William Frazer / Alan McBride / Fair

So in recent days I have discussed this with various people and so I thought I’d post my thoughts. I have heard William Frazer talk before and decided to check out his website for the group FAIR, or Families acting for Innocent Relatives. I wasn’t shocked at what I saw which is unfortunate.

William Frazer’s father was a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, the replacement of the B Specials. They were eventually amalgamated with the RIR. His father died when he was shot by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the PIRA, on the 30^th of August 1975. Over the next ten years four members of William Frazer’s family were shot by the IRA. William Frazer after applying for a firearm was rejected, as he was “known to associate with Loyalist Paramilitaries”.

Having lost family in the war in Ireland, it is understandable that William Frazer is obviously very against the IRA. It is obvious that he would be anti Republican and a little bitter. However William Frazer is a sectarian, bigoted and racist man. He clearly is hateful of all things Catholic, Republican and Irish. William Frazer has said that Loyalist paramilitaries were necessary during the Troubles and defends and congratulates the RUC and the British army for colluding with Loyalist murder gangs. After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement William Frazer stated that the IRA prisoners should not be released and that the Loyalist prisoners should not have been locked up in the first place.

Now at this stage I wish to discuss FAIR. This is William Frazer’s campaign set up to represent victims of the IRA in South Armagh during the Troubles. However he does not provide representation for those who were slaughtered at the hands of the Loyalist gangs, the RUC and the British Army. The website reflects the extent of hatred that William Frazer is engulfed in.

The very top of the page has the very blatant image hyperlink that is titled “Attacks by Catholic Extremists”. This image takes you to a list of articles, with titles such as “…Armed Catholic Extremists on the street” and “Catholic Extremist Orange Hall attack” etc. There is even an article entitled the “Role and Responsibility of the Roman Catholic Community”, placing responsibility for those that died on the hands of any Catholic in the occupied counties.

Also on this site is a section entitled “The Hunger Strikers, The Truth”. Now the first thing that strikes me here is the complete irrelevance of this section on the site. This is merely a section of his site to paint those who died on hunger strike of being “Criminals, Murderers and thugs”.

As I said one can understand William Frazer’s bitterness towards the IRA but his blatant hatred of the Catholic and Irish communities is just so intense that I believe it clouds his ability to fairly represent anyone. The website FAIR blatantly harbours the kind of Sectarian hatred that has been tearing our society apart for years. I believe that it is ridiculous to consider his campaign when it comes to victim support. Not that it should be ignored, but taken lightly.

I am forced to compare his attitude with the commendable attitude of Alan McBride. Here is a man, whose wife, Sharon, lost her life in a Shankill Road fish shop when an IRA bomb exploded killing nine other people, including her father in 1993. This man, as to be expected, has no love for the IRA, but he is not a bigoted man. He has not be left with the same sectarian, racist and bigoted mindset as William Frazer.

Evidence of this can be found, in recent statement by Alan McBride, where he recognises Britain’s role in prolonging the violence; and calls for all governments, including the british, to compensate victims of their terror.

“Questions have to be asked about who was arming the loyalists,” he said. “Other nations, including the British state, were involved in supporting acts of terror and I think that they too should be held to account. I think that if nations were involved in supporting acts of terror, it’s only right that they should compensate the victims of that terror. I wouldn’t want this want this to be piecemeal, I want this to be right across the board, victims of violence on all sides should be compensated”.

This is a strong comparison to the bigoted mindset of William Frazer who never got over the awful events in his life, and let them turn in to anger, which of course leads only to hate. He is clearly so overcome with hatred that he has recently made calls so ridiculous that they could only delve Ireland back into serious day of dark violence.

On the FAIR Youtube page, in recent videos he calls for redeployment of the Army or SAS into South Armagh? It is hard to believe that a man who claims to support the victims of South Armagh is actually calling for the Army to return to its streets, inevitably causing more bloodshed.

I commend people such as Alan McBride, who though suffered terrible loss during the on going Irish Struggle and the War, are able to stand up and recognise the similarities between two communities and the importance of letting them come together, as opposed to William Frazer who is constantly trying to create divisions.

God Bless
Peace