Billy Wright (loyalist) - Leader of The Loyalist Volunteer Force

Leader of The Loyalist Volunteer Force

Billy 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. Wright was expelled from the UVF and also threatened with execution by the Combined Loyalist Military Command if he did not leave Northern Ireland.

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

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.

Most of the other units of the Mid-Ulster Brigade soon affirmed their loyalty to the leadership although Wright ignored an order to quit 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. Some days later at least 5,000 loyalists turned up for a rally in support of Wright, with the DUP Reverend William McCrea making 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. 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. 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. 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?'". 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 of the Ulster Defence Association (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.

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 the nationalist community. 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 USA. 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. In a somewhat similar vein Wright also enjoyed closed 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. The UVF in its turn, regarded Wright setting up a rival loyalist organisation in the Mid-Ulster area as "treason". 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". 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. The LVF published a document stating their aims and objectives:

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-Britishisation and Gaelicisation of Ulster's daily life.