Billy Giles
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Billy Giles (July 1957-25 September 1998) was a convicted Northern Irish murderer who later became active in politics.
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[edit] Family Life
Billy was born William Alexander Ellis Giles in 1957, and grew up in Island Street, in the staunchly Protestant East Belfast,Northern Ireland. His father Sam, worked as a plater in the nearby Harland and Wolff shipyard, and his mother, Lily was a housewife. Billy was the eldest of six children. The Giles' were very religious, the Protestant church was the centre of their lives. He often attended the rallies of Ian Paisley, and was strongly influenced by his sermons. His father, a former soldier in the British Army, was a member of the Orange Order, The Royal Black Preceptory, and The Apprentice Boys of Derry.[1]
[edit] The Troubles
He witnessed first-hand the events of Bloody Friday on 21 July 1972 when the IRA exploded twenty-six bombs across Belfast, killing nine people, and injuring 103. In 1975 ,he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF); he had just turned eighteen years old.[2]
[edit] Murder
On 19 November 1982 Billy Giles abducted an innocent Catholic married man, Michael Fay, and then shot him in the head, killing him. He was his friend and workmate. The murder was in retaliation for the fatal shooting of Karen McKeown, a young Protestant Sunday school teacher by the Irish National Liberation Army two months previously.After Billy's arrest and trial, he was sentenced to life in The Maze Prison[3]
[edit] Life In The Maze
Billy spent his time in prison studying. He took several GCSE's, and he eventually obtained an Open University Degree in Social Sciences. He also wrote a play about his childhood in Island Street called "Boy Girl. It was later performed before a Belfast audience; his parents were present at the performance. It took Billy seven years before he adjusted to life inside The Maze. He gave many interviews to British journalist,Peter Taylor,to whom he confessed his deep remorse at the killing of Michael Fay.[4]
[edit] Progressive Unionist Party
He was released on 4 July 1997 after serving fourteen years of his life sentence. He immediately commenced work with the Progressive Unionist Party also known as PUP, and concentrated on helping released Loyalist prisoners to resettle into the community. At the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998 at Stormont, Billy was part of PUP's negotiating team. He felt optimistic about the future of Northern Ireland and his own.[5]
[edit] Death
Despite his degree, he was unable to obtain a proper job that paid a decent salary. On the night of 24-25 September after composing a four-page letter of explanation, Billy Giles hanged himself in his living room. He was forty-one years old. One of his last lines in his letter read, "Please let the next generation live normal lives". This line was quoted during a speech given by Colm Cavanagh, Vice-President of The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland on 3 March 2006 to The Department of Education.
