Loyalists urge support for Northern Ireland to transition beyond paramilitarism

By Rebecca Black, PA

Loyalist leaders have called for support from the UK and Irish administrations for Northern Ireland to transition beyond paramilitarism.

Jim Wilson, Jackie McDonald, Robert Williamson and Winston Irvine of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) made the call after meeting with the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) in Belfast on Wednesday.

The commission was one of the measures set out in the 2015 Fresh Start Agreement to bring an end to paramilitary activity in the region.

The LCC, which represents loyalists groups including the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando, took exception to the IRC’s last report which did not mention the Provisional IRA.

Its next report is expected to be published in November.

Following a two-hour meeting, Mr Irvine said they told the IRC that they “needed to learn the lessons … in terms of their failure to acknowledge the presence and the role of the Provisional IRA”.

“There seems to be a narrative that the loyalist groupings are to be categorised as criminals and ignored while the Provisional IRA is to be sanitised,” he said.

“The point was made about the strain and pressure under which that is placing those at a senior level in Loyalist groupings in terms of continuing to try and urge their memberships to continue down the road of transformation.”

Mr Irvine raised the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey at which ex-prisoners lined the streets.

“The IRC was told in very stark terms today that the pretence around the IRA having gone away and turned into some kind of butterfly that flew out of the window, is exactly that, an absolute pretence,” he said.

“The Sinn Fein line is that the IRA doesn’t exist, well, who was at Bobby Storey’s funeral?

“This is the pretence which has to stop.”

The UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando announced ceasefires in 1994 in a statement which included an apology.

They later took part in decommissioning of weapons.

Loyalist activity such as the murder of Ian Ogle in east Belfast in January 2019 was put to the delegation.

Mr Irvine responded saying the challenges and problems that loyalists face are “no different to the challenges and problems which the Provisional IRA leadership faces, in relation to people who have broken off from their movement and joined dissidents”.

But the LCC has assessed that “loyalists do have the ability to take the critical mass forward”, but warned that there are barriers, including uncertainty around Brexit and dealing with the legacy of the past.

“There needs to be a political solution and a policy solution that provides the mechanism for that transformation process to begin in earnest, to date that has been missing,” he said.

Mr Irvine said issues such as social and economic factors including high levels of suicide, educational underachievement, low employment and poor mental health must be tackled as things that “help fuel activity around paramilitarism”.

Mr Wilson said the Red Hand Commando “attempted to lead the way” by applying to be removed from the Government’s list of proscribed organisations.

“We were trying to lead the way so that other groups to follow, a way for all of us to get out of the quagmire that we’re in, and the door was completely shut in our faces,” he said.

He called for the UK and Irish administrations to step in to support Northern Ireland moving away from paramilitarism.