Paisley ‘aware of DUP candidates’ paramilitary links’

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/sam-mcbride/paisley-aware-of-dup-candidates-paramilitary-links/a1687417853.html

NIO official told ministers four of nine of those who stood for party in Newtownabbey in 1993 council elections were close to UDA, and hierarchy knew of the situation

Almost half of the DUP’s candidates for Newtownabbey Borough Council in 1993 had some links to loyalist paramilitarism, an NIO official told ministers.

Allen McVeigh in the NIO’s political affairs division made the comments after the defection of two DUP councillors to the UDA-linked Ulster Democratic party (UDP).

In a confidential December 1994 memo which was sent to the Secretary of State and has been declassified at The National Archives in Kew, the civil servant considered whether this might be the start of a larger number of defections.

He said the move by Newtownabbey councillors Billy Blair and Alan Hewitt along with former councillor Tommy Kirkham to leave the DUP “was not a complete surprise”.

He said that he believed Blair and Hewitt were unemployed but “neither has any trace of paramilitary involvement”.

He said the DUP’s Newtownabbey council group “has always taken a militant stance on local issues”.

“This is inevitable given their backgrounds of involvement to varying degrees in loyalist paramilitarism.

“For example, four out of the nine candidates who stood for the DUP at last year’s election had paramilitary traces, including Tommy Kirkham who was unsuccessful in seeking re-election”.

He noted that Kirkham — who would go on to become an adviser to the renegade South East Antrim UDA — would be one of the UDP delegates at the ‘loyalist exploratory dialogue’ being opened with paramilitary-linked representatives the following day. He went on to say that he had spoken to the council’s chief executive, John Campbell, who “at times comes under a lot of pressure from the DUP councillors’ group”.

Asking his recipients to protect the source of his information, the NIO official said Mr Campbell was of the opinion “that there are councillors in the area who are DUP in name only and who could well defect to the UDP too”.

The official added: “He also maintains the DUP hierarchy, including Dr Paisley, is well aware of the situation.”