My Life in Loyalism

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I describe myself as a soft nationalist and was always concerned by the words of certain Unionist leaders and what effect they were having on the ground. Written with candour and honesty, this is a lively first-hand account of an extraordinary life and reveals previously hidden episodes of both the Northern Ireland Troubles and the high-profile negotiations that led to the Belfast Agreement of 1998. Billy Hutchinson, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, joins Eamon to discuss the Internal Markets Bill and the consequences of a no-deal Brexit for Northern Ireland. Ms Graham said: “The DUP has been given additional votes, including my own, under the condition that the party remains outside of government until the protocol is addressed. One of the principles set out by the CLMC in this announcement was that “there must be no dilution of the democratic procedure through which the rights of self determination of the people of Northern Ireland are guaranteed”.

Hutchinson tells how, as a teenager, he accompanied his father to see a Catholic colleague who lived in Cupar Street; nowadays, it is adjacent to a peace wall which continues to divide the Protestant Shankill and the Catholic Falls. We’ve all seen the Bios of the better known players on the NI stage, now this book tells the story (as did Henry Sinnerton’s Bio of David Ervine) of one of the lesser known politicians who undoubtedly made as much of an impact as the ‘names’. New posters have been erected across different parts of Northern Ireland highlighting loyalist demands regarding the deal. Regardless of whatever you might think of him he did play a key role in carrying the majority of the UVF towards a ceasefire. Hutchinson spent much of the 1980s as overall Commanding Officer of UVF/Red Hand Commando prisoners, and upon his release in 1990, he became involved with the recently established Progressive Unionist Party.He was involved in the negotiations which led to the Belfast Agreement on Good Friday 1998 and was nominated by the UVF as their interlocutor with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning chaired by General John de Chastelain. Also referring to the INLA as sectarian seems a little odd for the member of an organisation who murdered people for no other reason that their religion, especially when he was active during the early and mid ‘70s. And after 30 seconds I set the remote down and I said, isn’t this what we wanted, the two extremes in government? In the early 1970s Billy was involved in the formation of the Young Citizen Volunteers and was later influential in brokering the loyalist ceasefire of 1994. There are other challenges, not least Covid-19 and Brexit; Hutchinson voted to remain because “I believe in Europe”.

Hutchinson lost his seat in the 2003 election after the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin took an extra seat each. The leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and a councillor on Belfast City Council, he is a former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and took part in the negotiations that led to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. I have read multiple detailed papers, articles and public contributions by those who say the deal cannot possibly achieve what it will purport to have achieved, but- as yet- I see nothing which commits any opposing view to writing, and opens it to scrutiny. Following the announcement of the ceasefire Hutchinson was part of a six-man delegation representing the PUP and the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) that toured the United States. I think that the book offers a unique insight into Billy's life throughout the Troubles from his school days through to the paramilitaries and then on to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and thereafter.

In 1975, at the age of just 19, he was sentenced to life in prison, and it was in the cages of Long Kesh that he first came under the influence of loyalist icon Gusty Spence. He also saw the Civil Rights movement as a front for the IRA, and the IRA as attempting to force unionists into a united Ireland. While he acknowledges the help of Dr Mulvenna in preparing this autobiography, the text is very much his own, and will be of interest to future historians.

He said: “It was mixed because everything wasn’t positive from my point of view and the party’s point of view. It will be presented as achieving things which, as we have learnt in the past, may not in fact be achieved at all. He also undertook offensive operations, and gave weapons training, while holding down a legitimate day job.Instead of being resistant to this zeitgeist, people in the Shankill and other Protestant areas should have demanded better from those unionists who took their seats in Stormont. For example, Protestant families were being forced to abandon their homes in the New Barnsley estate. He proved very useful because of his knowledge of republican areas Although there was much indiscriminate violence, there was also some political thinking taking place among Loyalists as early as the 1970’s.