Billy Hull

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Billy Hull (born 1912) was a loyalist activist in Northern Ireland.

Hull worked at the Harland and Wolff engine shop in Belfast, and became the convenor of shop stewards there. He joined the Northern Ireland Labour Party, but resigned in 1969 in protest at the Northern Ireland policy of the British Labour Party. In February 1971, he led a march of 4,000 shipyard workers to demand the introduction of internment. Instead, he founded the Loyalist Association of Workers (LAW), which campaigned against the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. From 1972 - 73, he was a member of the inner council of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association, and also in 1972, he was a prominent founder member of Ulster Vanguard.^[1]

Hull stood for the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party in North Belfast at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1973, but took only 852 votes and was not elected.^[2] He contemplated turning the LAW into a new, working class loyalist party, but this was fiercely opposed by Vanguard leader William Craig. The LAW collapsed, many of its members forming the Ulster Workers Council.^[1] In 1974, Hull was shot and injured in an attack by other Loyalist paramilitaries, possibly the Ulster Volunteer Force.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: The Orange State
2. ^ North Belfast 1973-1982, Northern Ireland Elections
3. ^ A Chronology of the Conflict - 1974, CAIN Web Service