On 25 February 1972,he survived an assassination attempt in Armagh by the Official Irish Republican Army.[5] Two men,including Joe McCann (who was himself shot dead some months afterwards whilst evading arrest),raked his car with bullets,hitting Taylor five times in the neck and head.[6] Taylor survived,but needed extensive reconstructive surgery on his jaw. Despite this,Taylor soon re-entered politics. He represented Fermanagh &South Tyrone in the short-lived Northern Ireland Assembly elected in 1973 and dissolved in 1974,following the collapse of the power-sharing Executive.[7]
He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982 for North Down.[11] He then became MP for Strangford in 1983,until 2001.[12] He was a member of Castlereagh Borough Council from 1993 to 1997. In February 1989 he joined the anti-communist Conservative Monday Club and appears on the list of their speakers at the Annual Conference of its Young Members' Group at the United Oxford &Cambridge Club in Pall Mall,on 18 November 1989,when he spoke on 'The Union and Northern Ireland'.[citation needed]
He married Mary Todd in 1970,and has six children. His wife died in September 2023.[17]
Controversies
In 1988,the then John Taylor replied to a letter from Gearoid ÓMuilleoir,deputy president of the Student's Union in Queen's University Belfast,relating to grants for students in Northern Ireland. Taylor's letter said,"Since your surname is clearly unpronounceable I have,rightly or wrongly,concluded that you are Irish and not British. I therefore suggest that you,and those whom you represent,apply for any necessary grants to the Dublin Government."[18]
In September 1993,Taylor described Loyalist paramilitary victims (overwhelmingly Catholic civilians) "generally" as "members of organisations which support the IRA".[20] Earlier that same month he also said the increasing fear amongst Catholics might be helpful because they were beginning to "appreciate" the fear in the Protestant community.[21]
Taylor later repudiated being Irish in a debate in Dublin:"We in Northern Ireland are not Irish. We do not jig at crossroads,speak Gaelic,play GAA etc…It is an insult for Dubliners to refer to us as being Irish."[22]
In 1997,British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a statement on the Irish Famine,in which he said "those governed in London at the time failed their people through standing by while a crop failure turned into a massive human tragedy. We must not forget such a dreadful event." Taylor said,"I suppose it is a nice gesture by the prime minister but he will find it will not satisfy and there will be yet more demands. The Irish mentality is one of victimhood - they ask for one apology one week and another on a different subject the next."[23]
In November 2017,Taylor attracted criticism for describing the then-Taoiseach of the Republic of IrelandLeo Varadkar as "the Indian".[25] Taylor withdrew his comment,stating that he had forgotten how to spell the Irish head of government's name,despite spelling it in an earlier tweet.[25] Despite this contrition,in May 2018 Taylor once again referred to Varadkar as a "typical Indian" following Varadkar's visit to Northern Ireland.[26] This time Taylor stood by his comment,stating that the Taoiseach had "upset Unionists" with his visit,but reiterated that he was not a racist.[26]
In April 2018,Taylor faced calls to apologise after claiming McGurk's Bar,bombed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1971,was a "drinking hole for IRA sympathisers" who had run a "political campaign to place the blame on the UVF". The UVF attack,which killed 15 people,was one of deadliest incidents in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Taylor,who was a Stormont minister at the time of the bombing,wrongly claimed the massacre was an IRA device that exploded prematurely inside the premises. Pat Irvine,who was aged 14 when her mother Kathleen was killed in the attack,said "I'm actually disgusted with him,that he's so blatant with his hatred and bitterness."[27]
On 9 November 2020,Taylor made a series of statements on Twitter about American Vice-President-ElectKamala Harris,saying,"What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President. Who then becomes Vice President?"[28][29] When challenged,he claimed that he did not know the name of the vice-president elect,by way of explaining his term of reference. He said,"I had never heard of her nor knew her name is Harris. India is quite rightly celebrating that an Indian,who has USA citizenship,has been appointed Vice President elect".[30]
Taylor had previously been labelled an "old racist dinosaur" by Piers Morgan,for comments he had made in 2017 about cricketer Moeen Ali. Taylor had said on Twitter that,"Times have changed! The England team now needs non English people in order to win Test Games". When it was pointed out that Ali was born in Britain,Taylor responded,"Moeen Ali is proud to be British but racially he is not English. There is a difference between being English and being British!!",adding that,"A Chinese born in England is Chinese and not English!".[31]
In July 2021,During the Euro 2021 football competition,Taylor posted remarks on Twitter criticising the Spain national football team for not singing their national anthem at the start of football matches. Commentators responded by pointing out that the Spanish national anthem does not,in fact,have any lyrics.[32]
A Tailor Bird Or grasping a Bush eradicated Azure enflamed Or
Escutcheon
Azure issuing in base three Representations of the Scrabo Tower Argent with windows framed and Pinnacles Or each ensigned by a Viking Helm Argent horned Or
Supporters
On either side an Irish Elk Gules unguled and attired Or resting the exterior forehoof upon an Ulster Gatepost Argent
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom.
David Ervine was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2002 to 2007 and was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 to 2007. During his youth Ervine was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was imprisoned for possessing bomb-making equipment. Whilst in jail he became convinced of the benefits of a more political approach for loyalism and became involved with the PUP. As a leading PUP figure, Ervine helped to deliver the loyalist ceasefire of 1994.
The Irish People's Liberation Organisation was a small Irish socialist republican paramilitary organisation formed in 1986 by disaffected and expelled members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), whose factions coalesced in the aftermath of the supergrass trials. It developed a reputation for intra-republican and sectarian violence as well as criminality, before being forcibly disbanded by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1992.
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey, Baron Empey,, best known as Reg Empey, is a Northern Irish politician who served as the acting First Minister of Northern Ireland in 2001. He was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2005 to 2010 and served as chairman of the party from 2012 to 2019. Empey was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 1998 to 2011.
Augustus Andrew Spence was a leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and a leading loyalist politician in Northern Ireland. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade.
From 1969 until 1997, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) conducted an armed paramilitary campaign primarily in Northern Ireland and England, aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland in order to create a united Ireland.
Ulster Resistance (UR), or the Ulster Resistance Movement (URM), is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary movement established by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland in November 1986 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
The Protestant Action Force (PAF) was a cover name used by Ulster loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) when claiming responsibility for a number of attacks during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Sometimes these actions were carried out with the assistance of members of the security forces. The name "PAF" was first used in 1974 and attacks by individuals claiming to be members of the PAF killed at least 41 Catholic civilians. All of the attacks claimed by the PAF in Armagh and Tyrone counties from 1974 to 1976 have been linked to the Glenanne gang, which was a loose coalition consisting of members of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade along with rogue Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers. A six-year period of no attacks claimed by the PAF ended in 1982; during the 1980s, the PAF claimed 15 attacks in the Belfast area and two in County Armagh. UDR soldiers were convicted of two attacks in Armagh. The PAF claimed its last attacks in the early 1990s, all of which were in north Armagh and were alleged to involve members of the security forces.
The Reavey and O'Dowd killings were two coordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians died after members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, broke into their homes and shot them. Three members of the Reavey family were shot at their home in Whitecross and four members of the O'Dowd family were shot at their home in Ballydougan. Two of the Reaveys and three of the O'Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of brain haemorrhage almost a month later.
This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group since 1966. It includes actions carried out by the Red Hand Commando (RHC), a group integrated into the UVF shortly after their formation in 1972. It also includes attacks claimed by the Protestant Action Force (PAF), a covername used by the UVF. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
William "Frenchie" Marchant was a Northern Irish loyalist and a high-ranking volunteer in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He was on a Garda list of suspects in the 1974 Dublin car bombings, and was allegedly the leader of the Belfast UVF unit known as "Freddie and the Dreamers" which hijacked and stole the three cars which were used in the bombings.
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade formed part of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland. The brigade was established in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna. The unit operated mainly around the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Subsequent leaders of the brigade were Robin Jackson, known as "The Jackal", and Billy Wright. The Mid-Ulster Brigade carried out many attacks, mainly in Northern Ireland, especially in the South Armagh area, but it also extended its operational reach into the Republic of Ireland. Two of the most notorious attacks in the history of the Troubles were carried out by the Mid-Ulster Brigade: the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the Miami Showband killings in 1975. Members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were part of the Glenanne gang which the Pat Finucane Centre has since linked to at least 87 lethal attacks in the 1970s.
The Bayardo Bar attack took place on 13 August 1975 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), led by Brendan McFarlane, launched a bombing and shooting attack on a pub on Aberdeen Street, in the loyalist Shankill area. IRA members stated the pub was targeted because it was frequented by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Four Protestant civilians and one UVF member were killed, while more than fifty were injured.
The Hillcrest Bar bombing, also known as the "Saint Patrick's Day bombing", took place on 17 March 1976 in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a car bomb outside a pub crowded with people celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. Four Catholic civilians were killed by the blast—including two 13-year-old boys standing outside—and almost 50 people were injured, some severely.
The Darkley killings or Darkley massacre was a gun attack carried out on 20 November 1983 near the village of Darkley in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Three gunmen attacked worshippers attending a church service at Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church, killing three Protestant civilians and wounding seven. The attackers were members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) acting on their own. They claimed responsibility using the cover name "Catholic Reaction Force", saying it was retaliation for recent sectarian attacks on Catholics by the loyalist "Protestant Action Force". The attack was condemned by the INLA leadership.
On 2 October 1975, the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) carried out a wave of shootings and bombings across Northern Ireland. Six of the attacks left 12 people dead and around 45 people injured. There was also an attack in a small village in County Down called Killyleagh. There were five attacks in and around Belfast which left people dead. A bomb which exploded in Coleraine left four UVF members dead. There were also several other smaller bombs planted around Northern Ireland but other than causing damage they did not kill or injure anyone.
On 14 November 1991 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, shot dead three civilians in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The three men were driving home from work at the Hyster forklift factory.
This is a timeline of actions by the Official Irish Republican Army, an Irish republican & Marxist-Leninist paramilitary group. Most of these actions took place as part of a Guerrilla campaign against the British Army & Royal Ulster Constabulary and internal Irish Republican feuds with the Provisional IRA & Irish National Liberation Army from the early 1970s - to the mid-1970s during the most violent phase of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
The Stag Inn attack was a sectarian gun attack, on 30 July 1976, carried out by a group of Belfast IRA Volunteers using the cover name Republican Action Force. Four Protestants, all civilians, the youngest being 48 years old and the eldest 70, were all killed in the attack with several others being injured. Three Catholics were killed the previous day in a Loyalist bomb attack, part of a string of sectarian attacks in Northern Ireland by different paramilitary organizations.
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