Editing Billy Wright (loyalist) (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Wolverhampton.jpg|thumb|right|Skyline of [[Wolverhampton]], England, where Wright was born to Northern Irish Protestant parents]]

William Stephen "Billy" Wright, named after his grandfather, was born in [[Wolverhampton]], England on 7 July 1960 to David Wright and Sarah McKinley, [[Ulster Protestant]]s from [[Portadown]], Northern Ireland. He was the only son of five children.<ref name="news"/><ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,415590,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Ceaseless quest of King Rat's father | first=Rosie | last=Cowan | date=27 December 2000 | access-date=26 April 2010}}</ref> Before Wright's birth, his parents had moved to England when they fell out with many of their neighbours after his grandfather had challenged tradition by running as an Independent [[Ulster Unionism|Unionist]] candidate and defeated the local [[Official Unionist Party|Official Unionist]] MP.{{Citation needed|date=October 2019}} The Wright family had a long tradition in Northern Ireland politics; Billy's great-grandfather Robert Wright had once served as a [[Royal Commissioner]].<ref name="dillon56">{{harvnb|Dillon |1999 |p=56}}</ref> His father found employment in the [[West Midlands (county)|West Midlands]] industrial city of Wolverhampton.

In 1964, the family returned to Northern Ireland and Wright soon came under the influence of his maternal uncle Cecil McKinley, a member of the [[Orange Institution|Orange Order]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} About three years later, Wright's parents separated and his mother decided to leave her children behind when she transferred once more to England.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} None of the Wright siblings would ever see their mother again.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Wright and his four sisters (Elizabeth, Jackie, Angela and Connie) were placed in foster care by the welfare authorities.{{when|date=June 2020}}{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} He was raised separately from his sisters in a children's home in [[Mountnorris]], [[County Armagh|South Armagh]] (a predominantly [[Irish republican]] area). Wright was brought up in the [[Presbyterian]] religion of his mother and attended church twice on Sundays.<ref name="anderson23">{{harvnb|Anderson |2002 |p=23}}</ref> The young Wright mixed with [[Catholics]] and played [[Gaelic football]], indicating an amicable relationship with the local Catholic, nationalist population. His family were not extreme [[Ulster loyalist]]s. Wright's father, while campaigning for an inquest into his son's death, later described loyalist killings as "abhorrent".<ref name="news"/> Two of Wright's sisters married Catholic men, one having come from [[County Tipperary]] and whom Wright liked. Wright's sister Angela maintained that he personally got on well with Catholics, and that he was only anti-Irish republican and anti-IRA.<ref name="politico">[http://www.politico.ie/component/content/article/37-northern-ireland/5006-billy-wright-dying-by-the-sword.html "Billy Wright: Dying by the sword". ''Politico''. Emer Woodful. 1 February 1998.] Retrieved 4 September 2011</ref><ref name="dillon37">{{harvnb|Dillon |2003 |p=37}}</ref> For  a while David Wright [[Cohabitation|cohabitated]] with Kathleen McVeigh, a Catholic from [[Garvagh]].<ref name="Dillon26">{{harvnb|Dillon |2003 |p=26}}</ref>

Whilst attending [[Markethill High School]], Wright took a part-time job as a farm labourer where he came into contact with a number of staunchly [[unionism in Ireland|unionist]] and loyalist farmers who served with the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) Reserve or the [[Ulster Defence Regiment]] (UDR).<ref name="anderson2324">{{harvnb|Anderson |2002 |pp=23–24}}</ref> The conflict known as [[the Troubles]] had been raging across Northern Ireland for about five years by this stage, and many young men such as Wright were swept up in the maelstrom of violence as the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] ramped up its bombing campaign and [[sectarian]] killings of Catholics by loyalists continued to escalate. During this time Wright's opinions moved towards loyalism and soon he got into trouble for writing the initials "UVF" on a local Catholic primary school wall. When he refused to clean off the vandalism, Wright was transferred from the area and sent to live with an aunt in Portadown.<ref name="anderson24">{{harvnb|Anderson |2002 |p=24}}</ref>