David Ervine
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David Ervine | |
---|---|
New Creation | |
Succeeded by | Dawn Purvis |
Member of Belfast City Council | |
In office 21 May 1997 – 8 January 2007 | |
Preceded by | Jim Walker |
Succeeded by | John Kyle |
Constituency | Pottinger |
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 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 21 July 1953
Died | 8 January 2007 Belfast, Northern Ireland | (aged 53)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Progressive Unionist Party |
Spouse |
Jeanette Cunningham (m. 1971) |
Children | Mark Owen |
Website | PUP |
David Ervine (21 July 1953 – 8 January 2007) was a
Early life
David Ervine was the youngest of five children born to Walter and Elizabeth Ervine. He was raised in a
Before joining the UVF Ervine had attempted to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), but due to a misdemeanour in his childhood involving a stolen bicycle he was refused entry.[5]
Arrest and imprisonment
Ervine was arrested in November 1974, while an active member of the UVF. He was driving a stolen car containing five pounds of commercial explosives, a detonator and fuse wire. After seven months on remand in
Release
Ervine was released from prison in 1980. He owned a newsagents' in Belfast for several years before taking up full-time politics. He stood in local council elections as a Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) candidate in 1985. In 1998, he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent Belfast East and was re-elected in 2003. He was also a member of Belfast City Council from 1997.
Loyalist ceasefire
Ervine is said[by whom?] to have played a pivotal role in bringing about the loyalist ceasefire of October 1994. He was part of a delegation to Downing Street in June 1996 that met then British Prime Minister John Major to discuss the loyalist ceasefire.
Forum
In 1996 Ervine was elected to the
Progressive
Ervine was considered to be one of the most progressive
In the Northern Ireland Assembly, he was seen as a Unionist sympathetic to the short-term demands[clarification needed] of Sinn Féin, resisting attempts by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to exclude Sinn Féin from office in July 2000[8] and October 2001.[9] In April 2001, he provoked a direct political attack from the DUP over being the only unionist to vote against a motion condemning the display of lilies commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising at Parliament Buildings.[10] Ervine also expressed support for the right of Sinn Féin members to make speeches in Irish (Gaelic) on the floor of the Assembly. Later, political commentators[who?] noted how he sat next to Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness at the funeral of Northern Ireland football legend George Best in December 2005 as a sign of how Northern Ireland had moved on.
Independent Monitoring Commission
In May 2005, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) recommended a continuation of the financial sanctions on Ervine's Assembly salary imposed following its report of April 2004. The IMC was of the opinion that the UVF and the PUP maintained strong links while the former was heavily involved in criminality such as drug dealing and tobacco and fuel smuggling. It further noted that the UVF was responsible for a number of acts of violence (including murder) and was actively maintaining its capacity to wage a terrorist campaign. It concluded that, 12 months after the sanctions were originally imposed, the PUP leadership was still not doing enough to address the UVF's criminal and paramilitary activities.
Ervine appealed against the IMC's recommendation to newly appointed
The IMC again recommended financial sanctions against Ervine and the PUP. These came in a special report of September 2005 on the violent feud that had erupted between the UVF and the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) that summer, in which a number of murders and attempted murders had been committed. It argued that the PUP leadership was still in a position significantly to influence the UVF: the party could not have it both ways by associating with an active paramilitary organisation without facing political consequences.
In its final regular reports of Ervine's life in April and October 2006, the IMC concluded that it was satisfied the PUP leadership had taken appropriate action to de-escalate UVF's violence and criminality, and it withdrew its punitive recommendations.[11]
Links with Ulster Unionists
On 13 May 2006, it was announced that when the Northern Ireland Assembly reconvened, Ervine would join the Ulster Unionist assembly group, while remaining leader of the Progressive Unionist Party. Under the D'Hondt method used for allocating places on the Northern Ireland Executive, this would entitle the Ulster Unionists to an additional place.[12]
The Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the Assembly, Eileen Bell MLA indicated at the first meeting of the 'shadow' Assembly (15 May 2006) that she would take legal advice before ruling on whether Mr Ervine could be treated as a member of the UUP group.[13]
On 11 September 2006 Ms Bell announced that the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly Group did not have a headquarters, at least one party leader and a scheme for financial support; thus it did not qualify as a political party. This meant that the UUPAG could not sit in the Assembly, so the alliance was deemed as invalid.[14]
Identity
Ervine was a
Allegations of collusion with security forces
Ervine dismissed allegations of collusion between loyalists and British security forces as "sheer unadulterated nonsense", saying, "there comes a point when the concept insults me, insomuch as that a
Ervine cited his own arrest, and the number of UVF members in prison at the time, as evidence that widespread collusion did not exist:
"The Royal Ulster Constabulary arrested me on possession of explosives; now why did they do that if we lived in a process of collusion? When I went into jail there were 240 UVF men in three compounds, packed in like sardines, and the UVF were a relatively small organisation in comparison to some of the others, but they made up a hell of a percentage of that jail. Where’s collusion there?"[15]
Illness and death
Ervine was reported as having suffered two massive heart attacks and a stroke[16] after attending a football match between Glentoran and Armagh City at The Oval in Belfast on Saturday 6 January 2007. It was later confirmed that he had one heart attack, a stroke and brain haemorrhage.[17] He was taken to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald and was later admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.[18] Ervine died on Monday 8 January 2007.[19] RTÉ News at 9pm and its website had reported the previous evening that he had died that day.[20][21] This incorrect reporting led RTÉ's Northern Editor, Tommie Gorman, to apologise for his error.[17]
Ervine's body was cremated at Roselawn Crematorium after a funeral service on 12 January in East Belfast. It was attended by Mark Durkan, Gerry Adams, Peter Hain, Dermot Ahern, Hugh Orde and David Trimble, among others.[22][23]
Tributes
- Brian Ervine, Ervine's elder brother: "He had the guts and the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no-man's land and play ball with him."
- Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach): "(Ervine) was a courageous politician who sought to channel the energies of loyalism in a positive political direction."[24]
- Reg Empey MLA: "Northern Ireland has today lost a unique, charismatic and uncharacteristically spin-free politician."[24]
- Gerry Adams MLA/MP: "He made a valuable and important contribution to moving our society away from conflict."[24]
- George Mitchell (Former US Senator): "His legacy is that he has led loyalism out of the Dark Ages."[25]
- Mark Durkan MLA/MP: ""David emerged from a paramilitary past to pursue a peaceful future. Throughout the talks he played a positive role and worked always to keep loyalism onboard for the Good Friday Agreement." (...) "He also championed a more constructive unionism and argued that we can all gain from political accommodation."[26]
- Trevor Sargent TD: "His death leaves a major vacuum in terms of the quality of political representatives in Northern Ireland. I hope that the legacy of Mr Ervine's bravery will be taken up by others after him."[27]
- Tony Blair (British Prime Minister): "David was a man who, whatever his past, played a major part in this last 10 years in trying to bring peace to Ulster."[28]
See also
- Unionism (Ireland)
- Progressive Unionist Party
- Ulster Volunteer Force
- Ulster Loyalist
References
- ^ a b "Irish and Loyalist". Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- ^ Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber & Faber. p.309
- ^ Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber & Faber. p.315
- ^ Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber & Faber. p.304
- ^ Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber & Faber. p.306
- ^ "1996 Candidates – East Belfast". Archived from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
- ^ "1996 Elections – List of Candidates". Archived from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
- ^ "Northern Ireland Assembly Official Report, 4 July 2000". Archived from the original on 26 September 2006.
- ^ "Northern Ireland Assembly Official Report, 8 October 2001". Archived from the original on 26 September 2006.
- ^ "Northern Ireland Assembly Official Report, 10 April 2001". Archived from the original on 26 September 2006.
- ^ "Independent Monitoring Commission Website. All reports can be found in publications section". Archived from the original on 2 February 2007.
- ^ "Ervine to join UUP assembly group". BBC. 13 May 2006. Archived from the original on 19 June 2006. Retrieved 13 May 2006.
- ^ "Row as Ervine joins UUP grouping". BBC. 15 May 2006. Archived from the original on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2006.
- ^ "UUP-PUP link 'against the rules'". BBC. 11 September 2006.
- ^ a b Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber & Faber. p.349
- ^ David Irivine critically ill Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine breakingnews.ie
- ^ a b "PUP leader Ervine dies in hospital". RTÉ. 8 January 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ^ "PUP leader 'critical' in hospital". BBC. 7 January 2007. Archived from the original on 9 January 2007. Retrieved 7 January 2007.
- ^ "PUP's Ervine has died in hospital". BBC Northern Ireland. 7 January 2007. Archived from the original on 10 January 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ^ "PUP leader Ervine critical in hospital". RTÉ. 7 January 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2007.
- ^ "Unionist leader Ervine remains in critical condition". breakingnews.ie. 7 January 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 January 2007.
- ^ "BBC NEWS – UK – Northern Ireland – Hundreds attend Ervine's funeral". 12 January 2007. Archived from the original on 14 January 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2007.
- ^ "The ITV Hub". Archived from the original on 14 January 2007.
- ^ a b c "Leaders' condolences after Ervine death". RTÉ. 8 January 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ^ Stormont silent in Ervine tribute Archived 24 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine BBC (9 January 2007)
- ^ Progressive Unionist leader Ervine dies Archived 26 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine The Independent, 8 January 2007
- ^ "PUP's Ervine has died in hospital". BreakingNews.ie. 7 January 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ^ "Reaction to PUP leader's death". BBC. 8 January 2007. Archived from the original on 23 January 2007. Retrieved 4 March 2007.
Bibliography
- David Ervine: Uncharted Waters by Henry Sinnerton (2003), ISBN 0-86322-312-5
- Loyalists by Peter Taylor (1999), ISBN 0-7475-4519-7
External links
- PUP Website
- obituary from The Belfast Telegraph
- Ervine Foundation http://davidervine.com/