Robert Bradford (Northern Irish politician)

Robert Bradford
Member of Parliament
for Belfast South
In office
28 February 1974 – 14 November 1981
Preceded by Rafton Pounder
Succeeded by Martin Smyth
Personal details
Born Robert Jonathan Bradford
(1941-06-08)8 June 1941
Limavady, Northern Ireland
Died 14 November 1981(1981-11-14) (aged 40)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality British
Political party Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
Spouse(s) Norah Bradford
Children Claire Bradford
Profession Clergyman

Reverend Robert Jonathan Bradford (8 June 1941 – 14 November 1981) was a Methodist Minister and a Vanguard Unionist and Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for the Belfast South constituency in Northern Ireland until his assassination by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 14 November 1981.

Footballer

Bradford was born on 8 June 1941 to a Belfast family resident in Limavady, County Londonderry, due to the wartime evacuation. Bradford's father left the family not long after his birth and his mother died so he was raised by foster parents. A talented footballer, Bradford signed for Glenavon F.C. as a teenager and his displays soon attracted the attentions of the English side Sheffield Wednesday F.C, who invited him to a trial. However, Bradford was not signed by the club and returned to Northern Ireland to resume his career with the then Belfast-based club Distillery.

Religion

Bradford gave up football in 1964, after deciding to train to become a Methodist minister. After spending the rest of the 1960s attached to congregations in East Belfast and Fivemiletown, Bradford was fully ordained in 1970 and given his own parish in the Suffolk area of southwest Belfast. Bradford would later be removed from his post in the late 1970s and would spend the final years of his life without a church. During these years he came to spend time in the 'Bible belt' of the United States and became associated with Evangelicalism. Nevertheless, Bradford claimed to always remain at heart a Methodist and also rejected suggestions that he was to join Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church (which he never did).

Political career

Bradford first became involved with unionism in 1971 when he joined the Orange Order. From here he became more involved in the political side of the movement and stood as a candidate for the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party in the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election in South Antrim, although he was not elected. Bradford was first elected as Member of Parliament for South Belfast in the February 1974 British general election, this time under the banner of the United Ulster Unionist Council (an alliance between the Vanguard, the Democratic Unionist Party and the anti-Brian Faulkner section of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) under Harry West), defeating the sitting MP Rafton Pounder, a pro-Faulkner Ulster Unionist. His campaign had been openly supported by the far-right National Front, and at a National Front rally September 1974, Martin Webster read out a letter of solidarity from Bradford.[1]

Bradford greatly increased his majority in the October election, after Pounder dropped out, and largely maintained this increased majority in 1979. Between 1974 and 1978 he sat for the Vanguard Party until in February 1978 he joined the UUP (then often called the Official Unionist Party), along with Vanguard leader William Craig and most of the membership. He was re-elected in 1979 for the UUP.

He was described as a religious and political hardliner, identifying with British Israelism. In one of his speeches he said the causes of the problems in Northern Ireland were down to the Roman Catholic Church, Marxism, and ecumenical confusion.[2]

Death

A mural dedicated to Bradford, Oak Street off Belfast's Donegall Pass

Bradford was shot dead by the IRA on 14 November 1981 in a community centre in Finaghy, Belfast, while hosting a political surgery. Kenneth Campbell, the 29-year-old Protestant caretaker in the centre, was also murdered in the attack.

Secretary of State Jim Prior was verbally abused and jostled by a group of angry loyalists outside the church at his funeral and hissed at by members of the congregation. Ian Paisley also protested against his attendance.[3]

Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald made an expression of sympathy in Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament of the Republic of Ireland) stating:[4]

The IRA described him as "one of the key people responsible for winding up the loyalist paramilitary sectarian machine". A number of Catholics were killed by loyalists in retaliation.[3]

His seat was won by Martin Smyth, also of the UUP, in a by-election in 1982. A book about Bradford's life, A sword bathed in heaven: The life, faith, and cruel death of the Rev. Robert Bradford B. Th. M.P. (1984), was written by his widow, Norah. It dealt largely with his path to Methodism, although also examined his political career and assassination.

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Nigel Fielding, The National Front, p. 182, Taylor & Francis, 1981; ISBN 0-7100-0559-8
  2. ↑ Lost Lives David McKittrick et al pg.887 ISBN 978-1-84018-504-1
  3. 1 2 Lost Lives David McKittrick et al pg.886 ISBN 978-1-84018-504-1
  4. ↑ Dáil Éireann Parliamentary Debates - Volume 330 - 17 November 1981
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Rafton Pounder		 Member of Parliament for Belfast South
1974–1981 		Succeeded by
Martin Smyth
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