feeble excuses coming from nationalists, ions because of their education, and because
ple havebe¢n treated ,by the IRA and, when the gunmen were coming out of the they are brought up to believe that they
'in.deed, bytlle governmep.ts. I'm very vocal Irish Republic and rnurderingpeople along have a right to take away this land.
01;1 it, and J;mn6t going to be frightened the border, words weren't good enough." I know you told me before that you were a
iutokeeping quiet. But I say it again. Both sides in this conflict l'eligious preacher, and that you had to give
B(.It1)ow do YQU feel about the way many have recognized that the only way Jorward it up, because you were afraid of the risk of
members of the Catholic community have is through dialogue, so the IRA must call a public appearances. How do you marry
been treatesf by loyalist paramilitaries, for permanent cease-fire. your strong religious beliefs with, say, sup-
e:lj;ample? You're saying you want talks, but you also port in the past of the UVF?
I can understand their feelings, and as a say you understand how people support Well, .I'll say it again, when you look into
man that has buried three of his own fami-
ly; I Can sympathise with them .
o'

..Nevertheless, I hold my views dear to my

heart, and!!tcthink by and large that the
uJ;lionisf;roputation has been the biggest
an
victim in of this' conflict,
Ybu say you lost three of your ownJamily
members. What. are your feelirtgsabout the
recentkillings in mid-Ulster, like the brutal
killing of Michael McGoldrick, die taxi dri-
overfrom LurgaQ.; the young tennis player
Gareth Parker in Belfast; and Niall
Donovan,~ho' 'w~nt to a chipper in a
Protestant part of Dungannon; who was
. brutally murdere4, and, I think, who's
innards were actually taken-out?
Well, I know like all other killings, I wish
that they didn't take place ..
···But would you condemn tliem?
..: CI don't know the circl!lirhsiancesofthem, but
I could say that I dosympatmse with the C/toss-commlJl1ilf wol'klll' 1111'1'YfIWIght'$ tuneNJ/ COI'_ WintIs Its way tlfpough west BeUasten POlIte to tile Holy
families, but having beel1thrbugh it myself, 1l'inity Chlll'Ch on Jal11J8l'Y14. MP.Enl'ldhl was shotdBatt by tile LVFoutsltle a Beltast n/lJ/ltetUb
Thope and pray that thelRAwil'lcaU a per- violence. Isn't that you basically supporting the coffins of loved ones, who died at
1.11~nentcease-fire, and*tllat death and violence? - prayer, and died at work, and died for every
destruction .will be 'gone forever from I have looked into the coffins of protestant reason you can think of, and then you're
Northern Irelaud;)3ut I'll ta~e the Sinn Fein people who were shot because of their faith, told by your security forces, 'we can't stop
1:Ineand say there's J}.o point in eondemna- shot because of their work, shot where they this, nobody can stop dais, but it's wrong
tion.. . prayed, and I stood as the security forces also to defend yourself,' Lhave
If you say you're not a .member0f any para- stood and said 'we can't do anything about to say that people have the right to defend
military organization, Why is the Combined this.' And I watched sincere Roman themselves.
Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) issu- Catholic people break their heart, they What exactly does that mean?
ing a deat:hthre.at againstYo~? couldn't stop it. Now really what is it that Well, if people in the past took up arms to
Ilive it!. a·ita chlyloyaIist town, where you're asking of unionists? Are you asking defend their community, because. of IRA
there are'm '. ,Fmen, and in other parts them to sit back and be murdered, to have violence, well-I won't be' condemning th~m.
of. mid-lUst s well, and Lean assure you their country took off them, and for the Tell me how important your religion in your
.they're not;tngry with me. security forces to say 'we can't do nothing Jift;is to you. .
But why has the GLMC issued ..a death' about it, and don't you do anything about I have a number of my family that are mis-
threat,thenr it.' sionaries. I understand the right way in life.
'A.i5I said before, I will. not have a foreign Have you ever killed anyone yourself? However, I clon't practice it .... And I believe
type of politics imposeCibnme, and because No, not at all. that true Protestantism is about faith in the
I'm seem.to be a loyalist, and because I will' After David Ervine's statement saying that Lord Jesus Cjlrist. You're" quite correct to
not align myself 1:0'tlw type of politics, it: the loyalist cease-fire is close to breaking say that if you were practising that faith
appears~1'tat I'm an embarrassment to cer- . point, the Taoiseach in Dublin, John then you couldn't align them to your other
tain people. . Bruton, said he would meet anybody who beliefs.
But is it'he~ause you support violence, is wasn't involved in violence. Would you be So you don't practice anymore, because of
that why they don't waut anything to do interested in meeting him? that dilemma:yoy see yourself.
With yem? No, no.~mean, John Brutcomust examine That's correct. .
I beg your Pllrdon,! would remind you that 'the Irish Republic's Constitution. He must , Moving to Drumcree, what did you. say to
1~6okp<Il"tin pJie"negotiations, .before the understand that that Constitution justifies David Trimble there?
-cease-fire. I was thefit;st leadingloyalist to republican violence and leads nationalist Very little. David Trimble asked me to use
call fo! a loyalist cease-fire. I describe that young men to feel that they have the right, my influences.if I had any, to make sure
day as the happiest~ay of my .life. I am. because. of that Constitution and, that claim, there was no violence. And what little influ-
totally forpeace, However, to achieve. peace to take the lives of our people. eaee I had, I tried to use. But such was the
we,nee.d a perinanentIRA cease-fire. If that But unity would only be. with consent, so gravity of the .situati0n, and the depth of the
MAGllt3!
 feeling -of the unionist people, thafmy voice
was rendered useless.
You're not in the Orange Order, so what
were you doing there?
Well, how dare you, deal,',how dare you. I
live here, my family .arebnried in Druaacree.
.I'Il go to Drumcree church', and I'ILnot let
you, I'll nof.let anYlJationalist tell J,Tiewhere
I can or cannot go, or that 1 cannot speak to
my.MP, at a time when your government is
speaking to the IRA or its representatives,
'or when J9.4nHume pn talk .to Gtmy
Adams, and you would condemn me or
your community would condemn me for
talking to my local, MP.' Wheat.is it that you
want me to be denied of? .
What I'm saying is there was quite a lot of.
surprise in Britain as: '\vel~.tnatypu' were
talking to DavidTtimlrile; . the majO'rity of unionists want?
Whatsurpri~e? T'riinotiiW>wed to talk to
.my locaLMP?'l'm nqt 11OWedto walk to a
lJIjii'flP8 EnNl/bt (1'jg1I1) caJ!pyingtlle c"flin olhfH'
1J1UPdei'edlitftliand, Tfiltpy
church that'live beeneoing to tor yea~s?
What form'of life isit that you would Jiketo
s~e imposed,lipon peoplefrom the unioni~t
commullity? ;.
Ii: seems to me what you're looking for at
~he end of'~he'day is total vi~~orY.fllldtotal
peace. .; . eKcept express 'In dpinion that is the preva-
N<;{N;ow'what. if total' vi~toty? No·; one's
look~g fqr tGt.aLvictory. What we're ·1001<:-
.iIJ.gfoLpere isrecognitio~ of the democrat-
ic rights of;the majority of people in-
.'Northern Ireland. All 'these people; are ask-
ingcfor.is to ~oexist with tllehish~epublic.
What threatells you so much?
Well now,pl~~se.We now have two fore~gn
governments. intetfe/;'ing. We have the
American and. we have the government- of
the.Pree State sittlng in Stormont, End thac's
an instilt to .the. ti.pionist people. Wehaye
seen ofu culture;graduaHYeroded, with no
bel;lefit. Jme~Ii' the" de'nialOf tJtllf culture
withoutbenefit, you must understand, that
that to the uhipnist people is"an insult. 'We
have watched the LRA and Sinn Feinbeing
panderyd to ... wewaeched senior politicians
in the Repu1'31ieof Ireland actuallyrrnaking
yxcusesfor themuiaer .of British citizens.
tlowdoyouJeaHy thiriktflarweieel? How
,do YOU thilJkwefeelt.
-But on the odIeI' hand, if you take sOmeone
like Gusty Spence, who Was in -tlre past a
paramilitary and now is in the democratic ..
processj and we have to move on...
Now I ihigk then;;s a vast difference
between the approach to peace by the loyal-
MAGILL 38
ists and by republicans .... Loyalists entered
this process ... with honesty and integrity. I
mean, the same cannot be said 'for the
republican movement.
{Edit]
You talk about the unionist family. There
are obviously huge divisions in that family.
You have a death threat from-the CLMC. I
mean, who do you represent?
L'don't claim to represent anyone. I'm a
mid-Ulster loyalist. My feeliIJ.gsare .the
same, I'm positive on this, as the loyalists
from mid-Ulster, and at the end of the day
my feelings I can equate to 97 per cent of
the unionist population, because they vote
in a similar fashion to me.
Ere you-saying, then, that the UVF,UDE
and PUItare totally out of touch with ~pat
. here within n hours. What are you going
Well, I would' ima~ine that the UVF exists
righracrbss Nortn~;n Ireland, and I firmly
belie.ve 'there ate differences of opinion
within that movement. If you ask me do I
differ in politics fromtIiePDP, yes, I do.
BtlUit'snot . just a political difference
between you and. the UVE The UDEa.nd
UVF say we disagree with you so much
[that] we're going to kill you.
Well, I find it incredible that they didn't feel
that they had to go out and rake military
action against the IRA.
Well, that shows how strongly they feel
against you, surely. .
I think the unionist community will be
~.ewildered att11at ... and, going by' the
'arnount of'people~bsolutely disgusted with
them; I think they've made a great mistake,
Most people would find it hard to under-
stand that if a death threat has been issued
againsf~omeOhe ... that you'd be very ner-
vous,but you're sitting here this afternoon,
watching Oprah Winfrey, and you seem
very relaxed.
Well, if you think you're right, then you're
fight. An~ I have, done nothing wrong,
lent opinion of the .people of Northern
Ireland, and I will always do that;' dear, no
matter what tl1eprice. . Armagh, I lived among nationalist people, I
.Are you prepared; then, to die for this?
. I'vebe~ri prepared to die for long many a
year. Cdon';t wish. to die, but .at the end of
the day no One will force their opinion
down my throat, no one.
But do you feel personally driven to this,
th,at you see no option, that it's worth dying
fOF?
Well,lmean, if every time I had been threat-
.ened, rd've given in, then I guess I'd have
beenjm Iri~p.nationaljst.Tm-not gonua be a
PUP snpportersimply because people
threaten me,
So what drives you?
Well, I feel I live among people a great injus-
tice has taken place ragainst.. . .I see their
pal!},J feel.their alienation? and I'm part of
that, and. that'sQiy motivation. I want jus-
ticefoi theunionistpe,op1e.
And ata time like this, what about your
p<'litner,and your children?
I.hope that the people that issued this, at
.. certain people's behest, understand what
they have done to a.family ... my heart goes
out tom~fam#y.They look at me and they
say, you know, 'for a person who has
worked so hard for the community, and
someone that has run to the jails and looked
after prisoners, for this to be done, and for
the reason it's being done,' my family's
totally disgusted with certain people in
Belfast.
We're sitting here in your sitting-room,
looking out the window, and every car that
drives up, you're conscious of seeing who's
in it. .
Well, I mean, I've done that for long many a
year. I survived gun attacks, bomb attacks,
I've.had my home taken over by the IRE.
Sure, common sense tells you that living in
Northern Ireland you learn to look after
yourself.
You've been given a warning to get out of
to do?
What I'm.not gonna do is buy a plane tick-
et. I'm here. This is my homeland. This is
where my family's buried, and where my
ancestors lived, and this is where I will live
and die.
You give me the oppression that you're just
an ordinary loyalist. Many newspapers have
described you as a leading, extreme para-
military. Why would that be?
Well, I mean, I've had bad press for years
and years. You grow to expect it ... by and
large the media's written by people
favourable to nationalists.
End what of your being labelled "King
Rat"?
Well, I was labelled that by an ex-IRE pris-
oner, Martin O'Hagan of the Sunday
World .... Es far as that name's concerned,
well I've been labelled it, and it's stuck.
There's nothing) can do about it.
What do you hope for your children?
That there would be peace and reconcilia-
tion, and that this country would flourish.
.Are you prepared for any compromise to get
to peace, because I can't see any in there at
all?
Welt that's because you don't know me,
dear, you don't know me. I lived in South
grew up with them, I had no difficulty with:
them. If. only the IRA. and Sinn Fein would
recognise our right to exist, to be British,
then I believe the two communities, ..could
come together, and a new form of life with-
in a British context could evolve.
I understand when you say how the
unionist community feel's under threat, but
at the end of the day you have the democra-
tic process, and there is' no threat if the
numbers .democratically say, 'no, we don't
want-this.' Now, please. Don't insult us. We
have the Framework Document, and we've
had calls for it to be imposed, and indeed
paragraph 47 states that it should be
imposed. What's democratic about that?
Please don't tell us.nothing will be imposed.
You've told me you're someone who could
envisage compromise. Tell me-where.
Well, I recognize there are difficulties with-
in Northern Ireland, and that if the consti-
tutional issue was solved, that parade issues
and similar things like that could be settled
without the· underlying threat of it being
more devious than what it appears .•