Willie Frazer facts for kids

William Frederick Frazer (8 July 1960 – 28 June 2019) was a Northern Irish Ulster loyalist activist and advocate for those affected by Irish republican violence in Northern Ireland. He was the founder and leader of the pressure group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR). He was also a leader of the Love Ulster campaign and more recently, the Belfast City Hall flag protests.

Background

The village of Whitecross, where Frazer grew up

William Frazer grew up in the village of Whitecross, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, as one of nine children, with his parents Bertie and Margaret. He was an ex-member of the Territorial Army, and a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. He attended a local Catholic school and played Gaelic football up to U14 level. Frazer described his early years as a “truly cross-community lifestyle”. Growing up, he was a fan of the American actor John Wayne and wrestling. His father, who was a part-time member of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and a council worker, was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 30 August 1975. The family home had previously been attacked with petrol bombs and gunfire which Frazer claimed were IRA men, due to Bertie's UDR membership. Frazer has stated that his family was well respected in the area including by "old-school IRA men" and received Mass cards from Catholic neighbours expressing their sorrow over his father's killing. Frazer believes an IRA member helped carry the coffin at his father's funeral. Over the next ten years four members of Frazer's family who were members or ex-members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary or British Army were killed by the IRA. An uncle of Frazer's who was a member of the UDR was also wounded in a gun attack.

Soon after his father's death, the IRA began targeting Frazer's older brother who was also a UDR member. Like many South Armagh unionists, the family moved north to the village of Markethill. After leaving school, Frazer worked as a plasterer for a period before serving in the British Army for nine years. Following this he worked for a local haulage company, then set up his own haulage company, which he later sold.

During the Drumcree conflict, Frazer was a supporter of the Portadown Orange Order who were demanding the right to march down the Garvaghy Road against the wishes of local residents. Frazer was president of his local Apprentice Boys club at the time.

FAIR campaign and related activism

FAIR, founded by Frazer in 1998, claims to represent the victims of IRA violence in South Armagh. It has been criticised by some for not doing the same for victims of loyalist paramilitary organisations or for those killed by security forces. In the past, Frazer had said of loyalist paramilitary prisoners that "they should never have been locked up in the first place", and that he had "a lot of time for Billy Wright" a loyalist who rejected the Good Friday Agreement.

In February 2006, Frazer was an organiser of the Love Ulster parade in Dublin that had to be cancelled due to rioting. In January 2007, Frazer protested outside the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin that voted to join policing structures in Northern Ireland. He "expressed outrage at the idea that the 'law-abiding population' would negotiate with terrorists to get them to support democracy, law and order."

On 16 November 2012 Frazer announced that he was stepping down as director of FAIR.

Political career

In addition to his advocacy for Protestant victims, Frazer contested several elections in County Armagh. He was not elected, and on most occasions lost his deposit. He ran as an Ulster Independence Movement candidate in the 1996 Forum Elections and the 1998 Assembly elections, and as an independent in the 2003 Assembly elections and a council by-election.

Frazer's best electoral showing was 1,427 votes, 25.9%, in a Newry and Mourne District Council by-election in August 2006, when Frazer had the backing of the local UUP and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The total votes polled 5,587 (47.6% of the local electorate); it was a two-candidate race for the Fews Area between Frazer and Sinn Féin candidate Turlough Murphy. The combined unionist vote in 2005 in the area had been 2,446.

In the 2010 UK general election, Frazer contested the Newry and Armagh Parliamentary constituency as an independent candidate. He received 656 votes (1.5%). The seat was retained by Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy who received 18,857 votes.

In the 2011 Assembly elections he was listed as a subscriber for the Traditional Unionist Voice candidate for the Newry and Armagh constituency, Barrie Halliday who secured 1.8% of the vote. At Newry Crown Court on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, Pastor Barrie Gordon Halliday was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for eighteen months, when he pleaded guilty to seventeen counts of VAT repayment fraud.

In November 2012, Frazer announced his intention to contest the 2013 Mid Ulster by-election necessitated by Martin McGuinness's decision to resign the parliamentary seat to concentrate on his Assembly role. Frazer was quoted in The Irish News in January 2013 as stating that he would not condemn any paramilitary gunman who shot McGuinness.

Despite his earlier advocacy of Ulster nationalism, in 2013 Frazer declared himself in favour of re-establishing direct rule in Northern Ireland.

On 24 April 2013, Frazer and others, including former British National Party fundraiser Jim Dowson and David Nicholl, a former member of the paramilitary-linked Ulster Democratic Party, announced the launch of a new political party called the Protestant Coalition.

Death

Frazer died of cancer on 28 June 2019. Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister and DUP Assembly member Jim Wells paid tribute to his memory.