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William Smith (loyalist)
William Smith (sometimes erroneously spelt Smyth) (26 January 1954William Smith, ''Inside Man, Loyalists of Long Kesh – The Untold Story'', 2014, p. 19 – 8 June 2016) was a Northern Irish loyalist, paramilitary, and politician. He had been involved in Ulster loyalism in various capacities for at least forty years. Early life Smith was born in Mountjoy Street on Belfast's Shankill Road into a poor Ulster Protestant family, the son of shipyard worker Charles William Smith and his wife Isobel. He had three older sisters, Margaret, Elizabeth and Nan (the latter dying in infancy before he was born), a younger brother Gordon and a younger sister Jean. There was rumoured Native American ancestry in his family; therefore in his youth he acquired the lifelong nickname "Plum" after ''The Beano'' character Little Plum.Peter Taylor, ''Loyalists'', Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 45 He was raised in a working class home where his parents sent him to Sunday school and taught him to respect the law. Li ...
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Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom and the second-largest in Ireland. It had a population of 345,418 . By the early 19th century, Belfast was a major port. It played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Ireland, briefly becoming the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname "Linenopolis". By the time it was granted city status in 1888, it was a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco-processing and rope-making. Shipbuilding was also a key industry; the Harland and Wolff shipyard, which built the , was the world's largest shipyard. Industrialisation, and the resulting inward migration, made Belfast one of Ireland's biggest cities. Following the partition of Ireland in 1921, Belfast became the seat of government for Northern Ireland ...
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John McKeague
John Dunlop McKeagueWD Flackes & Sydney Elliott, ''Northern Ireland A Political Directory 1968–1993'', The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 222 (1930 – 29 January 1982) was a Northern Irish loyalist and one of the founding members of the paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando in 1970.Martin Dillon, ''The Dirty War'', p. 200 Authors on the Troubles in Northern Ireland have accused McKeague of involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal but he was never convicted. He was shot dead by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Belfast in January 1982. McKeague and Ian Paisley A native of Bushmills, County Antrim, McKeague, who long had a reputation for anti-Catholicism, became a member of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church in 1966.Ed Moloney, ''Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat?'', Poolbeg, 2008, p. 152 McKeague and his mother moved to east Belfast in 1968, where he became a regular at Paisley's own Martyrs' Memorial Church on the Ravenhill Road and joined the Willowfie ...
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Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census of Ireland, 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population. A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kings of Dublin, Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixt ...
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Jim McDonald (loyalist)
Jim McDonald may refer to: * Jim McDonald (halfback) (1915–1997), college and professional American football player * Jim McDonald (American football coach) (1936–2012), American football coach * Jim McDonald (footballer, born 1877) (1877–1968), Australian rules footballer for Essendon * Jim McDonald (footballer, born 1887) (1887–1954), Australian rules footballer for Richmond * Jim McDonald (footballer, born 1916) (1916-?), Australian rules footballer for Melbourne * Jim McDonald (pitcher) (1927–2004), Major League Baseball pitcher * Jim McDonald (basketball), former college player and coach, see 1981–82 NCAA Division I men's basketball season * Jim McDonald (third baseman) (1860–1914), Major League Baseball third baseman * Jim McDonald (outfielder), Major League Baseball outfielder * Jim McDonald (''Coronation Street''), character in ''Coronation Street'' played by actor Charles Lawson * Jim McDonald (soccer) (born 1954), Canadian soccer player from the 1970s ...
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Hugh Smyth
Hugh Smyth, OBE (1941 – 12 May 2014) was a Northern Irish politician who was leader of the Progressive Unionist Party. He was a former Lord Mayor of Belfast as well as the longest serving member of Belfast City Council, having represented the Upper Shankill Road area since 1973. Smyth was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year's Honours list. Emergence in politics Born in the Woodvale Road district of the Shankill Road area of Belfast, Smyth was one of nine children and was educated locally and worked as a metal bonder in the Short Brothers factory before entering full-time politics. Smyth first came to attention in the early 1970s when he served as a public spokesman for the Ulster Volunteer Force although he was not an active member of the organisation. His inspiration for politics was the struggle his father endured whilst working to support his family. Deeply opposed to what he described as 'Big House Unionism', he stated that at that time Belfast ...
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Transport & General Workers Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate itself from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union – with 900,000 members (and was once the largest trade union in the world). It was founded in 1922 and Ernest Bevin served as its first general secretary. In 2007, it merged with Amicus to form Unite the Union. History At the time of its creation in 1922, the TGWU was the largest and most ambitious amalgamation brought about within trade unionism. Its structure combined regional organisation, based on Districts and Areas, with committee organisation by occupation, based on six broad Trade Groups. Trade groups were not closely linked to trades, but were elected by activists. Officials of the union were grouped by region, and could be asked to serve each or any trade group. Docks ...
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Shop Steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold this position voluntarily (through democratic election by fellow workers or sometimes by appointment of a higher union body) while maintaining their role as an employee of the firm. As a result, the union steward becomes a significant link and conduit of information between the union leadership and rank-and-file workers. Duties The duties of a union steward vary according to each labor union's constitutional mandate for the position. In general, most union stewards perform the following functions: *Monitor and enforce the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement (labor contract) to ensure both the firm and union worker are not violating the terms of the agreement. *Ensure that the firm is in compliance with all federal, state a ...
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Harland & Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the White Star Line, including ''Olympic''-class trio – , and HMHS ''Britannic''. Outside of White Star Line, other ships that have been built include the Royal Navy's ; Royal Mail Line's ''Andes''; Shaw, Savill & Albion's ; Union-Castle's ; and P&O's . Harland and Wolff's official history, ''Shipbuilders to the World'', was published in 1986. As of 2011, the expanding offshore wind power industry had been the prime focus, and 75% of the company's work was based on offshore renewable energy. Early history Harland & Wolff was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland (1831–95) and Hamburg-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913; he came to the UK at age 14). In 1858 Harland, then general manager, bought the small shipyard on ''Queen' ...
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EPIC Woodvale
Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Epic'' (1984 film) * ''Epic'' (2013 film) Gaming * ''Epic'' (game), a series of wargames * ''Epic'' (video game), a 1992 video game * ''Epic: Battle for Moonhaven'', a 2013 video game by Gameloft based on the film ''Epic'' (2013) * '' Epic Card Game'', a 2015 strategy card game by White Wizard Games Literature * ''Epic'' (Kostick novel), a 2004 novel by Conor Kostick * ''Epic Illustrated'', a 1980s anthology series published by Marvel Comics Music Albums * ''Epic'' (Blood on the Dance Floor album), 2011 * ''Epic'' (Borknagar album), 2004 * ''Epic'' (R. Kelly album), 2010 * ''Epic'' (Sharon Van Etten album), 2010 * ''Epic'' (Tang Dynasty album), 1998 Songs * "Epic" (Faith No More song), 1990 * "Epic" (Sandro Silva ...
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Maze Prison
Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to September 2000. It was situated at the former Royal Air Force station of Long Kesh, on the outskirts of Lisburn. This was in the townland of Maze, about southwest of Belfast. The prison and its inmates were involved in such events as the 1981 hunger strike. The prison was closed in 2000 and demolition began on 30 October 2006, but on 18 April 2013 it was announced by the Northern Ireland Executive that the remaining buildings would be redeveloped into a peace centre. Background Following the introduction of internment in 1971, Operation Demetrius was implemented by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army with raids for 452 suspects on 9 August 1971. The RUC and army arrested 342 Irish nationalists, but key Provisional Irish R ...
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Billy Mitchell (loyalist)
William Mitchell (1940 – 22 July 2006) was a Northern Ireland loyalist, community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder. He later abandoned his UVF membership and took up cross-community work. Early years Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1940 into a poor family, Mitchell's father died when he was two years old. Although based in the Shankill Road during his adult life, Mitchell was raised just outside Belfast in what he described as "a wooden hut". The area, which at the time was the end of the city's tramline network, has subsequently been redeveloped as Glengormley.Susan McKay, ''Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People'', Blackstaff Press, 2005, p. 53 After leaving school Mitchell briefly worked as a copy boy on the ''Belfast Telegraph'' but found it difficult to advance his position and so left to work as a lorry dri ...
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David Ervine
David Ervine (21 July 1953 – 8 January 2007) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist politician who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2002 to 2007, and was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 to 2007. During his youth Ervine was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was imprisoned for possessing bomb-making equipment. Whilst in jail he became convinced of the benefits of a more political approach for Ulster loyalism and became involved with the PUP. As a leading PUP figure, Ervine helped to deliver the loyalist ceasefire of 1994. Biography David Ervine was the youngest of five children born to Walter and Elizabeth Ervine, and raised in a Protestant working-class area of east Belfast between the Albertbridge and Newtownards roads. His household was not loyalist at all, his father Walter described himself as a socialist, had no time for Ian Paisley and didn't attend church. When Ervine joined the Or ...
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