Willie Frazer

William "Willie" Frazer is the founder and leader of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) in Northern Ireland. He was also a leader of the Love Ulster campaign.

Background

William Frazer grew up in the village of Whitecross in County Armagh. He is an ex-member of the Territorial Army, and a member of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. He attended a local Catholic school. His father, Bertie, who was a member of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment, was shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 30 August 1975. Over the next ten years four members of Frazer's family who were members or ex-members of the police or armed forces were killed by the IRA. An uncle of Frazer's who was a member of the UDR was also wounded in a gun attack.

During the Drumcree conflict, Frazer was a supporter of members of the 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.

For a brief period, Frazer ran a nightclub in Tandragee, County Armagh, which closed down after two Protestant civilians who had been in the club were stabbed to death in February 2000 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), after one of them had allegedly made derogatory remarks about a dead UVF leader. Frazer was confronted in an interview on Radio Ulster about the murders by the father of one of the victims.

Frazer applied for a licence to hold a firearm for his personal protection and was turned down, a chief inspector said, based on intelligence that he was known to associate with members of loyalist paramilitaries.

FAIR campaign

FAIR claims to represent the victims of IRA violence in South Armagh. It has been criticised by some, however, 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". He has also defended alleged security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, stating in an interview with Susan McKay: "If you were in the UDR and your brother was shot, are you telling me you wouldn't [pass information on to loyalists]? ... See if a Paki comes from India and kills a Provo? I'm going to shake his hand."

In January 2007 Frazer dismissed Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's report into security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.

In September 2010 the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB) revoked all funding to FAIR (more than £800,000 over 3 years) due to "major failures in the organisation's ability to adhere to the conditions associated with its funding allocation" uncovered following a "thorough audit" of the tendering and administration procedures used by FAIR. In a statement the SEUPB said: "The SEUPB is charged with ensuring the proper use of public money and as such has no option but to revoke all financial assistance, (amounting to approximately £880,000), that has been offered to the organisation... FAIR has been given every opportunity to respond to and address these issues. The decision to revoke and recover all financial assistance given to the project has not been taken lightly, however, given the seriousness of the issues no other recourse is available."

In November 2011 a European funding body announced that it was seeking the return of funding to FAIR and another Markethill victims group, Saver/Naver. FAIR was being asked to return £350,000 while Saver/Naver was being asked to return £200,000.

Political activity

In addition to his advocacy for victims, Frazer has contested several elections in County Armagh. He has never been 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.

In 2004 Frazer invited to South Armagh Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, an advocate of citizen's militias who had written approvingly of their use against insurgencies in Central America and the Philippines.

Frazer came to wider attention in October 2005 when he got into a public argument with a Redemptorist priest, Father Alec Reid. Frazer made remarks that Catholics had butchered Protestants during the troubles. Father Reid likened unionist treatment of Catholics to the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis. Reid later apologised for the remark, saying he had lost his temper. Frazer reported Reid to the police for incitement to hatred, but no legal action ensued.

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 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 his most recent outing, in the 2010 UK Parliamentary general election Frazer contested the Newry and Armagh UK 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.

Love Ulster parade

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."

Recent activity

In March 2010 Frazer claimed to have served a civil writ on deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, of Sinn Féin, seeking damages arising from the killing of Frazer's father by the IRA. Sinn Féin and the courts denied that any such writ had been served, but in June 2010 Frazer announced that he would seek to progress his claim in the high court.

When McGuinness stood for election in the Irish presidential election, 2011 Frazer announced that he and FAIR would picket the main Sinn Féin election events. He said, "If the people of the South want a terrorist to represent them around the world as their president then heaven help them." In the event, however, no such pickets took place.

In October 2011 he attended a protest in Pomeroy against the use of rubble from a demolished police station to level out the playing field of the local GAA club, which hosts an annual tug-of-war event in memory of Seamus Woods, an IRA member killed by the premature explosion of a mortar while attacking the station. The station was the target of many such IRA attacks during The Troubles. Frazer stated that "moving the rubble to the GAA club would cause a lot of heartache for many families. The unionist population is small in Pomeroy and they certainly feel betrayed."

After attending a Sinn Fein conference in November 2011 in Newry he reacted furiously to an apology by Ulster Unionist Party MLA John McCallister for "unionist failings" in the past. Frazer stated that people were "appalled" by McCallister's remarks.

See also

• 2000 Tandragee killings

External links

• FAIR website