This weekend marked the fifth anniversary of David Ervine’s untimely and sorrowful death. In remembrance, his friend and trusted confident, Brian Rowan blogged about David’s life, his contribution to the peace process and the subsequent impact his death has had on the future of Loyalism. Thought provokingly asking the question ‘Is Loyalism Lost without David Ervine?’ Rowan either declined, or perhaps refused, to provide an answer. Hypothetical or otherwise, it is a question worth considering.
Alongside other loyalist notables such as Gusty Spence, Billy Mitchell and Billy McCaughey, Ervine plotted a political course for UVF members that was progressive, socially moderate and reached out to other working class unionists who shared his ideals, if not his paramilitary past. He articulated a message that had a sense of genuine purpose. But it failed to translate into political success.
In the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, the PUP had two Assembly members and a number of councillors. With the loss of Billy Hutchinson’s North Belfast seat in 2003, many predicted the clock was quietly ticking on the future of the PUP, but David wasn’t able to put it to the test. Sadly dying months before the 2007 election, Dawn Purvis assumed the mantle of loyalism and successfully retained David’s East Belfast seat. She was it. The public face of loyalism and it’s her story that tells the greater tale.
Dawn graduated from the Ervine school of politics. He was her mentor; he schooled her in the art of communication and through David, she gained influence amongst loyalists. But she could never become another David.
The PUP is full of former members of the UVF, alongside others never involved, who are wedded to our peace process and wedded to making it work. People who looked up to Ervine and heavily relied on him to stand against others who continued to tarnish the PUPs greater struggle with their self interest and criminal greed. Confronting them privately whilst defending them publicly was a tough job.
It became a nigh on impossible task for Dawn to successfully chart the process of normalisation the UVF required, and convince those who wavered to join her, whilst at the same time, give them the space and support to do so. After the UVF shot Bobby Moffett in broad daylight, Dawn quit the PUP and stepped down as the leader of Loyalism. The seat and their representation was never regained.
However, it’s worth remembering that when we talk about Loyalism and the PUP interchangeably, we completely ignore the larger swathe of loyalists who never supported the UVF or PUP. Whilst the UDP never attained the same level of electoral support, the majority of loyalists, whether UDA or UVF, never strayed from the mainstream of Unionist politics. As part of the wider PLU (Protestant Loyalist Unionist) community, they never attempted to set themselves apart. In fact, many actively support and are happily involved with parties of Government.
But does that mean ‘Loyalism is Lost without David Ervine?’ I don’t think so.
It is true to say the PUP is lost without his wisdom and electorally, they have reached their peak. Without David Ervine at the helm, the PUP has struggled for relevance. Without David Ervine, so called loyalists who held him back are now more blatantly snubbing his vision for Northern Ireland.
But those who shared his aims aren’t lost. Loyalism’s contribution to the wider Unionist family will be a continuing tribute to Ervine and his legacy.
4 Comments
Gavin, I think you’re right. The PUP and the UVF are lost without David Ervine. The political project that developed with the 1994 ceasefire and put Ervine, Billy Hutchinson, Gary McMichael, Davy Adams and ‘Plum’ Smith on a stage was destroyed by the UDA and the UVF; by the internal feuding and the criminality of the crooks and ceasefire soldiers I identified in my piece at the weekend. Their motivation is self-interest and self-gain. Now, we have yet another UVF ‘civilianisation’ project and yet another PUP leader. Dawn Purvis had no choice but to resign when the UVF killed Bobby Moffett on the Shankill Road, and rather than blame her for the political downfall of the PUP, a number of loyalist leaders should take a long hard look at themselves. I’m sure in east Belfast people can see the lifestyles of some who masquerade as ‘war’ leaders and who hide behind the militaristic titles of conflict. It is time for ’cause’ loyalists to distance themselves from ‘criminal’ loyalists.This is one of the real battles still to be had within these organisations.There is a challenge also for political unionism and the NIO – to apply the same tests to the UVF and UDA that were applied to the IRA on weapons, activity and the dismantling of structures. Who is making the public demands for the UVF Command Staff and UDA Inner Council to disband? I also hear plenty of calls for Adams and McGuinness to explain their IRA roles, but silence when it comes to those whose names we know and who for decades directed the loyalist campaigns. Some – at the most senior levels – were in the pay of the State. All of this is part of a wider, more complex, debate – but the discussion is under way here on mallie.com.
The failure of political loyalism to make electoral gains is not down to poltical idology, but as I said at the time of my resignation, the indefensible actions of others. I dont believe political unionism represents the interests of working class loyalists other than in their maintenance of the union. The scandal of educational underachievement among the Protestant working class is a case in point. The PUP and UVF are lost without David Ervine. He ‘held the mirror up’ and challenged every step of the way, both privately and publicly, while maintaining a political focus on his vision for truly inclusive and peaceful Northern Ireland. Who is doing the challenging now?
What a pointless article! I read it in the hope that it might show some route forward, but no, it was just a rehash of history. Where’s your foresight Gavin?
Dawn again mentions educational underachievement among Protestants. Historically they didn’t need education. They got jobs because ‘My da’ worked in the Shipyard, Sirocco, Mackies or some such employment bastion for Protestants. Failing that there were always plenty of easy money opportunities in the unionist paramilitary organisations.
As an Irish nationalist, I would say David Ervine is a great loss from politics and I would’ve been proud to share a platform with him on many social and economic matters on the left. He was a great statesman for a people in East Belfast who simply wanted to hold their heads high again after the massive downturn in heavy engineering and industry. Perhaps we need to realize the inner partitions in the North, why the next generation of these loyalists cannot feel comfortable moving to the project engineering locus on the West of the Bann, why republicans are not boosting the skills shortage of the exporting locus in the East of the Bann when they dominate the populous of our local universities. As nations both Britain and Ireland are debtors to faceless bondholders and bank-holders who seem to push their weight above a democracy they’ve bought and paid for. The Orange and the Green have both fought this fight historically. The normal population simply want to be part of the struggle to be free to live a normal life. This is the new fight for the self-determination of our people, and it may be fair to say that the unemployed feels a foreigner in both nations or else be forced to be a citizen in another.