Billy Wright
Billy Wright - ‘King Rat’
Billy Wright (1960 - December 27, 1997) was a Northern Irish terrorist, a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and leader of the extremist Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). … December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. … 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. … Northern Ireland is one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. … The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is a Northern Ireland loyalist paramilitary group. … The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) are an extremist Loyalist paramilitary grouping in Northern Ireland which broke away from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was led by the late Billy Wright. …
He was born in Wolverhampton to an Irish Protestant family, but was raised in Mount Norris, South Armagh. He joined the youth section of the UVF at age fifteen in response to the Kingsmill massacre. He was soon arrested and sentenced to six years for arms offenses and hijacking in 1977. He served 42 months at the Crumlin Road and Maze prisons. When his prison term was completed, Wright went briefly to Scotland but soon returned to Ulster. He was arrested repeatedly throughout the 1980s on suspicion of murder and conspiracy. He was also targeted by the IRA and also the INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey. Wright’s uncle, father-in-law and brother-in-law were all shot dead. He was nicknamed ‘King Rat’ by the Irish press. Wolverhampton is an industrial, commercial and university city and metropolitan borough in the English West Midlands, traditionally part of the county of Staffordshire. … HM Prison Maze (known colloqually as The H Blocks, Long Kesh or The Maze) is a disused prison sited at the former RAF station at Long Kesh (it is still called Long Kesh by many Irish Republicans) near Lisburn, nine miles outside Belfast, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. … The Provisional Irish Republican Army (commonly referred to as the IRA) are a paramilitary group which has attempted, through violence, to achieve two goals: British military withdrawal from Ireland, the political unification of Ireland through the reunification of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and the creation of an… The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was formed on 8 December 1974 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (a political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), was formed the same day) by Seamus Costello and other activists who had left or been forced out of… Dominic McGlinchey was born in 1954 into a County Derry family with a strong Republican background. …
Wright became commander of a brigade in the mid-Ulster area around Portadown and directed some brutal sectarian killings and successful actions against the IRA. It is also claimed that he was one of the most significant drug dealers in the area, primarily in ecstasy. He attempted to join the top leaders in 1996 but was refused. He broke away from the UVF after they failed to support the Orange Order march at Drumcree in July 1996. A Catholic man, Micheál McGoldrick, was found dead near Lurgan on July 8, 1996 as part of an unapproved operation by Wright. Another Catholic, James Morgan, was killed soon after. Wright was dismissed from the UVF and threatened with execution. Wright ignored the threat and formed the LVF, taking members mainly from his old UVF brigade. They were joined by other loyalists disaffected by the peace process, giving them a maximum strength estimated at around 250 activists. They operated outside the Combined Loyalist Military Command and ignored the ceasefire order of October 1994. Portadown (Port an Dúnáin in Irish) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. … These lollipops, above, were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US Drug Enforcement Administration In jurisdictions where legislation restricts or prohibits the sale of certain popular drugs, it is common for an illegal drugs trade to develop. … MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), most commonly known today by the street name ecstasy, is a synthetic entactogen of the phenethylamine family whose primary effect is to stimulate the brain to rapidly secrete large amounts of serotonin, causing a general sense of openness, empathy, energy, euphoria, and well-being. … The Orange Order is a Protestant and sectarian fraternal organisation largely based in northern Ireland and western Scotland but which has a worldwide membership. …
Despite a series of sectarian murders and attacks on Catholic property attributed to the LVF through 1996-1997 (although they were not claimed), Wright was not successfully imprisoned until March 1997 when he was convicted of threatening to kill a woman and sentenced to eight years. Initially imprisoned at HMP Maghaberry he was sent to Maze again in April 1997. He demanded and was granted a LVF section in C and D wings of H-block 6 (H6) for himself and 26 fellow terrorists, INLA prisoners were in A and B and the IRSP warned there would be trouble. In May the LVF agreed to a ceasefire. In August 1997 LVF prisoners rioted over their visiting accommodation. Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) describes itself as a republican socialist party and claims to be both Marxist and republican. …
Wright was shot and killed by a INLA prisoner on the morning of December 27 while waiting in a van to be taken to the prison visits area. Three INLA prisoners gave themselves up and were later convicted of the murder.
The LVF was reduced without its leader and became more closely tied to the UFF of Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair. The group committed a series of almost random attacks on Catholic civilians in revenge for the death of Wright. Martin O’Hagan, a journalist Wright especially disliked, was killed in September 2001 by the Red Hand Defenders, a Loyalist cover-name.
