Gary McMichael | |
---|---|
Leader of the Ulster Democratic Party | |
In office 1994–2001 | |
Preceded by | Ray Smallwoods |
Succeeded by | Party abolished |
Member of Lisburn City Council | |
In office 19 May 1993 –5 May 2005 | |
Preceded by | Seat created |
Succeeded by | Andrew Ewing |
Constituency | Lisburn Town South |
Member of the Northern Ireland Forum | |
In office 30 May 1996 –25 April 1998 | |
Preceded by | Forum created |
Succeeded by | Forum dissolved |
Constituency | Top-up list |
Personal details | |
Born | 1969 (age 54–55) Lisburn,Northern Ireland |
Political party | Ulster Democratic Party (1988 - 2001) |
Other political affiliations | Independent (2001 - 2005) |
Parent(s) | John McMichael Phyllis McMichael |
Known for | Loyalist politician |
Gary McMichael (born 1969) [1] is a Northern Ireland community activist,and retired politician. He was the leader of the short-lived Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) during the Northern Ireland peace process,and was instrumental in organizing the Loyalist ceasefire in the Troubles in 1994.
McMichael is the eldest son of the John McMichael,a former leader of the Loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA). He left school in his native Lisburn in 1985,and began working with the civil service,although he subsequently also worked as a youth worker and an insurance salesman. [2]
He became involved in local protests against the Anglo-Irish Agreement soon after it was signed. [3] McMichael joined the Lisburn Club,the local branch of the pan-unionist Ulster Clubs movement that his father had helped to establish,and for a while served as chairman of this branch. [4] John McMichael was killed on 22 December 1987 and Gary McMichael was informed by police when a message to report to the front door was read out by Jake Burns,the lead singer of Stiff Little Fingers,at the Ulster Hall in Belfast,where he was attending a concert. [5]
In 1988 McMichael became involved with the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party (as the UDP was then known). [6] He served as election co-ordinator for the group and helped to ensure the election of Ken Kerr to Derry City Council in 1989. [7] He was the UDP candidate in the 1990 Upper Bann by-election,when he finished eighth with 600 votes in a contest won by David Trimble. [8] Although he regularly gave political advice to the UDA's controlling Inner Council,he was never a member of the paramilitary organisation,concentrating solely on the political wing. [9]
McMichael became a close ally of Ray Smallwoods,serving his political apprenticeship under the UDP chairman. [10] Smallwoods was killed in 1994 and McMichael succeeded him as UDP leader. Although McMichael roundly condemned the killing of Smallwoods he later conceded that the shooting of Smallwoods,as well as that of Joe Bratty and Raymie Elder soon afterwards,convinced him that a Provisional IRA ceasefire was near as all three had been long-standing targets for the republican group. [11]
As leader of the UDP,McMichael became attached to the Combined Loyalist Military Command,and played a leading role in convincing the CLMC to call a ceasefire in October 1994. [12] When the ceasefire was announced from Fernhill House in Glencairn,McMichael was one of the six,along with UDP colleagues John White and David Adams and Progressive Unionist Party leaders Gusty Spence,"Plum" Smith and Jim McDonald,who delivered the statement confirming the cessation. [12] A few days later McMichael,along with Adams,Spence,Joe English,David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson,took part in a tour of the United States where they presented the loyalist case publicly to a number of bodies. [13] McMichael in particular received widespread coverage after he said in a speech to the National Committee on American Foreign Policy that if the Provisional IRA ceasefire proved legitimate then it was imperative for unionist leaders to hold talks with Sinn Féin,something the Ulster Unionist Party and Democratic Unionist Party were refusing to countenance. [14] He was also part of a loyalist delegation to 10 Downing Street in June 1996 aimed at avoiding the possibility of the cancellation of the CLMC ceasefire. [15]
McMichael became a high-profile figure due to his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process and he led the UDP into the Forum in 1996 from which the Belfast Agreement emerged. [1] McMichael became an enthusiastic advocate of the Agreement,although his views were not always shared by the UDA membership as a whole and the party failed to win any seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. [1] McMichael himself stood in Lagan Valley and only failed to capture one of the six seats by a narrow margin. [16]
Following the killing of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright in late 1997,McMichael held a personal meeting with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam in which he convinced her that,to avoid a breach of the ceasefire due to the popularity of Wright,they needed to engage with UDA prisoners. Mowlam herself,as well as McMichael,entered HMP Maze to meet with the paramilitary leaders and after extensive negotiations emerged with an undertaking that they would not sanction retaliation. [17] McMichael,whose position was seen as weakened by some more hawkish members due to his own lack of a track record as a paramilitary,was supported in his efforts by Jackie McDonald,a leading figure within the UDA and close ally of John McMichael. [18]
However,the guarantee was ignored by the UDA West Belfast Brigade,with Stephen McKeag carrying out several retaliatory murders in what proved a blow to McMichael's leadership. [19] Sammy Duddy would later admit that UDA activity in the aftermath of Wright's killing was kept from McMichael and McMichael subsequently claimed that when he went to the Inner Council to appeal to them to respect the ceasefire they told him the UDA was not involved in any of the attacks,even though they were actually being carried out by UDA members. [20]
Although still a local councillor,McMichael's influence began to wane after the failure of 1998 and with the movement of Johnny Adair towards the Loyalist Volunteer Force and the resulting loyalist feud,he became an increasingly peripheral figure along with the UDP as a whole. [21] As elements within the UDA returned to violence in 1999,using the Red Hand Defenders cover name,McMichael was largely in the dark as to whether or not the UDA were involved. [22] He entered virtual political retirement,concentrating instead on writing a column for Ireland on Sunday and publishing his autobiography,An Ulster Voice,in 1999. [23] He did emerge briefly for negotiations with David Ervine aimed at ending the feuds,although these came to nothing. [24] He was appointed to the Civic Forum for Northern Ireland, [25] but McMichael's career in politics was effectively ended by the collapse of the UDP in 2001. [1] McMichael did not take any role in the Ulster Political Research Group,which assumed the UDP's role as political arm of the UDA,albeit without being a political party. He continued to sit on Lisburn City Council as an independent [26] and did not seek re-election in 2005. [27] He is no longer involved in electoral politics.
In 1998 McMichael started a Lisburn-based Community Organisation,ASCERT –Action on Substances through Community Education and Related Training,aimed at addressing the drug and alcohol issues in the local communities. Working with communities across the Eastern Health Board area ASCERT built a strong reputation as a leader in the delivery of drug and alcohol training programmes. On retiring from politics McMichael became the full-time Director of ASCERT and has nurtured the organisation into the forefront of drug and alcohol training,education,support and youth treatment work in Northern Ireland today.[ citation needed ]
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of the participants of the Troubles. Its declared goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas and to combat Irish republicanism,particularly the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the 1970s,uniformed UDA members openly patrolled these areas armed with batons and held large marches and rallies. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks that used the cover name Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. The British government proscribed the UFF as a terrorist group in November 1973,but the UDA itself was not proscribed until August 1992.
The Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) was a small loyalist political party in Northern Ireland. It was established in June 1981 as the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA),to replace the New Ulster Political Research Group. The UDP name had previously been used in the 1930s by an unrelated party,which on one occasion contested Belfast Central.
John White is a former leading loyalist in Northern Ireland. He was sometimes known by the nickname 'Coco'. White was a leading figure in the loyalist paramilitary group,the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and,following a prison sentence for murder,entered politics as a central figure in the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP). Always a close ally of Johnny Adair,White was run out of Northern Ireland when Adair fell from grace and is no longer involved in loyalist activism.
Albert Glenn Barr OBE was a politician from Derry,Northern Ireland,who was an advocate of Ulster nationalism. For a time during the 1970s he straddled both Unionism and Loyalism due to simultaneously holding important positions in the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party and the Ulster Defence Association.
The Ulster Workers' Council was a loyalist workers' organisation set up in Northern Ireland in 1974 as a more formalised successor to the Loyalist Association of Workers (LAW). It was formed by shipyard union leader Harry Murray and initially failed to gain much attention. However,with the full support of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) the UWC became the main mobilising force for loyalist opposition to power-sharing arrangements.
Raymond "Ray" Smallwoods was a Northern Ireland politician and sometime leader of the Ulster Democratic Party. A leading member of John McMichael's South Belfast Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA),Smallwoods later served as a leading adviser to the UDA's Inner Council. He was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) outside his Lisburn home.
John McMichael was a Northern Irish loyalist who rose to become the most prominent and charismatic figure within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) as the Deputy Commander and leader of its South Belfast Brigade. He was also commander of the "Ulster Freedom Fighters" (UFF),a cover name for the UDA,overseeing an assassination campaign against prominent republican figures whose details were included in a notorious "shopping list" derived from leaked security forces documents. The UDA used the UFF name when it wished to claim responsibility for attacks,thus allowing it to remain a legal paramilitary organisation until August 1992 when it was proscribed by the British Government.
The Loyalist Association of Workers (LAW) was a militant unionist organisation in Northern Ireland that sought to mobilise trade union members in support of the loyalist cause. It became notorious for a one-day strike in 1973 that ended in widespread violence.
The Combined Loyalist Military Command is an umbrella body for loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s,recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee.
Joe Bratty was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitant and a leading member of the Ulster Defence Association's South Belfast Brigade. The head of UDA activity in the area during one of the organisation's most active phases,Bratty was suspected by security forces of playing a role in,or at least orchestrating,around 15 killings.
Tommy Herron was a Northern Ireland loyalist and a leading member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) until his death in a fatal shooting. Herron controlled the UDA in East Belfast,one of its two earliest strongholds. From 1972,he was the organisation's vice-chairman and most prominent spokesperson,and was the first person to receive a salary from the UDA.
Andrew Tyrie is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who served as commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during much of its early history. He took the place of Tommy Herron in 1973 when the latter was killed,and led the organisation until March 1988 when an attempt on his life forced him to resign from his command.
Alex Kerr is a Northern Irish former loyalist paramilitary. Kerr was a brigadier in the Ulster Defence Association (UDA)'s South Belfast Brigade. He is no longer active in loyalism.
Joe English is a former Ulster loyalist activist. English was a leading figure in both the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) and was instrumental in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process. He is a native of the Rathcoole area of Newtownabbey,Northern Ireland. English is a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry.
Kenneth Gibson was a Northern Irish politician who was the Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party (VPP),which he had helped to form in 1974. He also served as a spokesman and Chief of Staff of the loyalist paramilitary organisation,the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
David Adams is a Northern Irish loyalist activist and former politician. He was instrumental in bringing about the loyalist ceasefire of 1994 and played a leading role in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process.
William Elliot was a former Northern Irish loyalist who served as brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) East Belfast Brigade in the 1980s.
Reverend Robert James Magee OBE was a Northern Irish Presbyterian minister who is credited with playing a leading role in delivering the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) ceasefire of 1994. Earlier Rev Magee had been a leading figure in Unionism.
The UDA South Belfast Brigade is the section of the Ulster loyalist paramilitary group,the Ulster Defence Association (UDA),based in the southern quarter of Belfast,as well as in surrounding areas. Initially a battalion,the South Belfast Brigade emerged from the local "defence associations" active in the city at the beginning of the Troubles. It subsequently emerged as the largest of the UDA's six brigades and expanded to cover an area much wider than its initial South Belfast borders.
Raymond Elder was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary and a prominent figure within the Ulster Defence Association's South Belfast Brigade. Suspected by security forces of playing a role in numerous killings,including the Sean Graham shooting,he was shot dead by the Irish Republican Army on the Ormeau Road in 1994.