Ulster Independence Movement
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The Ulster Independence Movement was an Ulster nationalist political party founded (as the Ulster Independence Committee) in 1988, having emerged from the Ulster Clubs, after a series of 15 public meetings across Northern Ireland. Led by Hugh Ross, a Presbyterian minister from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, the UIC sought to end what it saw as the tyranny of rule from London and Dublin and instead set up an independent Northern Ireland.
The UIC initially had a network of 11 branches and first entered the political arena in 1990 when Ross stood in a by-election for the Upper Bann constituency following the death of sitting MP Harold McCusker. Finishing as fourth out of eleven candidates with 1534 votes (4.3%) (and ahead of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland candidate amongst others), the result indicated to the UIC that the potential for an Ulster nationalist party to gain some success was present.
The Committee reconstituted itself in 1994 a full political party (largely as a reaction to the Downing Street Declaration), changing its name to the UIM and putting forward Rev. Ross as a candidate in the 1994 elections to the European Parliament (one of three pro-independence candidates to stand). Ross proved the most successful of the three, gaining 7,858 first preference votes (a 1.4% share) and retained his deposit. In the aftermath of this election a general meeting of pro-independence groups and individuals was organised by Rev Ross after overtures were sent out to David Kerr, Mooney and the Ballymena-based Ulster Party. Mooney did not turn up but Kerr and Agnes McLeister of the Ulster Party agreed to pool resources and join forces with Ross's movement.
Buoyed by the relative success of the previous election and the influx of new affiliates the UIM put up 40 candidates in 18 seats (including Willie Frazer) in the Northern Ireland Forum elections of 1996, although here the vote dropped as loyalist communities were now represented by the Ulster Democratic Party and Progressive Unionist Party. The UIM polled 2125 votes (0.3%) across Northern Ireland and no representation was secured.
Party activity continued after the signing of the Belfast Agreement, with the UIM playing a role in the unsuccessful 'No' campaign against it. The party fielded two candidates in the Northern Ireland Assembly of 1998 but failed to win either seat. Seeing their chances becoming increasingly diminished the UIM formally abandoned their role as a political party in January 2000 and instead reconstituted as a 'ginger group'. This came in the wake of a Channel 4 programme, "The Committee", since discredited, which alleged links between the UIM and loyalist killings, allegations that damaged their credibility and saw a number of members leave the group.
The UIM is all but dead now, even as a think tank, although some of its former members have continued as members of the Ulster Third Way.
