Ray Smallwoods

Ray Smallwoods was a Northern Ireland politician and sometime leader of the Ulster Democratic Party.

Smallwoods began his career in loyalism as a member of the Ulster Defence Association in the 1970s where he was a close ally of leading UDA man John McMichael. Smallwoods became a member of McMichael's personal death squad, who were behind the 'shopping list' killings of 1980. However this role came to an end following a failed attack on the home of Bernadette McAliskey, when Smallwoods and the rest of the gang were captured in an ambush set up by the Parachute Regiment. Smallwoods was jailed for his involvement and was released in 1989.

Following his release from prison Smallwoods, who had become interested in the political side of Loyalism whilst imprisoned, became an official adviser to the UDA and also rose to promince in the UDP, eventually becoming party chairman in the early 1990s. Around this time he also became liaison officer for the UDA to the Combined Loyalist Military Command.

As a leading figure in the UDA, Smallwoods helped to mastermind a campaign of targeting leading republicans for assassination, in continuation of the policies of his mentor McMichael, who had himself been killed in 1987. Alongside this however Smallwoods also began dialogue with Revd. Roy Magee, a former member of the Ulster Vanguard and campaigner against the Anglo-Irish Agreement who had become a peace advocate and who opened negotiations between Smallwoods and Catholic priests at Clonard on the Falls Road. Although the negotiations came to nothing, they were important in opening up dialogue between the UDA and the Catholic community and Smallwoods continued to work alongside Magee.

Having come from a background in the UDA in the 1970s, Smallwoods was sympathetic to Ulster nationalism and during his chairmanship he placed the notion of an independent Northern Ireland at the heart of party policy.

As UDP chair Smallwoods became a fairly prominent figure as the UDA moved towards a ceasefire. Smallwoods, however, was not to see these developments as he was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Lisburn on the 11 July 1994. [ [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch94.htm A Draft Chronology of the Conflict - 1994] ] Smallwoods was succeeded as leader of the UDP by Gary McMichael, the son of John McMichael.

References

Bibliography

*H. McDonald & J. Cusack, "UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror", Dublin, Penguin Ireland, 2004