Babington is called to the Irish Bar in 1900. He briefly lectures in Equity at King’s Inns, and it is during this time, in 1910, that he re-arranges and re-writes R.E. Osborne’s Jurisdiction and Practice of County Courts in Ireland in Equity and Probate Matters. He takes silk in 1917.
In 1947, Babington chairs the Babington Agricultural Enquiry Committee, named in his honour, which is established in 1943 to examine agriculture in Northern Ireland. The committee’s first recommendation under Babington’s leadership is that Northern Ireland should direct all its energies to the production of livestock and livestock products and to their efficient processing and marketing.
Babington retires from the judiciary in 1949, taking up the chairmanship of the Northern Ireland Transport Tribunal, which exists until 1967, established under the Ulster Transport Act – promoting a car-centred transport policy – and which is largely responsible for the closure of the Belfast and County Down Railway. He endorses the closure on financial grounds and is at cross purposes with his co-chair, Dr. James Beddy, who advises against the closure, citing the disruption of life in the border region between the north and the south as his primary reason in addition to financial grounds.
Babington also chairs a government inquiry into the licensing of clubs, the proceeds of which results in new regulatory legislation at Stormont. While Attorney General, he is a proponent of renaming Northern Ireland as “Ulster.”
Babington is critical of the newly proposed Irish constitution, in which the name of the Irish state is changed to “Ireland,” laying claim to jurisdiction over Northern Ireland.
Michael McDunphy, Secretary to the President of Ireland, then Douglas Hyde, recalls Ernest Alton‘s correspondence with Babington on the question of Irish unity, in which Alton and Babington are revealed to be at cross purposes. The discussion is used as an example by Brian Murphy, in Forgotten Patriot: Douglas Hyde and the Foundation of the Irish Presidency, as an example of the office of the Irish President becoming embroiled in an initiative involving Trinity College Dublin and a senior Northern Ireland legal figure, namely Babington.
Babington writes to Alton, then Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, expressing his view that, as Murphy summarises, “… Severance between the two parts of Ireland could not continue, that it was the duty of all Irishmen to work for early unification and that in his opinion Trinity College was a very appropriate place in which the first move should be made.” When Alton arrives to meet with Hyde, it emerges, after conversing with Hyde’s secretary McDunphy, that he and Babington are at cross purposes. “It soon became clear that the united Ireland contemplated by Mr. [sic] Justice Babington of the Northern Ireland Judiciary was one within the framework of the British Commonwealth of Nations, involving recognition of the King of England as the Supreme Head, or as Dr. Alton put it, the symbol of unity of the whole system,” writes McDunphy.
Babington is a keen golfer. He is an international golfer from 1903 to 1913, during which he is runner-up in the Irish Amateur Golf Championships in 1909 and one of the Irish representatives at an international match in 1913. The Babington Room in the Royal Portrush Golf Club is named after him, as is the 18th hole on the course as a result of the key role he plays in shaping its history.
Babington dies at the age of 94 on April 10, 1972 at his home, Creevagh, Portrush, County Antrim.
Spence, the sixth of seven children, is born and raised in the Shankill Road area of West Belfast in Northern Ireland, the son of William Edward Spence, a member of the Ulster Volunteers who fought in World War I, and Isabella “Bella” Hayes. The family home is 66 Joseph Street in an area of the lower Shankill known colloquially as “the Hammer.” He is educated at the Riddel School on Malvern Street and the Hemsworth Square school, finishing his education at the age of fourteen. He is also a member of the Church Lads’ Brigade, a Church of Ireland group, and the Junior Orange Order. His family has a long tradition of Orange Order membership.
Spence takes various manual jobs in the area until joining the British Army in 1957 as a member of the Royal Ulster Rifles. He rises to the rank of Provost Sergeant (battalion police). He is stationed in Cyprus and sees action fighting against the forces of Colonel Georgios Grivas. He serves until 1961 when ill-health forces him to leave. He then finds employment at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where he works as a stager (builder of the scaffolding in which the ships are constructed), a skilled job that commands respect among working class Protestants and ensures for him a higher status within the Shankill.
From an early age Spence is a member of the Prince Albert Temperance Loyal Orange Lodge, where fellow members include John McQuade. He is also a member of the Royal Black Institution and the Apprentice Boys of Derry. Due to his later involvement in a murder, he is expelled from the Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution. The Reverend Martin Smyth is influential in his being thrown out of the Orange Order.
Spence’s older brother Billy is a founding member of Ulster Protestant Action (UPA) in 1956, and he is also a member of the group. He is frequently involved in street fights with republicans and garners a reputation as a “hard man.” He is also associated loosely with prominent loyalists such as Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal and is advised by both men in 1959 when he launches a protest against Gerry Fitt at Belfast City Hall after Fitt had described Spence’s regiment as “murderers” over allegations that they had killed civilians in Cyprus. He, along with other Shankill Road loyalists, break from Paisley in 1965 when they side with James Kilfedder in a row that follows the latter’s campaigns in Belfast West. Paisley intimates that Kilfedder, a rival for the leadership of dissident unionism, is close to Fine Gael after learning that he had attended party meetings while a student at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). The Shankill loyalists support Kilfedder and following his election as MP send a letter to Paisley accusing him of treachery during the entire affair.
Spence claims that he is approached in 1965 by two men, one of whom was an Ulster Unionist Party MP, who tells him that the Ulster Volunteer Force is to be re-established and that he is to have responsibility for the Shankill. He is sworn in soon afterward in a ceremony held in secret near Pomeroy, County Tyrone. Because of his military experience, he is chosen as the military commander and public face of the UVF when the group is established. However, RUC Special Branch believes that his brother Billy, who keeps a much lower public profile, is the real leader of the group. Whatever the truth of this intelligence, Spence’s Shankill UVF team is made up of only around 12 men on its formation. Their base of operations is the Standard Bar, a pub on the Shankill Road frequented by Spence and his allies.
On May 7, 1966, a group of UVF men led by Spence petrol bomb a Catholic-owned pub on the Shankill Road. Fire also engulfs the house next door, killing the elderly Protestant widow, Matilda Gould (77), who lives there. On May 27, he orders four UVF men to kill an Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, Leo Martin, who lives on the Falls Road. Unable to find their target, the men drive around in search of any Catholic instead. They shoot dead John Scullion (28), a Catholic civilian, as he walks home. Spence later writes “at the time, the attitude was that if you couldn’t get an IRA man you should shoot a Taig, he’s your last resort.” On June 26, the same gang shoots dead Catholic civilian Peter Ward (18) and wounds two others as they leave a pub on Malvern Street in the lower Shankill. Two days later, the government of Northern Ireland uses the Special Powers Act to declare the UVF illegal. Shortly after, Spence and three others are arrested.
In October 1966, Spence is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Ward, although he has always claimed his innocence. He is sent to Crumlin Road Prison. During its July 12, 1967, march, the Orange lodge to which he belongs stops outside the prison in tribute to him. This occurs despite him having been officially expelled from the Orange Order following his conviction. His involvement in the killings gives him legendary status among many young loyalists and he is claimed as an inspiration by the likes of Michael Stone. Tim Pat Coogan describes Spence as a “loyalist folk hero.” The murder of Ward is, however, repudiated by Paisley and condemned in his Protestant Telegraph, sealing the split between the two.
Spence appeals against his conviction and is the subject of a release petition organised by the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee, although nothing comes of either initiative. Despite the fact that control of the UVF lay with his closest ally, Samuel “Bo” McClelland, from prison he is often at odds with the group’s leadership, in particular with regards to the 1971 McGurk’s Bar bombing. Spence now argues that UVF members are soldiers and soldiers should not kill civilians, as had been the case at McGurk’s Bar. He respects some Irish republican paramilitaries, who he feels also live as soldiers, and to this end he writes a sympathetic letter to the widow of Official IRA leader Joe McCann after he is killed in 1972.
Spence is granted two days leave in early July 1972 to attend the wedding of his daughter Elizabeth to Winston Churchill “Winkie” Rea. The latter had formally asked Spence for his daughter’s hand in marriage during a prison visit. Met by two members of the Red Hand Commando upon his release, Spence is informed of the need for a restructuring within the UVF and told not to return to prison. He initially refuses and goes on to attend his daughter’s wedding. Afterward a plot is concocted where Jim Curry, a Red Hand Commando member, will drive Spence back to prison but the car is to be stopped and Spence “kidnapped.” As arranged, the car in which he is a passenger is stopped in Springmartin and he is taken away by UVF members. He remains at large for four months and during that time gives an interview to ITV‘s World in Action in which he calls for the UVF to take an increased role in the Northern Ireland conflict against the Provisional IRA. At the same time, he distances himself from any policy of random murders of Catholics. He also takes on responsibility for the restructuring, returning the UVF to the same command structure and organisational base that Edward Carson had utilised for the original UVF, with brigades, battalions, companies, platoons and sections. He also directs a significant restocking of the group’s arsenal, with guns mostly taken from the security forces. He gives his permission for UVF brigadier Billy Hanna to establish the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade in Lurgan. His fugitive status earns him the short-lived nickname the “Orange Pimpernel.” He is arrested along with around thirty other men at a UVF drinking club in Brennan Street, but after giving a false name, he is released.
Spence’s time on the outside comes to an end on November 4 when he is captured by Colonel Derek Wilford of the Parachute Regiment, who identifies him by tattoos on his hands. He is sent directly to Long Kesh Detention Centre soon afterward, where he shares a cell with William “Plum” Smith, one of the Red Hand Commandos whom he had met upon his initial release and who had since been jailed for attempted murder.
Spence soon becomes the UVF commander within the Long Kesh Detention Centre. He runs his part of Long Kesh along military lines, drilling inmates and training them in weapons use while also expecting a maintenance of discipline. As the loyalist Long Kesh commander, he initially also has jurisdiction over the imprisoned members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), although this comes to an end in 1973 when, following a deterioration in relations between the two groups outside the prison walls, James Craig becomes the UDA’s Maze commander. By this time Spence polarises opinion within the UVF, with some members fiercely loyal to a man they see as a folk hero and others resenting his draconian leadership and increasing emphasis on politics, with one anonymous member even labelling him “a cunt in a cravat.”
Spence begins to move toward a position of using political means to advance one’s aims, and he persuades the UVF leadership to declare a temporary ceasefire in 1973. Following Merlyn Rees‘ decision to legalise the UVF in 1974, Spence encourages them to enter politics and support the establishment of the Volunteer Political Party (VPP). However, his ideas are abandoned as the UVF ceasefire falls apart that same year following the Ulster Workers’ Council strike and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. The carnage of the latter shocks and horrifies Spence. Furthermore, the VPP suffers a heavy defeat in West Belfast in the October 1974 United Kingdom general election, when the DUP candidate, John McQuade, captures six times as many votes as the VPP’s Ken Gibson.
Spence is increasingly disillusioned with the UVF, and he imparts these views to fellow inmates at Long Kesh. According to Billy Mitchell, Spence quizzes him and others sent to Long Kesh about why they are there, seeking an ideological answer to his question. When the prisoner is unable to provide one, Spence then seeks to convince them of the wisdom of his more politicised path, something that he accomplishes with Mitchell. David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson are among the other UVF men imprisoned in the mid-1970s to become disciples of Spence. In 1977, he publicly condemns the use of violence for political gain, on the grounds that it is counterproductive. In 1978, he leaves the UVF altogether. His brother Bobby, also a UVF member, dies in October 1980 inside the Maze, a few months after the death of their brother Billy.
Released from prison in 1984, Spence soon becomes a leading member of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and a central figure in the Northern Ireland peace process. He initially works solely for the PUP but eventually also sets up the Shankill Activity Centre, a government-supported scheme to provide training and leisure opportunities for unemployed youths.
Spence is entrusted by the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) to read out their October 13, 1994, statement that announces the loyalist ceasefire. Flanked by his PUP colleagues Jim McDonald and William Plum Smith, as well as Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) members Gary McMichael, John White and David Adams, he reads the statement from Fernhill, a former Cunningham family home on their former Glencairn estate in Belfast’s Glencairn area. This building had been an important training centre for members of Edward Carson’s original UVF. A few days after the announcement, he makes a trip to the United States along with the PUP’s David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson and the UDP’s McMichael, Adams and Joe English. Among their engagements is one as guests of honour of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He goes on to become a leading advocate for the Good Friday Agreement.
In August 2000, Spence is caught up in moves by Johnny Adair‘s “C” Company of the UDA to take control of the Shankill by forcing out the UVF and other opponents. Due to his involvement in the peace process and the eventual Good Friday Agreement, the authorities insist against his wishes to install additional security measures to the doors and windows. As a result, when Adair’s men try to force their way into Spence’s Shankill home, they only manage to push a long stick through a partially open window of the bungalow and dislodge a few of his military frames off the opposite wall. There is no other damage and other than that small disruption no one is able to gain any physical entry into the property. When Spence’s wife dies three years later, he says that C Company is responsible for her death, as the events had taken on her health.
On May 3, 2007, Spence reads out the statement by the UVF announcing that it will keep its weapons but put them beyond the reach of ordinary members. The statement also includes a warning that activities could “provoke another generation of loyalists toward armed resistance.” He does not specify what activities or what is being resisted.
Spence marries Louie Donaldson, a native of the city’s Grosvenor Road, on June 20, 1953, at Wellwood Street Mission, Sandy Row. The couple has three daughters, Elizabeth (born 1954), Sandra (1956) and Catherine (1960). Louie dies in 2003. Spence, a talented footballer in his youth with Old Lodge F.C., is a lifelong supporter of Linfield F.C.
Spence dies in a Belfast hospital at the age of 78 on September 25, 2011. He had been suffering from a long-term illness and was admitted to hospital 12 days prior to his death. He is praised by, among others, PUP leader Brian Ervine, who states that “his contribution to the peace is incalculable.” Sinn Féin‘s Gerry Kelly claims that while Spence had been central to the development of loyalist paramilitarism, “he will also be remembered as a major influence in drawing loyalism away from sectarian strife.”
However, a granddaughter of Matilda Gould, a 74-year-old Protestant widow who had died from burns sustained in the UVF’s attempted bombing of a Catholic bar next door to her home, objects to Spence being called a “peacemaker” and describes him as a “bad evil man.” The unnamed woman states, “When you go out and throw a petrol bomb through a widow’s window, you’re no peacemaker.”
Spence’s funeral service is held in St. Michael’s Church of Ireland on the Shankill Road. Notable mourners include Unionist politicians Dawn Purvis, Mike Nesbitt, Michael McGimpsey, Hugh Smyth and Brian Ervine, UVF chief John “Bunter” Graham and UDA South Belfast brigadier Jackie McDonald. In accordance with his wishes, there are no paramilitary trappings at the funeral or reference to his time in the UVF. Instead, his coffin is adorned with the beret and regimental flag of the Royal Ulster Rifles, his former regiment. He is buried in Bangor, County Down.
Frazer grows up in the village of Whitecross, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, as one of nine children, with his parents Bertie and Margaret. He is an ex-member of the Territorial Army and a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. He attends a local Catholic school and plays Gaelic football up to U14 level. He describes his early years as a “truly cross-community lifestyle.” Growing up, he is a fan of the American actor John Wayne and wrestling. His father, who is a part-time member of the British Army‘s Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and a council worker, is killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on August 30, 1975. The family home had previously been attacked with petrol bombs and gunfire which Frazer claims were IRA men, due to his father’s UDR membership. He states that his family is well respected in the area including by “old-school IRA men” and receives Mass cards from Catholic neighbours expressing their sorrow over his father’s killing. Over the next ten years, four members of Frazer’s family who are members or ex-members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) or British Army are killed by the IRA. An uncle who is also a member of the UDR is wounded in a gun attack.
Soon after his father’s death, the IRA begins targeting Frazer’s older brother who is also a UDR member. Like many South Armagh unionists, the family moves north to the village of Markethill. After leaving school, he works as a plasterer for a period before serving in the British Army for nine years. Following this he works for a local haulage company, then sets up his own haulage company, which he later sells.
During the Drumcree conflict, Frazer is a supporter of the PortadownOrange Order who demand the right to march down the Garvaghy Road against the wishes of local residents. He is president of his local Apprentice Boys club at the time.
For a brief period after selling his haulage firm, Frazer runs “The Spot,” a nightclub in Tandragee, County Armagh, which closes down after two Ulster Protestant civilians who had been in the club, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, are stabbed to death in February 2000 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), after one of them had allegedly made derogatory remarks about dead UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Richard Jameson. Frazer is confronted in an interview on BBC Radio Ulster about the murders by the father of one of the victims, Paul McIlwaine. During the Smithwick Tribunal, set up to investigate allegations of collusion in the 1989 Jonesborough ambush, it is alleged by a member of Garda Síochána that Frazer is a part of a loyalist paramilitary group called the Red Hand Commando. Frazer denies this allegation, saying they put his life in danger.
Frazer applies for a licence to hold a firearm for his personal protection and is turned down, a chief inspector says, in part because he is known to associate with loyalist paramilitaries.
FAIR, founded by Frazer in 1998, claims to represent the victims of IRA violence in South Armagh. It has been criticised by some for not doing the same for victims of loyalist paramilitary organisations or for those killed by security forces.
In February 2006, Frazer is an organiser of the Love Ulster parade in Dublin that has to be cancelled due to rioting. In January 2007, he protests outside the Sinn FéinArd Fheis in Dublin that votes to join policing structures in Northern Ireland. He expresses “outrage at the idea that the ‘law-abiding population’ would negotiate with terrorists to get them to support democracy, law and order.”
In January 2007, Frazer dismisses Police OmbudsmanNuala O’Loan‘s report into security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
In March 2010, Frazer claims to have served a civil writ on deputy First MinisterMartin McGuinness, of Sinn Féin, seeking damages arising from the killing of his father by the Provisional IRA. Both Sinn Féin and the courts deny that any such writ had been served, but in June 2010 Frazer announces that he will seek to progress his claim in the High Court. There has since been no report of any such litigation. He previously pickets McGuinness’s home in Derry in 2007 to demand support for calls for Libya to compensate victims of IRA attacks. Accompanied by two other men, he attempts to post a letter to the house but is confronted by local residents and verbally abused. When McGuinness stands for election in the 2011 Irish presidential election, Frazer announces that he and FAIR will picket the main Sinn Féin election events, however, no such pickets take place.
In September 2010, the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) revokes all funding to FAIR due to “major failures in the organisation’s ability to adhere to the conditions associated with its funding allocation” uncovered following a “thorough audit” of the tendering and administration procedures used by FAIR.
In November 2011, the SEUPB announces that it is seeking the return of funding to FAIR and another Markethill victims’ group, Saver/Naver. FAIR is asked to return £350,000 while Saver/Naver is asked to return £200,000. Former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Reg Empey demands that the conclusions about FAIR’s finances be released into the public domain.
In January 2012, Frazer announces a protest march to be held on February 25 through the mainly Catholic south Armagh village of Whitecross, to recall the killing of ten Protestant workmen by the South Armagh Republican Action Force (SARAF) in January 1976 in the Kingsmill massacre. He also names individuals whom he accuses of responsibility for the massacre. He later announces that the march is postponed “at the request of the Kingsmills families.” A 2011 report by the Historical Enquiries Team finds that members of the Provisional IRA carried out the attack despite the organisation being on ceasefire.
A delegation including Frazer, UUP politician Danny Kennedy and relatives of the Kingsmill families travel to Dublin in September 2012 to seek an apology from the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. The apology is sought for what they describe as the Irish government‘s “blatant inaction” over the Kingmills killings. The Taoiseach says he cannot apologise for the actions of the IRA but assures the families there is no hierarchy for victims and their concerns are just as important as any other victims’ families. The families express disappointment although Frazer states he is pleased to have met the Taoiseach.
On November 16, 2012, Frazer announces that he is stepping down as director of FAIR, after he had reviewed a copy of the SEUPB audit report which, he claims, shows no grounds for demanding the reimbursement of funding. He adds, “I will still be working in the victims sector.”
In 2019, the BBC investigative journalism programme Spotlight reports that Frazer distributed assault rifles and rocket launchers from Ulster Resistance to loyalist terror groups who used them in more than 70 murders. A police report on the activities of the former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) boss Johnny Adair states he was receiving weapons from Ulster Resistance in the early 1990s and his contact in Ulster Resistance was Frazer.
In addition to his advocacy for Protestant victims, Frazer contests several elections in County Armagh. He is not elected and, on most occasions, loses his deposit. He runs as an Ulster Independence Movement candidate in the 1996 Forum Elections and the 1998 Assembly elections, and as an independent in the 2003 Assembly elections and a council by-election.
In the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election Frazer is listed as a subscriber for the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) candidate for the Newry and Armagh constituency, Barrie Halliday, who secures 1.8% of the vote. At Newry Crown Court on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, Pastor Barrie Gordon Halliday is sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for eighteen months, when he pleads guilty to seventeen counts of VAT repayment fraud.
In November 2012, Frazer announces his intention to contest the 2013 Mid Ulster by-election necessitated by Martin McGuinness’s decision to resign the parliamentary seat to concentrate on his Assembly role. He is quoted in The Irish News in January 2013 as stating that he will not condemn any paramilitary gunman who shoots McGuinness.
Despite his earlier advocacy of Ulster nationalism, in 2013 Frazer declares himself in favour of re-establishing direct rule in Northern Ireland.
Frazer dies of cancer in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, on June 28, 2019. Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister and DUP Assembly member Jim Wells pay tribute to his memory.
Brian Robinson, loyalist militant from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), is shot dead by two members of an undercover British Army unit on September 2, 1989. His death is one of the few from the alleged shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland to have involved a loyalist victim.
Robinson is born in Belfast in 1962 to Rab and Margaret Robinson, and brought up a Protestant on Disraeli Street in the staunchly loyalist Woodvale district of the Shankill Road. It is unknown when he becomes a member of the local Ulster Volunteer Force. He holds the rank of volunteer in its B Company, 1st Battalion Belfast Brigade. By the time of his death he has moved to Forthriver Crescent in the Glencairn estate, an area immediately northwest of Woodvale.
On September 2, 1989, Robinson and fellow UVF member Davy McCullough are travelling on a motorbike, with Robinson as the passenger armed with a gun, in Belfast’s Crumlin Road, close to the Irish nationalist area of Ardoyne. Upon seeing Paddy McKenna, a Catholic civilian, walking along the street, Robinson opens fire, hitting McKenna a total of eleven times and killing him. Unbeknownst to the two UVF members, an undercover British Army unit, linked to the Special Air Service, is in the area. Giving chase in a Vauxhall Astra car and a Fiat, the soldiers ram the motorbike, forcing both men off the road. Robinson is shot twice in his torso, then twice more in the back of the head by a female soldier standing over him. He is 27-years-old. Upon hearing the news of her son’s death, Robinson’s mother, Margaret, suffers a fatal heart attack. The two are buried on the same day.
The UVF leadership in west Belfast later claims that the intelligence leading to Robinson’s death had been provided by one of their own men, Colin “Crazy” Craig, who allegedly had been a police informer for several years. Craig is killed by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) on June 16, 1994, along with fellow UVF members Trevor King and David Hamilton. A UVF commander is quoted as mourning King and Hamilton, but adding that Craig was in line to be shot by the UVF anyway. Republican sources claim that the security forces infiltration of the UVF is even deeper, including Trevor King and “the most senior UVF figure in the North.”
Robinson’s funeral is well-attended as it leaves his home in Forthriver Crescent. Despite his membership in the UVF there are no paramilitary displays at the funeral, and the coffin is covered in the Union Jack instead of a UVF standard. Robinson is a member of the “Old Boyne Heroes” lodge of the Orange Order, and several members wearing their sashes flank the coffin. The cortege then meets up with Margaret Robinson’s funeral as it leaves her home in Crimea Street. A lorry carrying floral tributes leads the cortege. Both mother and son are buried in Roselawn Cemetery. A death notice from Robinson’s Orange lodge is published in the local press, which causes controversy.
Robinson’s death is commemorated annually in a band parade attended by loyalist bands in the Belfast area. One band, Star of the Shankill, has “In Memory of Brian Robinson” written on its crest and emblazoned upon its bass drum. The band also attracts controversy when it appears at a parade organised by the Apprentice Boys of Derry that passes near the area in which Robinson killed his victim. In 2010, Rab Robinson, the brother of Brian, issues an appeal to the parades organisers to postpone the parade that year, owing to the death of his younger brother earlier that year.
Robinson is commemorated in a mural on Disraeli Street, off Woodvale Road in Belfast.
In 2015, Robinson’s son Robert removes a Special Air Service flag that had been erected by the loyalists at the Twaddell Avenue protest camp. The Shankill UVF is later said to be reviewing its policy of flying the flag.
(Pictured: Mural commemorating Brian Robinson on Disraeli Street, off Woodvale Road in Belfast)
Fifty members and one band take part in the parade but the Commission forbids any music to be played between the two bridges on the Ormeau Road. In its ruling, the Commission says that since the last parade in August 1999, there has been “clear evidence of considerable efforts” by the Apprentice Boys to reach agreement with the residents’ group, the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community (LOCC). It says the LOCC has, in turn, engaged in dialogue with them which has been “sustained and meaningful, notwithstanding spasmodic breaks.” The Commission adds, “It is regrettable that it has not produced agreement or acquiescence. With regard to this decision, the Commission stresses that it provides no guarantees for the future. The Commission will continue to look for evidence of ongoing commitment by LOCC and the Apprentice Boys to find their own resolution to the local issues on the Ormeau Road.”
Apprentice Boys’ spokesman Tommy Cheevers says they are disappointed that agreement has not been reached with the residents. “This is the second time in five years that we will have managed to parade along our traditional route on the Ormeau Road,” he tells BBC Radio Ulster. “We would just ask that everybody accepts the rule of law, as we have had to do in the past when it went against us, and make sure it is peaceful.”
However, the ruling is criticised by LOCC spokesman Gerard Rice. He says he is “absolutely shocked” by the decision, adding he had already asked the Parades Commission for it to be reviewed. “We believe this was the wrong decision. We will ask the Parades Commission to overturn this decision. Failing that, we may go to the courts and ask for a judicial review.” The residents’ group meets with the Commission in the evening to discuss the ruling.
In 2000, the chairman of the Parades Commission praised the behaviour of the Apprentice Boys, after they abided by the decision barring their parade from the lower Ormeau Road. However, there have been violent confrontations at previous parades.
The Parades Commission is established in 1997 to determine whether conditions should be placed on contentious parades in Northern Ireland.
(From: “Green light for contentious parade,” BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk, April 6, 2001)
The 20-minute blockade of the Ligoniel Road is in response to the local branch of the loyalist Apprentice Boys of Derry organisation being refused permission to drive their bus past the nationalist Ardoyne the previous day.
Billy Hutchinson, the Progressive Unionist PartyAssembly member for Belfast North says, “Nationalists are saying that the Apprentice Boys can’t come down the Crumlin Road on a bus because it is seen to be a parade.” He adds further, “I think loyalists are saying if the Apprentice Boys can’t go down on a bus why should the Wolfe Tone band be allowed to go down on a bus?”
On August 11, police officers prevent the Ligoniel Walker Club of the Apprentice Boys of Derry from driving their bus down the Crumlin Road past the Ardoyne shops because it constitutes a parade and breaches a ruling by the Parades Commission. The club is prevented by the Commission from marching through the area and tries in vain to broker a last minute compromise to use their bus.
Gerry Kelly, Sinn Féin Assembly member for Belfast North, describes the loyalist protest as a “nonsense,” adding he does not believe that nationalist residents had objected to the organisation using their bus. “That is a decision the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) took on the ground. I don’t think there would have been a problem from the people of Ardoyne,” he adds.
The Apprentice Boys vow to seek a judicial review into the decision to prevent them from traveling through the area to get to their main parade in Derry.
After a six and a half hour stand-off, Apprentice Boys representative Tommy Cheevers brands the Parades Commission a “farce.”
(From: “Hunger strike march blocked by loyalists” from The Irish Times, Sunday, August 12, 2001 | Photo credit: PA:Press Association)
Since Northern Ireland’s creation in 1922, the Catholic minority suffers from varying degrees of discrimination from the Protestant and Unionist majority. Many nationalist historians regard the ethos of Northern Ireland as unambiguously sectarian, however, academic and author Senia Paseta posits that discrimination was never as calculated as republicans maintained nor as fictional as unionists claimed. In fact, laws against religious discrimination are enshrined in the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Northern Ireland’s constitution. No government of Northern Ireland, even if they want to, can create laws which overtly discriminated against any religious body of peoples.
The genesis of NICRA lay in a meeting in Maghera in August 1966 between the Wolfe Tone Societies which is attended by Cathal Goulding, then chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). During its formation, NICRA’s membership extends to trade unionists, communists, liberals, socialists, with republicans eventually constituting five of the thirteen members of its executive council. The organisation initially also has some unionists, with Young Unionist Robin Cole taking a position on its executive council. Official Sinn Féin and Official Irish Republican Army influence over NICRA grows in later years, but only as the latter’s importance declines, when violence escalated between late 1969 until 1972, when NICRA ceased its work.
Events escalate in Northern Ireland until August 1969, when the annual Apprentice Boys of Derry march is attacked as it marches through the city’s walls and past a perimeter with the nationalist Bogside. Initially some loyalist supporters throw pennies down from the walls onto Catholics in the Bogside. Catholics then throw nails and stones at loyalists leading to an intense confrontation. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) intervenes, and a three-day riot known as the Battle of the Bogside ensues. Rioting quickly spreads throughout nationalist areas in Northern Ireland, where at least seven are killed and hundreds wounded. Thousands of Catholics are driven from their homes by loyalists. These events are often seen as the start of the Troubles.
In a subsequent official inquiry, Lord Leslie Scarman concludes, “We are satisfied that the spread of the disturbances [in Derry in August 1969] owed much to a deliberate decision of some minority groups to relieve police pressure on the rioters in Londonderry. Amongst these groups must be included NICRA, whose executive decided to organise demonstrators in the province so as to prevent reinforcement of the police in Londonderry.” In December 1969 and January 1970, both Sinn Féin and the IRA split into “Official” and “Provisional” wings, with the “Official” wings retaining influence in NICRA.
The British government introduces internment on August 9, 1971, at the request of Northern Ireland Prime MinisterBrian Faulkner. The British Army, in co-operation with the RUC, intern 342 people. One hundred sixteen of those interned are innocent of involvement with the IRA and are quickly released.
The introduction of internment is not a closely guarded secret, with newspaper editorials appearing and discussion on television. The IRA goes underground or flees across the border. As a result, fewer than 100 arrests are from the IRA. By this stage, support for NICRA begins to wane, however NICRA continues to organise anti-internment marches. In Derry on January 30, 1972, NICRA takes part in a mass anti-internment march which had also been banned. Fourteen unarmed demonstrators are shot and killed by British troops during the march which becomes known as Bloody Sunday.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is a relatively bloodless revolution in which James II, King of England, Ireland and Scotland and a Roman Catholic convert, is ousted from power by the Parliament of England. The English throne is then offered to his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William III of England, also known as William of Orange. In Scotland, the privy council asks William III to assume responsibility for the government in January 1689, and he and Mary are formally offered the Scottish throne in March. The situation is different in Ireland where most of the population are Catholics. Irish Catholics are hoping that James will re-grant them lands, which had been seized from them after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–53). James thus looks to Ireland to muster support in regaining his kingdoms just as his father, Charles I, had done in the English Civil War of the 1640s.
On December 10, James flees London. He is caught but flees a second time on December 23 and makes his way to France. On March 12, James I lands in Kinsale with 6,000 French soldiers. He takes Dublin and marches north with an army of Irish and French Catholics.
In April 1689 reinforcements from England arrive under the command of Colonel John Cunningham, who is a native of the city. He is under instructions to take his orders from the Derry City Governor, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lundy. Lundy advises Colonel Cunningham to leave as arrangements have been made for the city to be surrendered. Lundy calls a meeting with several of his most loyal supporters to discuss surrender. News of the meeting spread, angering many of the citizens. That night, Lundy and many others leave the city aboard a ship to Scotland. The city’s defence is overseen by Major Henry Baker, Colonel Adam Murray, and Major George Walker, also an Anglican priest. Their slogan is “No Surrender.”
As the Jacobite army nears, all the buildings outside the city walls are set alight by the defenders to prevent them being used as cover by the besiegers.
The Jacobite army reaches Derry on April 18. James and his retinue ride to within 300 yards of Bishop’s Gate and demand the surrender of the city. He is rebuffed with shouts of “No surrender!” and some of the city’s defenders fire at him. James asks for surrender three more times but is refused each time. This marks the beginning of the siege. Cannon and mortar fire are exchanged, and disease takes hold within the city. James returns to Dublin and leaves his forces under the command of Richard Hamilton.
Royal Navy warships under Admiral George Rooke arrive in Lough Foyle on June 11 but initially decline to ram through the heavily defended defensive boom across the River Foyle at Culmore.
On July 28, two armed merchant ships, Mountjoy and Phoenix, sail toward the boom, protected by the frigate HMS Dartmouth under Captain John Leake. Mountjoy rams and breaches the boom, and the ships move in, unloading many tons of food to relieve the siege. The city had endured 105 days of siege during which some 4,000 Protestants of a population of 8,000 are said to have died.
The siege is commemorated yearly by the Protestant Apprentice Boys of Derry who stage the week-long Maiden City Festival culminating in a parade around the walls of the city by local members, followed by a parade of the city by the full Association. Although violence has attended these parades in the past, those in recent years have been largely peaceful.
The song “Derry’s Walls” is written to commemorate the siege.
seamus dubhghaill 