George Seawright
George Seawright | |
---|---|
Member of Belfast City Council | |
In office 15 May 1985 – October 1986 | |
Preceded by | District created |
Succeeded by | Elizabeth Seawright |
Constituency | Court |
In office 20 May 1981 – 15 May 1985 | |
Preceded by | James Weir |
Succeeded by | District abolished |
Constituency | Belfast Area E |
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast North | |
In office 1982–1986 | |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1951 Glasgow, Scotland |
Died | 3 December 1987 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Manner of death | Assassination (gunshot wounds) |
Political party | Protestant Unionist (1985 - 1987) Democratic Unionist Party (until 1984) |
Spouse | Elizabeth Seawright |
Children | 3 |
George Seawright (c.1951
Early life
Born in
He then worked in the
Politics and controversy
Seawright was noted for his fiery rhetoric. He was elected to
Seawright courted controversy throughout his fairly brief career. He was strongly criticised for an interview he gave to Nationalism Today, a journal produced in support of the
In 1984, following the erection of an
He continued to court controversy when he told a meeting of the
DUP withdraw support
Following these high-profile political mistakes, the DUP withdrew the party whip from Seawright, although he managed to hold onto his support base and was returned to the Council in 1985 as an independent under the Protestant Unionist label (previously used by the forerunner of the DUP). He was shunned by the DUP and UUP city councillors, and the only councillors who would talk to him were Sinn Féin.[17] Nonetheless, he did not sever his ties with all DUP members and in mid-1985 joined Ivan Foster, Jim Wells and George Graham in a failed attempt to force a banned loyalist march through the mainly nationalist town of Castlewellan.[18] Seawright did however split from the Free Presbyterian Church and instead worshipped at the Shankill Road's Church of God.[19]
As a candidate for the Westminster elections, Seawright twice contested the North Belfast constituency. In 1983, as a DUP candidate, Seawright finished second with 8,260 votes behind Cecil Walker of the UUP, whilst in 1987 he finished third behind Walker and Alban Maginness (Social Democratic and Labour Party) with 5,671 votes as a Protestant Unionist candidate (although the DUP did not contest the seat due to an electoral pact between the DUP and UUP at the time). Seawright took the name Ulster Protestant League (which had been used by an earlier loyalist group) for his largely working-class Evangelical group of supporters, even though the name was not used for electoral purposes.[20]
Move toward paramilitarism
In the aftermath of the
Seawright further enhanced his notoriety when, on 20 November 1985, he took a leading role in the protests against the visit of the then
He courted further controversy in September 1986, when he publicly called for revenge after the killing of John Bingham, a leading UVF member and friend of Seawright, by the IRA.[26] Raymond Mooney, a Catholic civilian, was killed soon after Seawright made the statement.[27] He made similar remarks the following year when UVF member William "Frenchie" Marchant was killed by republicans, stating that he had "no hesitation in calling for revenge and retribution".[28] Seawright's North Belfast campaign in 1987 also played up his hardline image, with Seawright dubbing himself "the man who will not be silenced". He further promised to follow an abstentionist policy if he were elected, in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.[29]
Death
Following his release, Seawright made plans to regain his seat, although ultimately he was to be assassinated before the opportunity arrived. Martin Dillon states in his book, The Dirty War, that Seawright met with representatives of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) in the Europa Hotel after being informed by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) that he was on an IPLO hit list. It was alleged that during the meeting, Seawright agreed to provide low-level information to the IPLO in exchange for his safety. Nonetheless, on 19 November 1987, Seawright was shot whilst he waited in a car near a taxi firm on the Shankill Road (for whom he was due to begin working) by the IPLO, dying two weeks later from his wounds on 3 December.[30]
Dillon further stated that Seawright's details, as well as those of Bingham,
In August 2006, the UVF listed Seawright in a list of its members who were killed during the "Troubles".[14][15] It has also been stated by Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack that Seawright was an informer who passed information about loyalists to RUC Special Branch.[34]
References
- ^ 1987 deaths in the Troubles
- ^ Tom Gallagher, Glasgow, the uneasy peace: religious tension in modern Scotland, 1819-1914, Manchester University Press ND, 1987, p. 298
- ^ a b c Steve Bruce, God Save Ulster: The Religion and Politics of Paisleyism, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 143
- ^ a b c d "Obituary: George Seawright". Ulster Nation website. Archived from the original on 25 January 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ Steve Bruce, Conservative Protestant politics, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 71
- ^ McKittrick et al, Lost Lives, p. 1102
- ^ Brian Kennaway The Orange Order-A Tradition Betrayed p.50
- ^ Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson & Michalin Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, London: Longman, 1991, p. 260
- ^ J. Holland & H. McDonald, INLA - Deadly Divisions, Dublin: Torc, 1994, p. 306
- ^ Picture of the incident Archived 16 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ John Sugden & Alan Bairner, Sport, sectarianism and society in a divided Ireland, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1995, p. 119
- ^ Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Belfast's dome of delight: city hall politics 1981-2000, Beyond the Pale Publications, 1999, p. 9
- ^ Belfast Telegraph, P1, 31-5-84
- ^ a b 'Burn Catholics' man was in UVF, BBC News, 23 August 2006, retrieved 31 may 2009
- ^ The News Letter, 24 August 2006
- ^ Steve Bruce, Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 225
- ^ Holland & McDonald, INLA Deadly Divisions, p. 189
- ^ Bruce, God Save Ulster, p. 139
- ^ Bruce, God Save Ulster, p. 145
- ^ Steve Bruce, 'Ulster Loyalism and Religiosity', Political Studies, Volume 35, Issue 4, December 1987, pp. 643–648
- ^ Cochrane, Feargal (2001). Unionist politics and the politics of Unionism since the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Cork University Press. pp. 136–137.
- ^ Tom F. Baldy, Battle for Ulster: A Study of Internal Security, DIANE Publishing, 1997, p. 90
- ^ Anglo-Irish Agreement - Chronology of Events
- ^ By election result Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Belfast City Council Elections 1993-2005
- ^ Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, UVF, Dublin: Poolbeg, 1997, p. 246
- ^ a b David McKittrick et al, Lost Lives, Mainstream Publishing, 2008, p. 1101
- ^ David McKittrick et al, Lost Lives, p. 1076
- ^ Cochrane 2001, p. 175.
- ^ M. Dillon, The Dirty War, London: Arrow Books, 1991, p. 456-457
- ^ M. Dillon, Stone Cold, London: Arrow Books, 1993, p. 106
- ^ Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, UDA - Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror, Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2004, p. 405
- ^ Steve Bruce, The Red Hand, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 250
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 283