My Life in Loyalism

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Morrison is particularly strong against the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael record while Hutchinson said that his community are suffering from the aftermath of Brexit. It’s easy to hate people you don’t know. It is far more difficult to dislike or hate people that you do know. Soon after his release from prison Hutchinson became active in the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and began working towards the establishment of the Northern Ireland peace process. During the early 1990s Hutchinson and David Ervine became more familiar faces in the media, presenting loyalist political demands. Both men were influenced by the example of Sinn Féin, who had demonstrated that an articulate media presence could ensure that paramilitary groups' demands might be heard. [14] Hutchinson and Ervine in particular became close personal friends as well as colleagues and also enjoyed a friendly rivalry with Hutchinson being a Linfield-supporting west Belfast man and Ervine from the east of the city and a Glentoran F.C. fan. [15] Along with Spence and Ervine, Hutchinson was a strong advocate of moves towards peace and he played a leading role in helping to convince UVF commanders to endorse the Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire in 1994. [16] 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. [17]

Although I subsequently learned about the complex sequence of events that shaped the UVF during this period, I had had no idea at the time that they had been carefully infiltrating Tara," he said. Mr Hutchinson said the principle of powersharing worked more effectively at council level than it did at Stormont. I was 18 when I went to prison. When I was on the outside, I always believed I’d go to prison or be dead. I went to jail so that meant that I didn’t go to a graveyard.

NEIL MACKAY'S BIG READ: The life of Billy Hutchinson, a UVF terrorist who later helped forge the Good Friday Agreement

Did he ever think that this was wrong? “I use coping mechanisms,” he explains. “I’m a loner and always have been ... You don’t get involved in something like that and not feel it.” He was imprisoned in Long Kesh, also known as the Maze, where he came under the influence of Gusty Spence, a well known and charismatic Loyalist leader. I justify everything that I did in the Troubles, and I have to do that to stay sane ... I was in a conflict, and I would say to you that in that conflict the thing that concerns me most is all of those people who had to die, and what was it all for? But I still believe in the cause that I was involved in.”

His memory of the time is of the people, the combatants in Loyalism, who decided to move towards the peace process. He said that there was great courage for them to stand against the people who would not have embraced peace. Hutchinson cut his teeth rioting on the streets of his native Shankill Road against the British Army in the early 1970s

He would go on to play a pivotal role in the peace process, helping to convince loyalists to declare a ceasefire, which eventually paved the way for the Good Friday Agreement. His election to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in 1998 as an MLA, the equivalent in Northern Ireland of an MP or MSP, marked a significant milestone on his journey from man of violence to man of peace. Today, Hutchinson is a Belfast city councillor.

Morrison believes that the “big ideological battle” will be in the republic as a United Ireland comes closer. In prison, Hutchinson became friends with the UVF leader Gusty Spence, who had come to advocate a political rather than paramilitary approach. For the first time, he was able to reflect and to discuss – “to vocalise ideas that would perhaps have caused physical fights on the streets of the Shankill if we had dared air them,” he writes. It is curious that on the few occasions Irish Republicans appear in Hutchinson’s narrative, he seems to get on reasonably well with them, whereas his relations with fellow loyalists are often fraught. When you go to the Assembly you don’t make decisions as an MLA, what you do is scrutinise, and what do you change? Very little. I was in the Assembly from 1998 until 2003 so I know.Morrison also criticised the British Government for their Brexit campaign, saying that the UK officials had claimed they would match the missing European funding that had helped to rebuild Northern Irish infrastructure.

The Coleraine councillor replaces Billy Hutchinson, who stepped down after losing his seat on Belfast City Council in last month's local government election. We want to ensure that conflict remains within the political arena," he says. "The imperative is that the guns remain silent. We want to decommission the mindsets of young men who want to join paramilitary organisations." He added in 1998, “People react differently to having killed someone. Some just walk into the RUC station and admit the murder because they can’t live with themselves. Others find God, but I couldn’t do that because I am a devout atheist. Others just fall apart. But if you’re to survive you must cope. It’s as simple as that.” Bible thumpers Billy "Hutchie" Hutchinson (born 1955) is an Ulster Loyalist politician serving as the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) since 2011. He was elected to Belfast City Council in the 1997 elections. Hutchinson was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 to 2003. He lost his assembly seat in 2003, and his council seat in 2005. He returned to the council in 2014 and was re-elected in 2019 though he later lost his seat in 2023. Before this he had been a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was a founder of their youth wing, the Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV).

In his autobiography Hutchinson writes that they had been identified as “active republicans. How accurate the information was, I don’t know,” he admits. “At 7.30am our active service unit spotted them on the Falls Road and assassinated the two men.” I would imagine a lot of young Catholic men from north Belfast will read The Shankill Butchers at some point in their developmental period of life. Or if they don't they're certainly constantly reminded of the loyalist killers who stalked the streets of inner-city north and west Belfast from 1975 until 1977. Earlier this year the Loyalist Communities Council, which represents the views of members of the three main loyalist paramilitary groups said it was withdrawing support for the Good Friday Agreement as a direct consequence of the NI Protocol. It really took the two partners to work together and from what I can see recently those partners were not been able to work together to resolve issues.” Billy Hutchison (left) after the signing of the Northern Ireland peace agreement (Brian Little/PA)