Ronald Bunting

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Ronald Bunting circa 1960s

Major Ronald Terence Bunting (1924–1984)[1] was a British Army officer and unionist political figure in Northern Ireland.

Bunting was commissioned into the

Belfast College of Technology.[2]

Bunting's first involvement with politics was as election agent to Republican Labour Party MP Gerry Fitt,[2][3] although he broke from Fitt and became a close associate of Ian Paisley, playing a leading role in Paisley's campaigns against the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, as well as running unsuccessfully for the Protestant Unionist Party in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969 in Belfast Victoria.[4]

Bunting had his own

Ulster loyalist strong-arm group which he dubbed the Loyal Citizens of Ulster. The LCU, which existed between 1968 and 1969, was little more than another name for the East Belfast arm of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers.[5]

As head of this group, Bunting led the protests against many civil rights marches, most notably the 1969

the disturbances.[7]

Bunting's son Ronnie would go on to serve as a member of the Official Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army before he was shot dead by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in 1980. Following his son's death, Major Bunting took no further role in politics but later told an inquest he felt his son was killed because of his belief in social justice.[8]

References

  1. ^ W.D. Flackes & S. Elliott, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1993, Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 108
  2. ^ a b David Boulton, The UVF, 1966-73: An Anatomy of Loyalist Rebellion, Gill and Macillan, 1973, p. 71
  3. ^ Ciaran McKeown, The Passion of Peace, Blackstaff Press, 1984, p. 54
  4. ^ "Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Boroughs: Belfast". Archived from the original on 22 July 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  5. ^ Peter Barberis, John McHugh & Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, p. 233
  6. ^ CAIN: "Burntollet" by Bowes Egan and Vincent McCormack, cain.ulst.ac.uk; Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  7. ^ "On This Day", The Times, 28 January 1969.
  8. ISBN 978-0415922814

External links
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