https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/bounty-of-10k-offered-to-burn-down-worlds-biggest-bonfire-before-the-eleventh-night/a716870808.html

Bounty of £10k offered to burn down ‘world’s biggest bonfire’ before the Eleventh Night

UDA boss tells documentary of apparent plots to scupper his bid for new world record

The UDA boss behind the ‘world’s biggest bonfire’ has claimed a bounty of up to £10,000 was on offer to burn it before the Eleventh Night.

David Murray makes the claim in a new documentary called Castle in the Sky, which interviews the people behind the Craigyhill bonfire in Larne.

He is captioned as ‘Dave’ and joined by an associate called ‘Bob’ to talk about an apparent threat that was made online to ruin their bid to get into the Guinness World Records.

Bob says: “We had a threat come through on social media. Basically, it started… I think it was £1,000 or £2,000. It started small.”

Murray continues: “Obviously, it didn’t gather that much momentum. Then they put it up to £5,000, and I think at the end it was £10,000.

“When you think that somebody is willing to pay £10,000 to get it burnt, it shows you how much the bonfire’s annoying (some people) or how much hatred people are showing towards it.”

Bob adds: “It’s not nationalists that would think about burning it. You’ve got your local hoods that would think about burning it, your two-bob tout that would maybe look to make a couple of pound.”

Murray in the documentary

Murray (52), who police named in court as the South East Antrim UDA’s Larne boss, tells the documentary how he has faced down threats, including some made via Facebook.

The loyalist, who pocketed more than £250,000 in two years from cleaning windows, says: “We’ll be out (at the bonfire site) every night now.

“Even the (Facebook) page today, I mean I’ve had to ban another 60 people.

“It’s just the usual nonsense they come off with, the bigotry and all, stuff like that.

“They’re labelling it before they even know what it’s all about. They’re just seeing a bonfire.

“They probably think of loyalist music and (think) we’re singing about the Catholics and all, but that’s not what it is.

“That bonfire is more than just a bonfire. That bonfire… it’s hard to put into words.

“It brings us all together. It’s bringing the community together.

“The messages of support (we’ve had)… people saying how we’ve made everybody feel welcome.

“People come down, and we don’t ask them ‘Are you a Protestant or are you a Catholic?’

“There’s Australians, there’s Canadians, all different types of people who are just amazed at the work.

“We get flak left, right and centre, everybody saying it’s a beacon of hatred, which its not.

“That’s why we’ve gone in the other direction of no flags and putting on the cultural event, which is going now two days.”

Castle in the Sky follows Craigyhill’s bid to top their 202ft record.

It was made available on Amazon three weeks ago for £5.99 to rent or £9.99 to buy.

In the documentary, Murray, who drives a £150,000 McLaren supercar and who Sunday Life previously exposed as a loan shark, discusses the bonfire organisers’ finances.

He says they were aiming for £45,000 last year but raised £40,000.

David Murray at the site of the bonfire

He continues: “I’m involved with the Craigyhill bonfire community group. Obviously, they look at me as if I’m the leader of it, but we all chip in — there’s about 20 of us in the committee.

“They look at me, obviously, to take care of the finances and what we need to do to raise the money because, obviously, it takes a full year and you have to be on the ball from day one.”

by ByGollie

26 comments

  1. Tbf if they just want to go for a big fuck off bonfire with non of the usual sectarian accoutrements they may as well have it

  3. That’s a lucrative window cleaning business, getting paid to not put the windows through than clean them by the sounds of it

  5. A drone could surely be flown in to drop some petrol onto it.

    Then flaming arrows fired from a distance to ignite it, like in Braveheart

  6. A drone could easily set them alight. Hell, someone just sneaking in could burn it.

  8. Oh no, this is terrible. Where would you even look to collect the money?

  9. not much room on the roof of a McLaren for ladders

  10. Frustrating that most of the news that comes out of ‘my’ town features terrorists or their hangers on.

  11. >“You’ve got your local hoods that would think about burning it, your two-bob tout that would maybe look to make a couple of pound.”

    Text you can hear

  12. How can people be the ‘boss’ of a paramilitary organisation and still walk free on the streets?

  13. Larnes very own Frank Lucas. The cops leave these lads to tear away it seems. It’s just too difficult for the wee PSNI to take them on. Unionist politicians need them for votes and seem shit scared of them, they only call them out when it’s forced out of them by a journalist..’i condemn all forms of criminality’ is the usual robotic response. Pathetic. Spineless.

  14. How has not at least one of these things been struck by lightning ? 🤔

  15. Well Jenga towers usually sooner or later fall down ..

    The bigger the tower the bigger the fall.

  16. Did he have to pay for the full page press release?

  18. There’s lots of drones. Apparently you can rig the light switch to drop stuff. 

  19. Fuck sake, I thought I could still get the bounty from that title. Was thinking a horse and a bow and fire arrow

  23. Noone’s tied a plant pot full of diesel with a tea light floating on it to a drone and flown it over then?

  25. What an achievement eh? I built a huge pile of pallets and burnt it to the ground, whoopee. Look at all that smoke and money burning.

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