NEWTON'S OPTIC:Rumours about links to far-right unionism must be addressed, writes NEWTON EMERSON
AT THIS time of growing national consensus on the need to put me in office, I feel obliged to address certain scurrilous rumours about my involvement in far-right unionist politics during the 1970s.
It is true that while attending the fresher’s fair at Queen’s University Belfast, on or about the afternoon of Wednesday, October 4th, 1972, I may have stopped briefly at a UDA recruitment stall. It is important to note that the UDA was still then a legal organisation, or at least not an illegal organisation, which was much the same thing in the climate of the time.
“Would you like to join the UDA?” the person at the stall may well have asked. “Certainly not,” I certainly replied. “What this country needs is a peace process based on powersharing and the principle of consent.” However, it is possible that I may have taken a leaflet.
It is also possible that I once stopped for a pint after lectures at the Skunk and Weasel Pub on the Shankill Road while, in a quite different part of the bar, several UDA members discussed obtaining ammunition. During their conversation, I might have been overheard saying “I’ll get the rounds in”, but it would clearly be absurd to equate this with support for armed struggle.
In my second year at Queens, I did join the Ulster Workers Council, but this was due to a misunderstanding on my part. I had hoped to work for Belfast City Council after graduation and wrongly believed the Ulster Workers Council was a local government trade union. You can imagine my horror at learning, during the one meeting I attended, that it was a loyalist-led front to bring down powersharing.
There may be further evidence that I also joined Vanguard in this period, but that was due to another misunderstanding. I had hoped to work for Northern Ireland Railways after graduation and wrongly believed Vanguard was a training scheme for van guards. When I discovered it was an anti-powersharing unionist group, I left so quickly that there was not even time to resign.
Vanguard subsequently changed its name to the Vanguard – the Neo-Nazi Party, but I had no involvement in this decision other than returning a voting form in disgust, which may have been accidentally marked by ink on my fingers. Students often had inky fingers in the 1970s due to the large number of fountain pens in circulation.
In my final year at Queens, I went back to the fresher’s fair to make sure I was not mistakenly registered with any far-right unionist parties. While there I might possibly have stopped at a recruitment stall for Tara, the UVF-linked racial purity movement.
“Do you believe that Ulster Protestants are the lost tribe of Israel?” the stall holder may have asked.
“Of course not,” I definitely replied. “But if we are, we should return to our 1967 frontiers and engage in meaningful dialogue on a two-state solution.” That certainly told him.
The truth is that my politics as a student were inspired by Alliance Party leader David Ford. Although he would not be Alliance Party leader for another 30 years, even then I could see his potential. In fact, the first time we met, I think I actually asked him for a leaflet.