Irish minister, born on 8 June 1941 at Limavady, Co. Londonderry, the seventh child of a family evacuated there from Belfast. He was brought up by foster parents in Belfast after his father deserted the family. He entered the ministry in 1964, trained at Edgehill College, but reacted in the direction of fundamentalist evangelicalism. In 1970 he was ordained and appointed to Suffolk, close to West Belfast's Lenadoon Estate, a flash-point in the early years of Ulster violence. He became involved in politics, joined the Orange Order and when elected Unionist MP for South Belfast in 1974 resigned from the Irish Conference. He held British Israelite views, launched a 'Methodists Awake' campaign attacking the Ecumenical Movement and published anti-Roman Catholic pamphlets. He maintained his standing as a Methodist minister by joining the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. He was assassinated by the IRA on 14 November 1981 while on constituency work in Finaghy, Belfast.

Entry written by: RPR
Category: Person
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