Billy Wright - Magill 1998

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    MAGILL 30

    The murder of,

    LVF leader BillyWright has

    ignited the m ostviolent spell inthe North'srecent historyand threatenedthe peaceprocess.He may wellhaveconsideredit an appropriatelegacy.

    B yEm er W oodful

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    f,"B i lly W righ t 's de athwon't bem ou rned by nationalists. A s ign daub ed on

    a w an near the area of the k illing~aid'K ing.Rat:M ay H eR o tIn H e ll:"

    I t'sNew Year's Eve in Belfast. th e. '.~h:iS .tmas t .ree:s w ink ing, and . we' re all. sitting a t a .big fire, poppmg open abottle of c hampagne. We tum on the

    radio to hear the midn ight chimes of Bi gBen. To a New Yea r. And then t he plummyRadio 4 n ewsrea der announces the echoing,silencing news th at a Catholic . man's beenshot d ead in Nqxth Belfast . Thirry-one-year -old Eddie Treanor, shot dead while outhaving a drink in .his gir lfriend's local, theClifton Tavern , on Cliftonville Road. Thesecond repr isal for the ki lling dead ip. theMaze p rison, fou] " days earlier, of LVFleader B illy Wright byjwo INLAmen.

    Billy ' Wright's death won't be mou rnedby nationalis ts .. A sign daubed on a wa llnear the area of the k illingsaid "King Rat:

    May He Roe .In He ll. "Then, ten days later, 28 -year -old

    Catholic cross -community worker TerryEnrightis gunned down outside a nightc lubin Be lfas t, in the next LVFkilling, At a p ressconference the next day announcing theProgressive Unionist Party's return to thetalks p rocess, its l~ader, David Ervine, saidthat "a fine young than has lost his life,caused -by some obscure group of he adcasesrece iying polirica l direction fromanonymous but respectab le, politicjans."

    Whatever about the long -terrnimplications of the kill ing of Billy Wright,

    what we do know is that h e was, for some,the working -class hero vlrhorepresented thefear and al ienation tha t many unionists feel

    -about what -theysee as the threat to theirculture, and a situation wh ere the union "wou ld not be the same.

    On New Year's D ay; even the Church of Ireland primate, R obin Eames, spoke of thedeep fee ling of resentment amongProtestants over the British government'shandling of the peace process. He said thatNort liern Ireland w as "at the beginning of aver ydarkand very dangerous period."

    What m ade Wright stand out , however,

    .was th at he open ly supported viol ence andwas pr epared to die for t he union. He didstrike a chord among loyalists who bel ievethat the repub lican mover ri~nt wonconcessions through violence and thatloyalists should be following the s amecourse -s-and even, regardless of anypossible concessions , that it was Worthdying rather than deny the union anyway.Some commen tators sa y he was nothing buta maverick. But he was able to defy theCombined Loyalist Military Command'sdeath threat against him in the summer of 1996, and in doing so he go t the support of

    about 5 ,000 people, and the DUP's W illieMcCrea, at a rally in his hometown of Porta -down.

    He did strike fear into the hearts of Catholics. All the sho ps in Portadown, evenD\rnnes Stores, closed obedient ly, "as amark of respect" for his funera l. Hisconstituency was not that of the Uls ter

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    ".Z:Doo.:::mr -r -

    Unionist middle classes bu t of the poorer ,angry, younger men.

    So just who was Billy Wright? " 1 am amid -Ulste r. loyalis t. . .and 1 ca n equate myfee lings to 97 per cent of the unionistpopulation," he told / me when 1 met him

    twice in the summer of 1996. Wright, saidto have been the former mid -Ulste rcommander .ofth e UV F, had just played apivota l role in the Drumcr ee standoff . Ourlast meeting was on 29 August 1996 , theday b efore the expi ration of the CombinedLoyalist Military Command's death threat

    behind a curtain . Then , later, a mysteriouswave, and a nod to a dark figure concea ledin a~big hedge , just at the ent rance to h ishousing estate in Portadow n.

    And there , in his nea r-sitting -room , in hisfair ly large detached house with a

    manicured garden, rich w ith f lowers , andcom plete with a bask etbal l hoop, sat Bi llyWright . A trim 36-year-old then , who didn 'tdrink o r smoke , who had tattoos, dressed indenim , wore a go ld ear -ring , and talkedabout his little dog Levi , who' d JUSthad anoperation . All around were ~he I iule : chinareligious plaques a nnou ncing thi ngs lik e"Jesus' Name.Is Sweet To Ever y Ear." In theLaura Ash ley-style room, with bo rderedwa llpaper, his pa rtner serves coffee inpottery mugs . All so no rmal, except for afeeling of tight control and ange r thatsometimes seeps th rough the man who's

    said to have ordered the random killing of aCatholic man on 7 July, the day b efore theDrumcree stando f f. Lurgan taxi driverEddie McGoldr ick had just had a new babyand h ad also just graduated fro m QueensUniversit y.

    Wright denied having had anything to dowith it, and sa id that he was "arreste d f orpublic consumpti on" and kne w of noloyalist involvement in the k illing . The UV Fand the UDA also denied any inv olvement ,and Wr ight of f ered the completelyunf ounded suggestion th at it ma y have bee na drug-related killing .

    That killing i s said to have added t o therif t bet ween Wr igh t and the C LMC, wh owere backing the cease-fire . The re had bee ngrowing u nease amo ng Wri ght and hissupport ers, and the UVF, whic h Was said tobe ang ry abo ut the vio lence at Drumc ree,the ,McGoldrick killing and the moving

    con tinued on page 34

    "B i lly W righ t w as,for som e, the

    working-c la s s he row ho represented

    the fear a nd al ienat ionthat m any u nionis ts feel

    about w hat they seeas the threat to their

    culture."

    against him a nd Alex Kerr , the f ormer UDAcomman der in South Belf ast.

    The dri ll was that you phoned Wr ight,got picked up in a car park and we re drivento his h orne , via a num ber of safety che cks.The car slow ed down a t dif f erent hou ses,and a wave was g iven , and retu rned, f rom

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    "T here, in his neat s it ting-room , in his fair lyla rge de tached house w ith a~anicured garden ,

    rich w ith flow ers, an d com plete w ith aba sketbal l hoo p, sat B i lly W right."

    date you ... my family's buried at Drumcree .I will not let you tell me where I can orcannot go, or that I cannot speak to my MPata time when your government is speakingto the IRA ."

    It was difficult to try and figure out BillyWright, the man who described the cease -fire as the "happiest day of my life," whohad worked in the past as a religiouspreacher, but who'd abandoned practisinghis beloved religion because of the dilemmahe Saw in his support for violence . He toldme, " I believe that true Protestantism isabout faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You'requite right to say that if you were practisingthat faith then you couldn't align it to yourother beliefs ."

    Two of his sisters were married toCatholics . He'd no problem with Catholicsper se, he said. " I lived among nationalistpeople , I grew up with them," he said. "I'dno difficulty with them . If only the IRA andSinn Fein would recognize our right to exist,to be British, then I believe the twocommunities ... could come together, and anew form of life . within a British contextcould evolve." , -

    Indeed, he had grown up mixing withCatholics in South Armagh. Although hewas bor n in England, he'd returned toNorthern Ireland at the age of four andsettled in the mainly Protestant village of Mountnorris. He played Gaelic footballwith Catholics in nearby Whitecross and,unusually, a lso learned Irish history. Hemoved to Portadown and, when he was 15,was jailed for six years for possession of afirearm and hijacking.

    His involvement in violence started, hetold me, because he saw his neighboursbeing "systematically murdered." Three of his own family were killed : his uncle , whowas a member of the Salvation Army, hisfather-in-law and his brother-in-law.

    "You know," he said, "when you'velooked into the coffins of the ones you love,and you've heard the feeble excuses corningfrom nationalists, words weren't goodenough. " ,

    He would never condemn any loyalistparamilitary killings. He always tried to justify them by arguing that all the peoplekilled by the loyalists were involved . withthe IRA . But that simply was not the truth .

    Many ordinary Catholics were amongthe 41 people killed by the bruta l band of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade .

    Seventy-nine-year-old Rose AnneMallon, shot dead while answering thephone in her Dungannon home . Twoteenage girls killed while serving in a mobileshop ina Craigavon housing estate, and theman who tried to help, also gunned down .Two . young schoo lboys shot on their lunchbreak while in an amusement arcade inArmagh, and the Foxes , a couple in theirlate seventies, killed in thei r isolatedfarmhouse in Moy.

    What of their families? "I canunderstand their feelings ," he said , "and asa man . who has buried three of his ownfamily ' I can sympathize with them .Nevertheless, I hold my views dear to' myheart, and I think, by a nd large, that the

    further away from any dialogue. As a result,in August 1~96, after Drumcree, the UVFissued a statement saying ithad stood downone of its units in Portadown,

    to comply with this directive [to leaveNorthern Ireland within 72 hours] willresult in summary justice for your

    treasonable and subversive activities."At the time, support for thepair car ne from the DUP's IanPaisley junior , who said that"any death threat on anyindividual by any organization iscontemptible and reprehens ible,and I condemn it with everyounce of strength I have ," hesaid .

    Therewas a quite a fuss aboutWright's having met the UUPleader David Trimble atDrumcree. Wright had manned

    the barricades, fortified with amechanical digger and a slurrytank filled with pe trol that couldhave been sprayed over thesecurity forces in the event of anybattle developing. Thenewspaper headlines barkedbanners like "Mal lon AccusesTr imble of Breaking the Law"and "Trimble's , Talk with WrightRaises Queries about His Refusalto Meet Garvaghy Group ."

    The SDLP accused Mr Trimbleof "breathtaking hypocrisy," andBob McCartney of the U KUnionists said the meeting was"questionable." Wright . himse lf said David Trimble had asked

    him to intervene to prevent any violence.When asked why he was at Drumcree if hewasn't even a member of the Orange Order,Wright replied, "How dare you, dear, how

    It is believed th~t Wright, and Alex Ker r,then set up the Loyalist Volunteer Force,which led to their being issued with theCLMC 's death threat . It stated that "failure

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    unionist population has been the biggestvictim in all of this conflict. " ..

    A real family irony is that Wright's owngrandfather, a Presbyterian, is said to havesuffered discrimination from fellowProtestants because he spoke out againstCatholic discrimination and actually stoodfor election, as an independent, against thebig unionist party, and won. The grandsonalso ,put it up to the Ulster Unionists, in a

    different way .. "King Rat" took the violent path. He didtwo further spells in prison. In 1982 , he wascharged with murder and attemptedmurder, on the evidence of UVF supergrassClifford MacKeown, and Wright spent ayear in . prison on remand. But the chargeswere dropped when McKeown retracted hisevidence. It was in prison, however, that '

    Wright started reading the Bible, and whenhe was released in 1983 he decided to "livequietly through Christ." But twodevelopments propelled him back to .violence and away from his faith: theAnglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and thepublication of the Framework Document.He saw the setting up of thejoint secretariat ,

    at Maryfield and the role for the Irishgovernment as a betrayal; The man whotold me that he "Was the "first leadingloyalist to call {cir a loyalist cease-fire"believed . that th~ Framework Documentmeant that the "unionist people were to gointo a united Irelaud. " But what of the factthat, under the terms of t!:le Framework Document, any uniry jcould only herhappen i : f there was democratic consent forit? "Now please . don't insult us ," he said."We have the Framework Dqcument, :andwe have 'calls for it to . be imposed ... 'Pleasedon't tell Us nothing will be -imposed.'

    The Irish Constitution was also one of his mantras. He felt it "justified the murderof British citizens, and having spent manyyears in the H Blocks,"~esaid, and Having"listened to young nationalists singing their

    songs, believe me they : draw stheir opinionsbecause of their education, 'and becausethey are brought llpto believe they have a

    ,right, because of that 'constit:Ul'ion, to takeaway this land '." . ,

    Billy Wright was back in prison last year,listening to those songs. He was given eigp .tyean; fi)r threatening to kill aPortadown

    woman,Gweri Reed, whom he'd known for20 ,years. The incident happened inPortadown, just two weeks before I ~cfirstmet him-and heard his many denials of any involvement in violence. Whatha.e,pened was that seven masked men,armed withsledgehamil1ers and pickaxes. 'attacked the boyfriend of the woman'sdaughter, .in a. punishment beating. Thewoman's daughtetNicola tried to shield herboyfriend, and was injured. The next day,Wright told Mrs Reed that "l :m going tofucking shoot you/ after he'd also warned

    'her son that "I'm corning after you ." The. judge said he fou,! '1d.Wright's evidence"utterly unconvincing."

    After telaehearing: the-Reed amHyhail tolea\,e~ortherp ,. Ireland, and they .are 1\0W ina witness -protection scheme in Britain.

    $0 just where was the C0mprofi1isein thisman who - talked of dearly wanting peace?The father o two vgiels -and two ' boys,divorced rand ill a second relationship, whowisheli for 'hischildren that "there would bepeace .and reconciliation, and .that thecountry -would flourish;"

    It seemed what fie ' teally wanted wastotal victory .jand total peace, He didn'tthink so. 'He ' wanted the "consl iirutionaf issne solved"(within a British context}, hesaid, and fdtthat then the "parades issueana similar things like that could be settledwithout . the :U.nderlying threat of it beingmore devious .than it appears ."

    1\nd there he was; c

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    On Au gust 29, 1996, shorJly before theCLMC'sdeath threat against him expired,EllJer'W O JdfulinterviewedLV F leaderBUly W right inhis Porta downhome

    Emer Woodful: How did you hear about the death threat? Billy Wright: Well, I was aware of a conspiracy afterDrumcree, I had been informed from Belfast that my namewas to be blackened, and an excuse sought to execute me. So .this has been an ongoing process since I took - my stand withthe Orange Institution at Drumcree,And who tipped you off?Well, I'm not going to say that . But what I can say is that Ihave a lot of fine friends in Belfast, and further afield, andthere 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 tohold their point of view, but ifthey claim to monopolize theopinion of loyalists and claim ''to be speaking oil behalf of people that vehemently disagree with them; and then tw toimpose a silence .well I think that's moraIfywrong, and I willnot allow people to impose their form 'of politics onme. Andr most certainly wouldn't tty to impose my politics o nthem.You have ..been associated wit h! Alec Kerr, who was expelledfrom the DDA in 1994. How d id you get involved with him?I knew Alec when the war 'Was on. " He's a very asticulateyoung man, and very presentable, and let me S3 iY that , priorto the cease-fire, Alec Kerr was -one of the men who strove totry and bring about a settlement in Northern -Ireland.However, he recognized, shortly into the process, that theIRA were not sincere, and when the production of the frame-

    , work document came about, he understood like many lo y"al-ists that if the basis for peace was to be the framework doc-ument, then the unionist people were to go into a unitedIreland.The UVF leadership is obviously really angry with you.Earlier this month they stood down what they called one of

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    the units inPortadow~re teferrutg to?No, well;I'm not '"a,.m~{ll~erof any: organi-

    .satiop, so they coulan't siand me down.BUt~peJ1why do yOllugfoyalists look up toyeti s

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    feeling -ofthe unionist people, thafmy voicewas rendered useless.You're not in the Orange Order, so whatwere you doing there?Well, how dare you, deal,',how dare you. Ilive here, my family .arebnried in Druaacree..I'Il go to Drumcree church ', and I'ILnot letyou, I'll nof .let anYlJationalist tell J ,TiewhereI can or cannot go, or that 1 cannot speak tomy .MP, at a time when your government isspeaking to the IRA or its representatives,

    'o r when J9 .4nHume pn talk .to GtmyAdams , and you would condemn me oryour community would condemn me fortalking to my local, MP. ' Wh eat.is it that youwant me to be denied of? .What I'm saying is there was quite a lot of .surprise in Britain as : ' \vel~ .tnatypu ' weretalking to DavidTtimlrile; .Whatsurpri~e? T'riinotiiW>wed to talk to.my locaLMP? 'l'm nqt 11OWedto walk to a

    lJ Ijii'flP 8 E n N l/b t (1 ' jg1I1) caJ!pyingtl le c"fl in o lh fH ' 1 J 1 U P d e i'e dlit ftl ia n d ,Tfiltp y

    church that 'li ve beeneoing to tor yea~s?What form 'of life isit that you would Jiketos~e imposed ,lipon peoplefrom the unioni~tcommullity? ;.Ii: seems to me what you're looking for at~he end of '~he 'day is total vi~~orY .fllldtotalpeace. .; .N