My Life in Loyalism

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However, before long the extreme lack of discipline that then ensued became too much for several senior figures to stand and as a consequence in 1984 Hutchinson took control again, holding the post until his release from prison in 1990. Those who are involved in criminality are not loyalists, he emphasises, and need to be dealt with by the police; that said, he makes a broader point about the narrative that loyalists are “bad boys” rather than “working-class unionists”. It will be presented as achieving things which, as we have learnt in the past, may not in fact be achieved at all. New posters have been erected across different parts of Northern Ireland highlighting loyalist demands regarding the deal.

He was involved in the negotiations which led to the Belfast Agreement on Good Friday 1998 and was nominated by the UVF as their interlocutor with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning chaired by General John de Chastelain. I grew up in a society were it was always somebody else's fault with nobody taking responsibility for their own actions. Asked if there was a genuine depth of anger in his community and whether he was not "sabre rattling" he replied: "This is not sabre rattling. We’ve all seen the Bios of the better known players on the NI stage, now this book tells the story (as did Henry Sinnerton’s Bio of David Ervine) of one of the lesser known politicians who undoubtedly made as much of an impact as the ‘names’. Written with candour and honesty, this is a lively first-hand account of an extraordinary life and reveals previously hidden episodes of both the Northern Ireland Troubles and the high-profile negotiations that led to the Belfast Agreement of 1998.William Hutchinson (July 1870 – July 1943) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Stoke.

This has been Hutchinson’s “life in loyalism”; it is the title of his autobiography, which is written with Gareth Mulvenna and published this month by Merrion Press. In the 2023 local elections, he lost his seat to the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) candidate, leaving the PUP with no representation on Belfast City Council.Hutchinson suggested that the process by which the vote was held may not have been legal and on 15 December stated that he would make an announcement about a legal challenge in the "next few days". The UVF was founded in 1965 and was a violent response to a perceived IRA threat in the late 1960’s. Hutchinson maintained a high level of fitness while in prison, running 15 miles a day inside the perimeter of his compound. Last week, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan told a Westminster committee that loyalist paramilitaries were likely to have played a role in organising peaceful anti-protocol rallies which took place on a regular basis until the summer. He topped the poll, with 1674 first preference votes, and successfully retained his seat in the 2019 local elections.