Alexander Robinson

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Buck Alec in his later years.

Alexander Robinson (born c. 1902 in Belfast, Ireland, died 1995) was a boxer and Ulster Special Constabulary reservist. Robinson was better known by his nickname Buck Alec, and has gained notoriety in Northern Ireland for his other activities, including streetfighting,^[1] robbery and most famously for owning a pet lion. Despite his criminal activities, he is often fondly remembered in Belfast alongside his contemporaries James "Stormy" Wetherall and Patrick "Silver" McKee.^[2]

Born on York Street in the Sailortown area of Belfast, Robinson's early life in the docks was indicative of his future problems with the law. In 1913 at the age of twelve, he was arrested on a charge of larceny. In 1916 he was arrested three more times for the same offence. He was discharged on three out of four of these first offences, and received probation for the other.^[2] He then served in the British Merchant Navy towards the end of World War I. On his return to Belfast his criminal career expanded, being charged with assault, riotous behaviour and robbery by 1921. It was at this point that he first came to be known by his nickname.^[3]

In October 1920 the British Government formed the Ulster Special Constabulary after calls from Unionists for a force to protect Ulster. This was to reinforce the Royal Irish Constabulary who, along with the Black and Tans, were fighting the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence. The USC were deployed on 1 November 1920, and consisted mainly of former Ulster Volunteers and other soldiers who had served in World War I. Despite Robinson's criminal record and reputation, or possibly because of it, he was recruited to the USC's C1 section, which was made up of unpaid, non-uniformed reservists usually only called up in emergencies. Much of Robinson's life is told in rumour, but Joe Graham of Rushlight Magazine states that he was given the option of prison or joining up after assaulting a member of the wealthy Thompson family on the Glencairn Road, with Thompson's own hammer.^[2] During this time Robinson claimed to have been Dawson Bates' bodyguard, who was Minister for Home Affairs in Sir James Craig's government. He won his first significant amateur boxing bout in 1922 representing the USC and would later go on to win the Irish middleweight championship in 1927.

With the end of the Anglo-Irish war and partition in 1922, Robinson left the USC and again fell foul of the authorities. In this period his loyalist activities became more well known, probably following on from the sectarian attacks the USC were sometimes involved in. After being implicated in several shootings and bombings he was interned in October 1922.^[3] Several documents on his detention exist, including a letter from the RUC Commissioner recommending his internment:

"The respectable and law-abiding Protestants and Unionists residing in the area want to have these men taken from the locality at any cost, as they truly state there can be no peace so long as they are at large."

Another police report states:

"No matter what part of the City there is fighting in, he goes there to give a hand. He does not know what fear is, and would go any place to shoot and kill with either rifle, revolver or bomb."

The documents also contain other incidents Robinson was implicated in, including several shootings and a bombing. Robinson was released in 1923 and agreed to relocate to Bolton. However he soon returned and was reinterned, and released again in late 1923. His second release may have been secured through the promise that he would move to Chicago where he had relatives. It is not definitively known whether he went to America, but stories exist of him working as a hitman for Al Capone. In an interview with Martin Lynch in the 1980s, Robinson claimed he did work for Capone. Other stories from his alleged time in America place him working as a bootlegger for Joe Kennedy.^[3]

Robinson was back in Belfast by 1927, and his criminal convictions continued through to World War II. Around this time he acquired two lions, possibly from a visiting circus who Robinson allowed to use waste ground he owned at the rear of his house on Back Ship Street. He kept the toothless lions at his home and was often seen walking them on the streets of Belfast. He continued to be known as a streetfighter into his fifties. Belfast newspapers regularly covered his fights in the city, the last known being in 1959. In court Robinson claimed he had knocked a man unconscious as he disagreed with the language he was using.

Buck Alec continued to live in north Belfast until his death in 1995. Gusty Spence and Ian Paisley attended his funeral, the latter carrying the coffin and describing Robinson as "a rare character, a typical Ulsterman, an interesting facet of Ulster's history". A report in the Irish News focused on his paramilitary past, and other reports stated that "his heart was in the right place" and that Catholics attended his funeral alongside Protestants.

In his book Formations of Violence, Allen Feldman argues that Robinson was seen as a "hard man" who believed in a fair fight, rather than a common thug.^[4] Despite his brutality and possible involvement in several murders, he is often viewed with nostalgia in a similar way as Ned Kelly. While there are other well-known characters with similar reputations such as Wetherall, McKee, Bucksy Drummond and Nailer Clarke, Robinson remains the most remembered.