Clifford Smyth

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Clifford Smyth is a historian and former politician in Northern Ireland.

Smyth stood for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in North Antrim in the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1973, narrowly missing out on a seat. Following the death of David McCarthy, an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MPA, he easily won a by-election for a seat on the Assembly. He also became the secretary of the United Ulster Unionist Council.

Smyth was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention, again in North Antrim, in 1975.[1] However, he left the DUP in the late 1970s, instead joining the UUP. He stood unsuccessfully as the UUP candidate for the Westminster seat of North Down at the 1979 general election.[2]

From the 1980s onwards, Smyth turned increasingly to history and the Orange Order. He wrote a critical biography of Ian Paisley, Ian Paisley: Voice of Protestant Ulster.

During the 1990s, Smyth resigned from the Orange Order. In 2005, he revealed that he had transvestite compulsions.[3]