Belfast City Council has bankrolled a loyalist charity by more than half a million pounds, despite links to UVF leader Winkie Irvine.
Irvine pleaded guilty last week to possessing firearms and ammunition in suspicious circumstances along with co-accused Robin Workman.
The pair also admitted two counts of possessing a handgun without a certificate, one count of possessing ammunition without a certificate, possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing a firearm without a certificate.
In response to a recent freedom of information request, Belfast City Council has revealed that since 2015, it issued £541,458 to the Twaddell Woodvale Residents’ Association (TWRA) which Irvine is a former director of. He resigned in June 2023.
Tommy Harrison leading the Brian Robinson memorial parade
The figures provided by the council for the financial years ending in March, for 2024, 2023 and 2019 show TWRA received £84,386 in each of these years. In 2018/19 the council handed them £101,400.
The charity is registered twice with the Charity Commission, using two separate charity numbers. No accounts are provided under the second charity number.
TWRA is also registered with Companies House, the UK government’s agency for registering companies. All accounts provided to the agency between 2019 and 2023 state that the charity was a “dormant company” and had zero income, assets and liabilities during this time.
The Companies House website also states that TWRA was dissolved in July of this year.
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After his arrest in June 2022, Irvine continued to serve as director of TWRA until his resignation in June 2023. Belfast City Council approved an allocation of £100,000 of ratepayers’ money to the organisation during this period.
Minutes show that this money was approved by the council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee in April 2023.
A council meeting the following May approved the committee’s move without any objection from any elected representative.
In addition to the half a million pounds given to TWRA, Belfast City Council has provided at least £159,286 to other charities linked to loyalist paramilitaries since 2015.
Some £46,076 of ratepayers’ money was given to Concerned Residents Upper Ardoyne (CRUA) during this period.
The charity is chaired by George McHenry who pleaded guilty to a charge of supporting terrorism in 2008.
William Seenan is also a member of CRUA’s board of trustees. He was convicted of conspiring to rob the bank official, conspiracy to cause assault and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence in 2006.
The council’s own figures show that CRUA received grants worth £6,350 in 2022/23 and £7,110 in 2021/22.
Tommy Harrison
Belfast City Council also allocated £15,219 to the Action for Community Transformation Initiative (ACT) between 2015 and 2020.
The charity’s director Tommy Harrison participated in two UVF commemorations while wearing paramilitary-style regalia in 2023 and 2014.
Funding to ACT from the Stormont was suspended in 2023
According to Belfast City Council no funding has been given to the charity.
However, accounts given to the Charity Commission by ACT claim that the charity received £7,000 from the council in 2023, £5,978 in 2022 and £2,264 in 2021.
Belfast City Council also gave £87,832 to the Lower Shankill Community Association (LSCA) since 2015.
The LSCA has counted among its trustees Denis Cunningham, who was jailed for reading a UDA terror statement, and Roy Douglas, who has been investigated by police for UDA drug dealing, although not charged.
by heresmewhaa
3 comments
Reading the headline, you would assume, it was a DUP controlled council such as north Antrim, not a council where SF are the largest party, and represent more than 1/3 of a council made up of 9 different parties!
Remember folks, its the leaders of usuns that are funding the terrorism from demuns!
Their as bad as each other: we’ll ok the money for your guys if you ok the money for ours.
They only throw a wobbler if one gets and the other doesn’t.
If people knew how much money was going personally into the pocket of their local “community worker” they’d be fucking outraged.
A lot of the centres are pure rackets where tens of thousands are paid out as salaries to run a few projects here and there. Most of the work is done by actual volunteers while the workers spend 90% of the time in their office arguing over their next grant.
If there was any oversight most of these places would be shut down. But I know the Dept for Communities would then be blasted in the local news for going after services.
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