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We all have preconceived ideas of what a Loyalist is, the media
perception of Loyalism is viewed through emerald green tinted glasses. Many
believe that all Loyalists are Bigots and their crimes are purely sectarian here
is an insight into the thoughts of a True Loyalist, make your own mind up.
Billy Wright was a committed loyalist. He has been questioned about the
execution of more than a dozen republicans over the past 10 years, he is known
by sections of the pro-IRA media as 'King Rat'.
When Billy's parents separated he was sent, at six years of age, to a welfare
home in Mountnorris, a small town in South Armagh. "I absolutely loved it
there". We talk sitting in his flat which is protected by a steel gate, a
strong oak door and bullet proof windows in all rooms." I went to primary
school where Ms Flack was the teacher, I would describe her as a Protestant
nationalist. I think she is a member of the Alliance Party. I learned all about
Patrick Pearse, the Easter Rebellion. I could well understand the fierce
resentment the Irish had against England. 'I loved Irish history and the songs
that they sang in my days in South Armagh. On Sundays we would go to Whitecross
to watch the Gaelic football games. I played Gaelic and football every second
day with the boys from Mountnorris. It was tough and my friends were from both
sides. In later days we would go to dances in Dundalk in the Free State.
Billy was 15 when 10 Protestant workmen from Bessbrook were taken from a minibus
in Whitecross and shot. "I realised that they were massacred because of
what I was - a Protestant. I left Mountnorris, came back to Portadown and
immediately joined the youth wing of the UVF. I felt it was my duty to defend my
people".
Within a few months he was arrested on a hijacking and arms charge and sentenced
to six years in Crumlin Road jail and then in Long Kesh. "I knew I was no
ordinary criminal. In the H blocks I joined the protest by refusing to wear
prison clothes. I knew a lot of IRA men in those days, like Willie Gallagher
from Strabane who bombed the British Legion hall. I remember listening to Bobby
Sands make a speech in the next compound, though I never met or spoke to
him". He was released after serving three and a half years and emigrated to
Scotland. That only lasted three months before he had an exclusion order served
on him and he returned to the province. In 1980 he was held on suspicion of one
murder, two attempted murders and five counts of conspiracy to murder. He has
survived bomb and bullet ambushes from republicans The RUC told him that one of
the attacks on him was by INLA chief Dominic 'Mad dog' Mc Glinchey. Billy
legally adopted his sister's son from Limerick in the Republic. She had married
a man from Tipperary and was going to America to make a new life. 'They wanted
the young lad brought up in Ireland and asked me to look after him. By the way I
have two other sisters who are married to Catholics here in Ulster". Billy
Wright's family have been victims of IRA violence; his uncle, Jim, a member of
the Salvation Army was riddled with 31 bullets by the IRA; his brother-in-law
and his father-in law were also shot dead. "It wasn't fair, why should
loyalist people stand idly by? There had to be retaliation against the Sinn
Fein/IRA axis" .I ask him about operations like Greysteel and
Loughinisland. "I know it is a cruel thing to say but when you consider
when they happened it was after atrocities and slaughter by the IRA. The
Shankill bombings had just occurred and the loyalist people had reached breaking
point. I don't believe that Greysteel or Loughinisland was murder. The
nationalist people had given succour and votes to the scum of the Sinn Fein/IRA
. I honestly believe that there would be no ceasefire from the IRA if there had
been no retaliation from the loyalist paramilitaries. I hope that no one will
die again in this generation or the next but there's no way we're going on the
road to a United Ireland".
Regrets? "I am me and I'll see it to the end. I am not leaving the
battlefield." Sadly Billy Wright was murdered while in prison by the
INLA, allegedly in collusion with the British Government on the 27th of December
1997 LVF
Extracts from an interview taken in 1995
Footnote: Billy Wright was shot
dead by three members of a republican terrorist organisation, the Irish National
Liberation Army at approximately 9. 50 am on the morning of Saturday 27th
December 1997. The killers struck as Billy Wright sat in a prison van waiting to
be taken to the prison visits area allocated to the loyalist paramilitary group,
the Loyalist Volunteer Force, (LVF).
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Loyalist Volunteer Prisoners
Welfare
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WC1N 3XX
www.lvpw.org
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