Peace builder by day, gangster by night: How bomb hoax was beginning of end for Winkie’s double life

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/peace-builder-by-day-gangster-by-night-how-bomb-hoax-was-beginning-of-end-for-winkies-double-life/a1674258281.html

The downfall of UVF chief Winston “Winkie” Irvine began the day his ‘B’ Company gang decided to stage one of the most embarrassing blunders in recent criminal history.

Now staring at a probable spell behind bars, the long-standing terror commander also has to grapple with the end of his lucrative two-faced existence as a taxpayer-funded loyalist community worker and organised crime boss.

Last week crown court Judge Gordon Kerr KC warned the 49-year-old, and his co-accused Robin Workman (53), of the Shore Road in Larne, that while they may be free on bail, that “might not be the result” when they return for sentencing in the new year.

Robin Workman leaving court last week

Both men admitted possessing firearms and ammunition in suspicious circumstances after being caught with the cache in west Belfast in June 2022. The pair initially denied the offences but changed their pleas last week ahead of their scheduled non-jury trial.

How they found themselves standing in the dock of Belfast Crown Court charged with serious criminal offences can be traced to events three months earlier.

A masked Irvine reading a UVF statement

On March 25, men from Irvine’s Shankill-based ‘B’ Company forced an electrician to drive his van with a fake bomb in the back to the Houben Centre in the nearby Ardoyne area of north Belfast.

There the then Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney was attending a peace-building event and had to be rushed from the podium by his security officers when news of the alert reached police.

But Irvine has told pals he feels he has been “hung out to dry” by the UVF’s overall leadership, headed by chief of staff John ‘Bunter’ Graham, as he was initially opposed to the bomb hoax.

“Winkie is furious as he believes he is being made take the rap for the Coveney bomb hoax,” said a UVF source.

“It has cost him everything — his freedom, his community worker jobs, his university graduation and the B Company leadership as he has been replaced by Tommy Harrison.

“A lot of his UVF hangers-on also ditched him. The only senior member still close to Winkie is Harry Stockman. He’s been doing a lot of moaning but no one really cares. He’s found out the hard way that he is easily replaced.”

Simon Coveney being told of the bomb alert

It was due to post-Brexit Irish Sea border tension that suspicion for the Coveney bomb hoax immediately fell on the Shankill UVF, which intelligence had suggested was orchestrating loyalist rioting in the area.

This sparked a surveillance operation on Irvine which tracked his movements in the subsequent weeks, waiting for the chance to collar him.

That opportunity came on the morning of Wednesday, June 8, 2022, when police observed Irvine talking to Workman after he pulled up his van beside Irvine’s car before a bag was placed in its boot.

Irvine was then stopped a short time later near the Liverpool Club on Disraeli Street in the Woodvale area of west Belfast and his Volkswagen Tiguan searched.

Forensic officers examine Irvine's Volkswagen

The bag contained a single 8mm blank firing pistol, an ME38 .22 Brocock revolver airgun, 203 rounds of 9x19mm ammunition, two rounds of 7.65x17mm, two rounds of .243 Winchester and a single round of 5.56x45mm ammunition.

Nine magazines were also found, including one which is used for the SA80 assault rifle issued to the Armed Forces. Numerous items of UVF paraphernalia were also found in a follow-up search of Irvine’s home in north Belfast.

On the day he faced court Irvine was due to attend his graduation from Maynooth University where he had completed his masters in peace studies.

Irvine initially gave a no-comment interview when arrested but later told investigating officers the weapons were “nothing to do with him”.

In a prepared statement, he said: “I have developed a reputation as a trusted interlocutor engaging with the community on key outstanding issues in relation to the Northern Ireland peace and political process.”

A police cordon near the Houben Centre

Previous hearings of the case in the lower courts were told Irvine was, in fact, acting as a “decommissioning interlocutor” and he did not have the weapons for any “nefarious purpose”.

Irvine’s barrister described him in court as a “high-profile individual” with contacts which include members of the British and Irish governments.

However, police insisted the ammunition recovered was compatible with a range of weapons that had not yet been found and had “all the hallmarks of a paramilitary operation”.

His role as a publicly-paid community worker is now at an end, dealing a serious blow to his legitimate income streams.

Among them was his £35,000-per-year job as a senior project manager with north Belfast-based interface organisation Intercomm.

At the time of his arrest and charge, Irvine had been due to start work on a £258,000 taxpayer-funded project to help ex-paramilitaries re-engage with civilised society. Its funding came from the controversial Communities in Transition (CIT) programme managed by The Executive Office at Stormont.

Winkie Irvine at Bayardo Bar bombing memorial

Irvine’s arrest and charge also dealt a blow to his criminal income as he was forced to relinquish his position as ‘B’ Company commander.

This included a minimum of £1,000-per-week from the £5 “totes” paid by its 400-strong membership, with the remaining £1,000 kicked up to the UVF’s high command headed by Bunter Graham.

Irvine would also take home a cut of the gang’s rackets in the Shankill area and proceeds from so-called taxes on criminals which it launders through legitimate businesses across the city.

Up until the doomed stunt targeting Simon Coveney, Irvine’s charmed double life of peace builder by day and ruthless crime boss by night seemed to be untouchable.

Not even his identification as a balaclava-clad UVF man reading out a statement from the gang or his being photographed taking part in rioting prevented him from being treated as a legitimate spokesman for loyalism.

Irvine throwing a crate during a riot in 2005

In 2013 he was unmasked as a UVF member thanks to voice recognition analysis by experts in England of a segment from Peter Taylor’s 1998 series Loyalists.

It lead to calls for Irvine to be axed from his membership of the North Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership in which he discussed with senior police officers how to reduce crime in the district.

But that was not the first time Irvine was shown to be willing to involve himself in criminality.

In 2005 he was filmed throwing a crate during sectarian rioting at the Crumlin Road interface in the north of the city but he was never charged.

The year after he was outed as the masked UVF man, Irvine was arrested by detectives investigating the 2002 kneecapping of teenager Craig McCausland, who was later murdered by the UVF. He was freed without charge.