Frank McCoubrey | |
---|---|
78th Lord Mayor of Belfast | |
In office 1 June 2020 –1 June 2021 | |
Deputy | Paul McCuskey [1] |
Preceded by | Daniel Baker |
Succeeded by | Kate Nicholl |
21st Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast | |
In office 1 June 2000 –1 June 2001 | |
Preceded by | Marie Moore |
Succeeded by | Hugh Smyth |
Member of Belfast City Council | |
Assumed office 21 May 1997 [2] | |
Preceded by | Joe Coggle |
Constituency | Court |
Personal details | |
Born | Frank McCoubrey 5 February 1967 Highfield,Belfast,Northern Ireland |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Democratic Unionist Party (2012 - present) |
Other political affiliations | Independent (2001-2012) Ulster Democratic Party (until 2001) |
Known for | Ulster loyalist politician |
Frank McCoubrey (born 5 February 1967) is a Northern Irish unionist politician and Ulster Loyalist,as well as a community activist and researcher. McCoubrey is a Belfast City Councillor for the Court DEA since 1997,sitting as a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) member since 2012. [3] He is a leading member of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG). McCoubrey is a native of Highfield,Belfast. [4]
In 1996 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Northern Ireland Forum election in West Belfast. [5] McCoubrey was first elected to Belfast City Council in 1997 as a member of the Ulster Democratic Party [6] and was eventually elected as deputy mayor in 2000,with the votes of the Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party councillors. [7] [8] Following the collapse of the UDP and the resulting decision of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) to reconvene the UPRG McCoubrey was chosen along with Sammy Duddy,Frankie Gallagher and Tommy Kirkham to lead the new group. [9] McCoubrey became one of the leading figures in the UPRG and even joined Kirkham and Gallagher in meeting Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2004,along with UDA leader Jackie McDonald and prisoners' spokesman Stanley Fletcher in a 'historic' event. [10]
In his role as a councillor McCoubrey opened early channels between loyalism and Sinn Féin,joining UDP colleague John White in holding an unofficial meeting with Alex Maskey in Belfast City Hall in June 2001. [11] McCoubrey also led a campaign in 2003 to bring Gerry Adams to trial for violation of the human rights of the people of the Shankill. McCoubrey,who organised a petition to this effect,argued that Adams' and Sinn Féin's policy of abstentionism meant that the people of the Shankill were being denied representation and sought to bring a case to the European courts to alter the situation. [12] Ultimately,however,nothing came of the initiative.[ citation needed ]
McCoubrey's term of office as deputy mayor was soon marked by controversy after he wore his official robes and chain of office to a "Loyalist Day of Culture" held on the Lower Shankill on 19 August 2000,where he shared a stage with UDA members Johnny Adair and Michael Stone at the height of a loyalist feud between that group and the Ulster Volunteer Force. [13] Adair had used the Day to bring the feud to its conclusion by running the Ulster Volunteer Force out of the Shankill by attacking their stronghold,the Rex Bar. [14] Calls were made for McCoubrey to resign,although he claimed that he did not know Adair and Stone would be there and that he was not expecting the gun-fire in the paramilitary show of strength that ended the night. [14] Ultimately the Council decided not to take any action against McCoubrey, [15] with a motion of censure brought in by the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland's David Alderdice defeated in the council. [16] McCoubrey also faced criticism from a former Lord Mayor of Belfast,Hugh Smyth,who had been a friend of his until the incident,with a number of Smyth's colleagues in the Progressive Unionist Party amongst those ran out of the Shankill by Adair and 'C' Company. [14]
McCoubrey remains a member of the Council. He officially sat as an Independent,as do all elected members of the UPRG. [3] However,in November 2012 it was announced that McCoubrey was giving up his independent status to become a member of the DUP. [17] McCoubrey remains a prominent community activist in the Shankill,working to secure increased funding for the Shankill district,which was named in 2008 as Northern Ireland's most deprived area. [18]
In December 2008,McCoubrey was nominated by Bob Stoker for the post of High Sheriff of Belfast [19] and was sworn into office on 21 January 2009. [20] Subsequently he successfully defended his council seat in the 2011 local elections. [21] He retained his seat for the DUP in 2014 [22] and was also the party's unsuccessful candidate for West Belfast in the 2015 general election [23] and the 2016 Assembly election (also in Belfast West),where he came within 90 votes of winning the first seat for a Unionist party in 13 years. [24]
In 2020,McCoubrey was appointed Lord Mayor of Belfast replacing Sinn Fein's Daniel Baker. [25] Due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic the traditional handover was replaced with a smaller meeting in front of 18 of the 60 Belfast councillors inside the chamber at City Hall.
McCoubrey is a member of the board of directors of the Shankill Mirror,a newspaper aimed at the loyalist communities of the Greater Shankill and North Belfast. [26]
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of the participants of the Troubles. Its declared goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas and to combat Irish republicanism,particularly the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the 1970s,uniformed UDA members openly patrolled these areas armed with batons and held large marches and rallies. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks that used the cover name Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. The British government proscribed the UFF as a terrorist group in November 1973,but the UDA itself was not proscribed until August 1992.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist,loyalist,British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley,who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by Jeffrey Donaldson,it is the second largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly,and is the fifth-largest party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The party has been described as centre-right to right-wing and socially conservative,being anti-abortion and opposing same-sex marriage. The DUP sees itself as defending Britishness and Ulster Protestant culture against Irish nationalism and republicanism. It is also Eurosceptic and supported Brexit.
Robert Thomas William McCrea,Baron McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown is a retired Free Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland. A former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician,he represented South Antrim and Mid Ulster as their Member of Parliament (MP),representing Mid Ulster from 1983 to 1997;then South Antrim between 2000 and 2001,and then again from 2005 to 2015.
The Shankill Road is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast,in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class,predominantly loyalist,area known as the Shankill.
George Seawright was a Scottish-born unionist politician in Northern Ireland and loyalist paramilitary in the Ulster Volunteer Force. He was assassinated by the Irish People's Liberation Organisation in 1987.
Raymond "Ray" Smallwoods was a Northern Ireland politician and sometime leader of the Ulster Democratic Party. A leading member of John McMichael's South Belfast Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA),Smallwoods later served as a leading adviser to the UDA's Inner Council. He was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) outside his Lisburn home.
The Combined Loyalist Military Command is an umbrella body for loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s,recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee.
Billy "Hutchie" Hutchinson is an Ulster Loyalist politician and activist in Northern Ireland,who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2011 to 2023. He was a Belfast City Councillor,representing Oldpark from 1997 to 2005,and then Court from 2014 to 2023. Hutchinson was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 to 2003. Before this,he had been a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was a founder of their youth wing,the Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV).
Ulster Resistance (UR),or the Ulster Resistance Movement (URM),is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary movement established by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland in November 1986 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Hugh Smyth OBE was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who was leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 1979 to 2002. He was a former Lord Mayor of Belfast,as well as the longest-serving member of Belfast City Council,having first represented the Upper Shankill Road area in 1973. Smyth was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year's Honours list.
John Gregg was a senior member of the UDA/UFF loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland. In 1984,Gregg seriously wounded Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in an assassination attempt. From the 1990s until he was shot dead in 2003 by rival associates,Gregg served as brigadier of the UDA's South East Antrim Brigade. Widely known as a man with a fearsome reputation,Gregg was considered a "hawk" in some loyalist circles.
John "Jackie" McDonald is a Northern Irish loyalist and the incumbent Ulster Defence Association (UDA) brigadier for South Belfast,having been promoted to the rank by former UDA commander Andy Tyrie in 1988,following John McMichael's killing by the Provisional IRA in December 1987. He is also a member of the organisation's Inner Council and the spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG),the UDA's political advisory body.
Eric Smyth is a Northern Irish Unionist politician and Presbyterian minister.
Tommy Kirkham is a Northern Ireland loyalist political figure and former councillor. Beginning his political career with the Democratic Unionist Party,he was then associated with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Political Research Group although he has since been expelled from both groups. He was a former deputy mayor of Newtownabbey and sat on Newtownabbey Borough Council as an Independent Loyalist.
Frankie Gallagher was a loyalist community worker from Northern Ireland and was along with Tommy Kirkham and Sammy Duddy one of the first leading spokespeople for the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) which offered political advice to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during the Troubles.
Stephen McKeag,nicknamed Top Gun,was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary and a Commander of the Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) 'C' Company in the 1990s. He is responsible for many killings of Catholics and Irish republicans. Although most of his operations took place from the Shankill Road in Belfast,McKeag was actually a native of the lower Oldpark Road in the north of the city.
William Elliot was a former Northern Irish loyalist who served as brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) East Belfast Brigade in the 1980s.
The Springfield Road is a residential area and road traffic thoroughfare adjacent to the Falls Road in west Belfast. The local population is predominantly Irish nationalist and republican. Along parts of the road are several interface area with the neighbouring Ulster loyalist areas of the Greater Shankill. The Springfield Road includes the Ballymurphy and New Barnsley districts and is overlooked by Black Mountain and Divis.
James Millar –commonly known as "Sham" –is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary. Millar was a leading member of the West Belfast Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) until 2003 when he was one of a number of dissident members forcibly expelled from the group.
John Finucane is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and solicitor. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for the Belfast North constituency of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since the 2019 general election.