Loyalist group says men joining paramilitaries due to absence of shipyard and factory jobs
A loyalist group that met Stormont ministers has said young men from their communities are turning to paramilitaries because ‘jobs for life’ in shipyards and factories are no longer an option.
Two DUP ministers have met with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) in recent months, a group that represents the views of the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando.
On October 9, the Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was accompanied by special advisor Peter Johnston and private secretary Louise Anderson.
The LCC delegation was comprised of its chairman David Campbell and three others.
They were Jackie McDonald, who is widely regarded as the leader of the South Belfast UDA and a convicted extortionist.
Bobby Williamson is a veteran Red Hand Commando (RHC) figure from the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey.
He was part of a RHC delegation that petitioned the government to have the organisation removed from the proscribed list.
Group representing loyalist paramilitaries flags education and employment issues in meeting with Gordon Lyons, leaving MLAs ‘concerned’
RHC is affiliated with the UVF, which is blamed for some 500 murders during the Troubles.
The third individual was Darren Richardson from south Antrim who is believed to be aligned to the UVF.
Double sectarian murderer Bobby Rodgers attended a prior meeting with DUP education minister, Paul Givan.
During that meeting, the delegation expressed opposition to an Irish language school in east Belfast.
On October 9, Mr Lyons and the LCC discussed, among other issues, housing and educational underachievement.
The Communities Minister also left the meeting saying he would raise with the UK Government the issue of individuals facing impediments to employment due to their parents or grandparents having convictions from the Troubles.
He also said action would be taken to consider the potential of a JobStart pilot in an area of high deprivation, with the LCC subsequently saying they’d be happy to recommend a specific area.
Mr Campbell told the Belfast Telegraph all three members of the delegation who accompanied him are “well respected community leaders”.
He added: “They have played leadership roles in the peace process and have been praised by Presidents, Prime Ministers, and many others for their work in transforming from paramilitarism to community work.
“Jackie McDonald in particular has regularly risked his life and personal safety to maintain peace and discourage criminality.”
In terms of educational underachievement amongst young men in loyalist areas, Mr Campbell was directly asked if he was saying that's the reason they turn to paramilitaries.
He responded: “I think so. In the past young loyalists could turn to large employers like the shipyard, Mackies, Shorts etc, or the Army, and obtain apprenticeships and jobs for life, so formal education was not so important.
“Those options no longer exist.”
Mr Campbell was asked if it was not a contradiction to highlight to ministers the links between educational underachievement and paramilitary recruitment at the same table as individuals with connections to those groups.
Mr Campbell said the Northern Ireland Executive “would never meet” if it strictly adhered to those rules, referencing Sinn Féin.
In response, Sinn Féin said deprivation affects various communities and must be tackled on the basis of objective need.
"Meetings to tackle deprivation should be prioritised with organisations like the Cliff Edge Coalition who do that work,” a spokesperson added.
“Working class loyalist communities which are terrorised and controlled by criminal gangs will have reacted with dismay at the DUP ministers’ meetings with the LCC to discuss the deprivation and poverty that many of these groups are contributing to through their drug dealing, violence and coercive control.
“The only issue that should be discussed with the LCC is bringing an end to paramilitarism and the criminality that they are engaged in."
Mr Campbell also said the LCC has made efforts to transition people away from paramilitary groups for 25 years.
“(The LCC) has clearly stated that criminality is inconsistent with loyalism and the groups have acted to exclude all parts that have refused to cease criminal activity,” Mr Campbell explained.
“The PSNI will confirm that any criminality associated with groups attached to the LCC is now a tiny fraction of overall organised crime in Northern Ireland, the vast majority of which is controlled by republican groups, not loyalists.”
From 2021 to the most recent data available, the PSNI has recorded 104 paramilitary shootings and assaults carried out by loyalists and 45 by dissident republicans.
The PSNI said it would not be responding to Mr Campbell’s comment.
by vague_intentionally_
27 comments
You couldn’t make this up.
Oh no wait, they do
Ridiculous is the only response I can give to this.
lol
Never in my life would I have considered joining the hoods as a viable career, what sort of benefits do they get I wonder? Extra discount on your coke?
It’s true, I left my shipyard job last year and I’ve been hating taigs and sniffing gear since march
Unemployment and bleak prospects causes social issues? Whoda thunk it
LMFAO
Get fucked.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Social deprivation does play its part, but come on ffs. When are certain people in this country ever going to move on from the same old tired narrative.
Would they take a job if you offered them one? What’s stopping them joining the army?
Absence of shipyard and factory jobs (at least partly) due to loyalist paramilitaries. Fixed it.
Edwin poots said the loyalist paramilitaries were nothing more than old men’s clubs.
Someone’s telling lies about the make up of these groups
Are loyalists paying these days? What’s the going rate?
Drug dealing is a lucrative career move.
High risk, high reward.
The Bel Tel is just for the bottom of the litter tray. Always has been
😂
Ah yes, join the club that will exploit and extract fees off you when you’ve no money with no route to escape. That’s a great idea.
That was maybe a legitimate argument from about 1970-75. But that’s the guts of fifty years ago FFS, go to school like everyone else.
Jaysus!! And they wonder why all the fenians joined the Ra back in the day…joined because they were all raging they weren’t allowed to work on the Titanic!
All makes perfect sense now!!
If the paramilitaries were actually concerned about the amount joining them, couldn’t they just stop being paramilitaries?
Or is the real problem that its getting harder to sell drugs to and extort money from a population increasingly reliant on the dole?
Therefore the IRA exists because of employment discrimination in the 60s/70s?
Fuck me “shipyard and factory jobs”. What year is it again?
Didn’t realise paramilitaries paid a wage, national insurance and the like.
Lololololol
That is fucking bullshit. Young men join paramilitaries because they’re being entrapped by debts and threats of violence.
Being a careers teacher in a Protestant school must be an easy job
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