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ABSTRACT
Drawn from newspapers and interviews with political colleagues, relatives, and conflict intermediaries, this article concerns the late Loyalist political leader David Ervine – an ideal vector through which to explore the recent history and struggle for progressive Loyalism within Protestant working-class East Belfast. It outlines the vital influence of his father, as well as Ervine’s ability to find mentorship in others. It covers his imprisonment in Long Kesh, early political awakening, and later success as a representative of the Progressive Unionist Party. It argues that Ervine’s chief political opposition eventually came from establishment and hard-line Unionism, and that his primary achievement was to articulate Ulster Loyalist positions and demands against this culture. Ervine’s duality as a political representative who was close to the militarism of his former career is shown as being central to his political persona. Ervine’s premature passing is shown to be connected to the pressures arising from pursuing progressive policies and stances from a Loyalist background, frequently under fire from other Unionists.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank all those interviewed, and especially Dr Gareth Mulvenna for putting together the March 2015 event at the Skainos Centre which featured an early version of this article as a lecture.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Ervine received 5687 votes in this contest, taking 14.4% of the vote and finishing in third place ahead of Sinn Féin, the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, and the Alliance Party.
2 Ervine was also a regular visitor to Dublin’s Abbey Theatre (Stuart Graham, interview with the author, 8 October 2011).
3 Another celebrated example of this was the ‘Somme Journey’ documentary, televised by BBC 1 Northern Ireland on 6 November 2002, featuring Ervine and Sinn Féin’s Tom Hartley, a former councillor, Lord Mayor and author, visiting the battlefields of World War One. Though Hartley was a compromising influence within Sinn Féin, the sight of a convicted UVF man and a former member of the H-Block Committee navigating the fields of France and Flanders together, exchanging thoughts on reconciliation and shared history, with both men clearly moved by the experience, appears in the present climate of political gridlock to be remarkable (Irish News, 4 November 2002, p. 42). Both former militants were able to acknowledge the hurt and pain suffered by Irish Nationalism and Ulster Unionism in 1916–1917.
4 There is no evidence for Overend’s assertion, but in a mould that still seems resonant, another former Labour activist remembered: ‘If you wanted Stratton Mills you would have had to go to the Bahamas or somewhere to see him. But I mean that was the type of person people voted in. That’s what you were up against’ (Jim McDonald, quoted in Edwards, Citation2009, p. 132).
5 Then-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Prior told the PUP that their document made them ‘twenty years ahead of their time’ (Moloney, Citation2010, p. 397).
6 It is worth noting that unlike the British Labour Party, which revised Clause IV under Tony Blair in 1995, the PUP retains it.
7 Corr-Johnston won a seat on Belfast City Council for the Oldpark area, and remains a PUP councillor. Giles and Long have since left the party.
8 This claim appears to be verified by former DUP leader Peter Robinson, who confirmed his party, under the d’Hondt formula, ‘took the departments to which we were entitled’ when devolution commenced in December 1999. However, ‘we didn’t take up our places at the table’ (Belfast Telegraph, 14 October 2011, p. 37).