Editing Billy Wright (loyalist) (section)

==Leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force==
[[File:Flag of the LVF.png|thumb|Flag of the LVF]]
Wright, along with the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade, was stood down on 2 August 1996 by the UVF's Brigade Staff for the unauthorised attack on McGoldrick, insubordination, and undermining the peace process.<ref name="taylor241"/> Wright was expelled from the UVF and also threatened with execution by the Combined Loyalist Military Command if he did not leave Northern Ireland.<ref name="inquiry2008">{{Cite web |url=http://www.billywrightinquiry.org/transcripts/date/20080128/ |title=The Billy Wright Inquiry: transcript of the 28 January 2008 hearing |access-date=12 May 2011 |archive-date=10 December 2010 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101210144157/http://www.billywrightinquiry.org/transcripts/date/20080128/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Wright expressed the following sentiments regarding the CLMC death threat in an interview with journalist Emer Woodful in late August 1996:

<blockquote>My heart goes out to my family at a time like this. Well, if you think you're right, then you're right. Although I have done nothing wrong except express an opinion that's the prevalent opinion of the people of Northern Ireland and I will always do that, dear, no matter what the price. Well, I've been prepared to die for long many a year. I don't wish to die, but at the end of the day no one will force their opinions down my throat – no one.<ref name="politico"/></blockquote>

Other units of the Mid-Ulster Brigade soon affirmed their loyalty to the leadership. Wright ignored an order to leave Northern Ireland by 1 September 1996, and hours before the deadline attended a [[Royal Black Preceptory]] march and a celebration at a club in Portadown's Corcrain estate, receiving a hero's welcome at both events.<ref name="uvf346348">{{harvnb|Cusack |McDonald |1997 |pp=346–348}}</ref> The security services reported that every lodge and band participating stopped near Billy Wright so that members could shake his hand.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Billy Wright Inquiry - Report |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/collusion/docs/wright_140910.pdf |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] |publisher=[[The Stationery Office]] |page=59 |date=2010}}</ref> On 4 September, at least 5,000 loyalists attended a rally in Portadown in support of Wright. The rally was addressed by Reverend [[William McCrea, Baron McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown|William McCrea]] (a DUP Member of Parliament) and Harold Gracey (head of the Portadown Orange Lodge).<ref>Sydney Elliott & William D Flackes. ''Conflict in Northern Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Abc-Clio Incorporated, 1999. p.92.</ref> McCrea made a speech critical of David Ervine and [[Billy Hutchinson]] for what he felt was their involvement in the death threats. McCrea's sharing of the stage with a militant such as Wright caused uproar, although he argued that he was merely supporting Wright's entitlement to freedom of speech.<ref name="uvf348">{{harvnb|Cusack |McDonald |1997 |p=348}}</ref>

Ignoring the threat, Wright, in a public show of defiance, formed the [[Loyalist Volunteer Force]] (LVF), taking members mainly from the officially-disbanded Portadown unit of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade.<ref name="taylor241">{{harvnb|Taylor |1999 |p=241}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/troubles/fact_files.shtml?ff=p10#factfile|title=BBC - History - NI: The Troubles - Fact Files|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> According to writers John Robert Gold and George Revill, Wright's "mythical stature" amongst loyalists "provided him with the status necessary to form the LVF" in the traditional UVF stronghold of Portadown.<ref name="gold96">{{harvnb|Gold |Revill |2000 |p=96}}</ref> Appearing at a Drumcree protest rally, Wright made the following statement: "I will not be leaving Ulster, I will not change my mind about what I believe is happening in Ulster. But all I would like to say is that it has broken my heart to think that fellow loyalists would turn their guns on me, and I have to ask them, 'For whom are you doing it?'".<ref name="examiner">[http://www.crossexaminer.co.uk/archives/5928 Ireland Revisited Week 21. ''The Examiner''. Paul Malone. 8 February 2011.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009133454/http://www.crossexaminer.co.uk/archives/5928 |date=9 October 2011 }} Retrieved 2 October 2011</ref> Wright's hardline stance won the support of a number of leading loyalists, including UVF colleague [[Jackie Mahood]], [[Frankie Curry]] of the [[Red Hand Commandos]] and [[Alex Kerr (loyalist)|Alex Kerr]] of the UDA. Kerr, another key figure at the Drumcree standoff, had also been ordered by the Combined Loyalist Military Command to leave Northern Ireland on pain of execution.<ref name="uda282284">{{harvnb|McDonald |Cusack |2004 |pp=282–284}}</ref>

They were joined by other loyalists disaffected by the peace process, giving them a maximum strength estimated at around 250 activists. They operated outside the Combined Loyalist Military Command and ignored the ceasefire order of October 1994. Wright denounced the UVF leadership as "communists", for the left wing inclinations of some of their public statements about reconciliation with nationalists. Wright was strongly [[anti-communist]] and his belief in this was increased by a series of meetings he held with representatives of far right Christian groups from the southern states of the US. From these meetings, organised by Pastor [[Kenny McClinton]], Wright was introduced to conspiracy theories about the role of communists in bringing down Christian morality, ideas that appealed to him.<ref name="Dillon90">{{harvnb|Dillon |2003 |p=90}}</ref> In a somewhat similar vein, Wright also enjoyed close relations with a [[Bolton]]-based cell of activists belonging to the [[neo-Nazi]] organisation [[Combat 18]] and had members of this group staying in Portadown during the build-up to the Drumcree stand-off in 1997.<ref name="uda392">{{harvnb|McDonald |Cusack |2004 |p=392}}</ref> The UVF in its turn, regarded Wright setting up a rival loyalist organisation in the Mid-Ulster area as "treason".<ref name="taylor241"/> Members of the Belfast UVF often contemptuously referred to Wright as "Billy Wrong", with one UVF leader suggesting that Wright was motivated by "religious zealotry and blind bigotry".<ref name="gold96"/> The LVF was proscribed by [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]] [[Mo Mowlam]] in June 1997.

Wright personally devised the LVF's codename of "Covenant" which was used to claim its attacks.<ref name="brucepaper">[http://www.irish-association.org/papers/stevebruce11_oct03.asp "Religion and Violence: the Case of Paisley and Ulster Evangelicals". ''The Irish Association – Paper presented by Steve Bruce''. UK: University of Aberdeen. 11 October 2003] Retrieved 25 June 2012</ref> The LVF published a document stating their aims and objectives

<blockquote>The use of the Ulster conflict as a crucible for far-reaching, fundamental and decisive change in the United Kingdom constitution. To restore Ulster's right to self-determination. To end Irish nationalist aggression against Ulster in whatever form. To end all forms of Irish interference in Ulster's internal affairs. To thwart the creation and/or implementation of any All-Ireland/All-Island political super-structure regardless of the powers vested in such institutions. To defeat the campaign of de-Britishization and Gaelicisation of Ulster's daily life.<ref name="harris">[https://bcu.academia.edu/LyndseyHarris/Papers/176774/Quis_Separabit_Loyalist_transformation_and_the_strategic_environment "Quis Separabit? Loyalist transformation and the strategic environment". Chapter Seven. ''Academia.edu''. Lindsey Harris. Papers by Lyndsey Harris.] Retrieved 9 September 2011. Document is held in the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.</ref></blockquote>

===Imprisonment===
[[File:Maze Prison - geograph - 341034.jpg|thumb|left|[[Maze Prison]], outside Lisburn, where Wright was sent in April 1997, and shot dead the following December]]

Despite a series of sectarian murders and attacks on Catholic property by the LVF from 1996 to early 1997 (although they were not claimed by the organisation), Wright was not arrested until January 1997. He was charged with committing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice, and making death threats against a woman, Gwen Read. This threat followed an altercation with Read's family and LVF members. On 7 March he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for both offences and initially imprisoned at [[Maghaberry (HM Prison)|HMP Maghaberry]].<ref name="arrest-imprisonment">{{cite web |title=The Billy Wright Inquiry - Report |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/collusion/docs/wright_140910.pdf |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] |publisher=[[The Stationery Office]] |page=57 |date=2010}}</ref> On 18 March, he was visited by DUP politician [[Peter Robinson (Northern Ireland politician)|Peter Robinson]] (who later became [[First Minister of Northern Ireland]] in 2008). During the meeting, Wright told Robinson he believed an attempt on his life by republicans was imminent.<ref name="arrest-imprisonment"/>

He was sent to the Maze in April 1997. He demanded and was granted an LVF section in C and D wings of H-block 6 (H6) for himself and 26 fellow inmates. INLA prisoners were housed in the A and B wings, and the [[Irish Republican Socialist Party]] (IRSP, the political wing of the INLA) warned there would be trouble if the prisoners were not kept segregated. In August 1997, LVF prisoners, led by Wright, rioted over their visiting accommodation in the Maze.<ref name="report">[https://web.archive.org/web/20180916150305/http://www.billywrightinquiry.org/report/page/286-background/ The Billy Wright Inquiry: The August Riot and the Loyalist Volunteer Force's Return to H-Block 6: Background. p.286]</ref>

Wright continued to direct LVF operations from the prison, although his deputy Mark "Swinger" Fulton served as its nominal leader. LVF membership increased during Wright's imprisonment; by October 1997, membership in the organisation was between 150 and 200, many of them former UVF members disillusioned with the ceasefire.<ref name="report40">{{Cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/collusion/docs/wright_140910.pdf|title=The Billy Wright Inquiry: Billy Wright's Influence From Prison. p.40}}</ref> It was afterwards discovered that he had kept an irregular diary whilst in prison. On some of the pages he had made subtle threats to Catholic human rights solicitor [[Rosemary Nelson]] (killed in 1999 by a [[Red Hand Defenders]] car bomb) and her client, IRA prisoner [[Colin Duffy]], charged with killing two RUC constables (the charges against Duffy were later dropped).<ref name="nelson"/> Wright's appeal was scheduled to be heard in February 1998.