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How Orange RUC man joined and left Sinn Fein[/b] [url]htt
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| Billsticker | Date: Thursday, 2012-07-26, 8:38 PM | Message # 1 |
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| How Orange RUC man joined and left Sinn Fein
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news....4090386
Presseye.com 28th June 2012 Billy Leonard pictured at Belfast's Linnehall Library at the launch of his new book "Towards a United Ireland" Stephen Hamilton - Presseye.com
Published on Wednesday 25 July 2012 08:56
As a Protestant, Billy Leonard was a rare breed within Sinn Fein’s Stormont team. SAM McBRIDE meets the former MLA
AS someone who was born a Presbyterian, joined the Orange Order and the RUC and was a Seventh Day Adventist lay preacher, Billy Leonard was a long way from the typical Sinn Fein MLA. After leaving his Loyal Order, police and church positions he then joined, and left, the SDLP before joining – and last year leaving – Sinn Fein, for which he had been a Coleraine councillor and an East Londonderry MLA.
It’s a baffling CV, when you consider that the IRA killed policemen and Protestants, and when you consider that he also worked as a building society manager, has a politics and philosophy PhD from the University of Ulster and is now a writer. His unusual route through politics has garnered media interest. As a student reporter covering Coleraine Borough Council, I once wrote about how the only councillor to oppose Orange Order funding was the ex-Orangeman Billy Leonard.
We meet in the Linenhall Library in Belfast where he is launching a book setting out the case for a united Ireland, something which he believes Sinn Fein and the SDLP are largely failing to do. Politically, he is now a republican, but religiously he has also shifted dramatically. “I don’t have any religious labels,” the bearded academic says. When asked if he would describe himself as agnostic or an atheist, he replies: “Sort of agnostic.”
When in November 2010 it was announced by Sinn Fein that Dr Leonard would retire from the Assembly in May 2011 to write a book, there were rumours that it was not entirely his own decision. Although at that time he said that he intended to “remain active in the party”, several months later it emerged that he had been suspended by Sinn Fein – for reasons that are unclear – and eventually left the party.
He dismisses the “conspiracy theories” about how he left the party but says: “It’s public knowledge that the dispute I had with a couple of the leadership of Sinn Fein was over the support mechanisms to do the job of an MLA.”
Was that a dispute about money? “Well it’s not about my money, it’s about how the money is spent and are you getting bang for your buck.” Dr Leonard says that he also wanted to focus on the “bigger picture”. That bigger picture for him is the vision of a united Ireland.
Is that closer now than at the time of the Belfast Agreement 14 years ago? He claims that it is “in a state of flux” and that with the economic crisis in the headlines, “a lot of opinion is shaped by the recession”, but that changes away from the main headlines giving Irish republicans hope.
“You’ve got a changing Union, a Scottish question – I’m not putting everything on the Scottish question, but it is a major change – the south will not always be in recession so you’re going to have a southern economy on the move again and you’re going to have a changing Union. “Now what does that mean for the traditional person who would describe themselves as unionist – will the Union vision change amongst northern unionists here?
“It’s very hard to say at a popular level that a united Ireland is closer but I do believe that there are issues coming down the road which will affect the debate and therefore could bring it closer.” He acknowledges that while republicans have to persuade unionists if they are to achieve a united Ireland – and recent polls suggest that even many SDLP and Sinn Fein voters want to retain the border – they also have to reach “apathetic southern opinion”.
He suggests that if the case for removing the border was put to unionists “in a professional and respectful way” and they began to warm to the republican goal, that may “stir the apathy” of mainstream opinion in the Republic which now seems to care little about the border. The 57-year-old’s book, Towards a United Ireland, is borne in part out of a frustration on his part at what he sees as the failure of the SDLP and Sinn Fein to plan for a united Ireland.
“We have parties, individuals and groups who have an aspiration for a united Ireland but no one has seriously put forward the detailed case for a united Ireland.” Why is that debate not happening? “That is one of my worries, actually. Being involved in party politics for 15, close to 16 years, one of the things that I felt down about in a way was that the detailed case was not being put forward.”
Dr Leonard has a chapter in his book entitled ‘The curse of the nearest opponent’, in which he argues that the SDLP and Sinn Fein have become so fixated on defeating each other electorally that they have little time left to push for a united Ireland and the DUP and UUP are more concerned with attacking each other than focussing on the Union.
He argues for a new non-party political lobby group called ‘Vision Ireland’ to make the case for removing the border. When asked what would stop that body from joining the political fray, Dr Leonard insists that he does not want to create a rival republican party to Sinn Fein: “Why would you propose that that body which is free from the competition enter the competition? I think its strength is being apart from the various battles.”
There has been significant focus in recent years on calls – particularly from the DUP and the Orange Order – for ‘unionist unity’. However, Dr Leonard says that he sees no evidence that there will be nationalist unity between the SDLP and Sinn Fein. Asked how Sinn Fein views unionists, he says that there is a spectrum of opinion, from those who are suspicious to those looking for ‘unionist outreach’, which he describes as “an awkward term, I must admit”, but adds that they are “100 per cent committed to that”.
He says that while Sinn Fein’s short-term goal in recent years has been growing their seats and getting into government on both sides of the border, that leads to difficult compromises for a party with a radical constitutional agenda. As someone from a unionist background, does he believe that a united Ireland can ever come about while former IRA commanders run Sinn Fein?
“Within the party system, I do admit that there are even many in the south who would like fewer Gerry Adamses and more Pearse Dohertys,” he says. He admits that the IRA past is “a bit of a barrier to some” but says that the Republic’s main parties had a similar background in the old IRA but are now accepted by unionists, albeit many decades after those involved in violence have died.
When asked how he feels about the IRA murder of former police colleagues, he says that he “wishes there had never been the Troubles” and added that he had “mixed feelings about it”. Did it cause him unease to sit alongside, in the same party, people who targeted members of the organisation of which he was once a member?
He says that someone convicted of murdering a police officer in Lurgan is now a staffer in Sinn Fein, which caused him to have “feelings about the circle of life” but adds that “those things have happened in all conflicts”.
Two of his mother’s relatives were murdered by the IRA in Tullyvallen Orange Hall.
When asked whether people in Sinn Fein regret such sectarian atrocities, he says: “I would guess that there’s a lot of regrets. People do things when they’re 17, 18, 22, 23 and then they maybe survive the Troubles and they become 50-year-olds who’ve got their own children and grandchildren.”
He says that he was disappointed with the Assembly, where there is “a shortage when it comes to quality of debate and quality of actions”. He adds: “I don’t want to be unkind, but many people have said that it is a glorified county council.”
Message edited by Billsticker - Thursday, 2012-07-26, 8:43 PM |
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| Billsticker | Date: Thursday, 2012-07-26, 9:07 PM | Message # 2 |
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| This is a man who at the drop of a hat betrays every one and every thing he claims to hold sacred. Someone who had his family members slaughtered at Tullyvallen then spits on their memory by prostituting himself to the enemy is the lowest of the low.
The fact that Sinn Fein eventually chucked him out serves him right and should tell him somthing "Prods Not Required!!!"
Now all hes out to do is feather his own nest by plugging his book chronicalling his craven betrayals I hope it bombs like his former buddies were so good at planting.
What a trecherous squalid slimy wretch!!
Message edited by Billsticker - Friday, 2012-07-27, 8:55 AM |
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| Billsticker | Date: Friday, 2012-07-27, 9:01 AM | Message # 3 |
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| Theres one thing you wont find in this two faced rats book ravings and that is just how many of his former RUC or Orange brethren are in their graves today because of the information freely gushing to the enemy from his own mouth.
THIS IS A JOB FOR THE Historic Enquiries Team IF EVER THERE WAS ONE AND HE SHOULD BE IN CASTLEREAGH ASAP!
Message edited by Billsticker - Friday, 2012-07-27, 9:10 AM |
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| Culzie | Date: Sunday, 2012-07-29, 8:27 PM | Message # 4 |
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| Can't say I disagree with anything you have said. He makes Lundy in comparision look like a defender of Londonderry.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| Culzie | Date: Monday, 2012-07-30, 5:50 PM | Message # 5 |
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| Another piece about this slime ball. He says the ira is running sinn fein,as if we didn't know that. 
IRA still have a big say in Sinn Fein, says ex-MLA and RUC man
By Liam Clarke
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Billy Leonard — one of the few former Protestants and unionists to become a Sinn Fein elected representative — has spoken for the first time about his reasons for leaving the republican party.
Talking in advance of the launch of a new book, Dr Leonard has spoken of his time within Sinn Fein ranks, saying he believes that “the tentacles of the army”, the IRA, extended throughout it.
He also claims that released republican prisoners still dominated the party’s structures when he left last year.
“While you had so called democratic structures, there always seemed to be other meetings and the majority of them had people in key positions who were ex-army,” he said.
Dr Leonard, who joined the SDLP while studying political science at the University of Ulster, is preparing to launch his new book, Towards a United Ireland.
It recounts an unusual transition from fundamentalist lay preacher, Orangeman and part-time RUC officer to Sinn Fein politician.
Dr Leonard says a disagreement over “support arrangements” led to his suspension from Sinn Fein and his decision to leave the party last year.
The term “support arrangements” refers to Sinn Fein’s policy of requiring MLAs and full-time public representatives to surrender their wages and expenses into a central pot from which they are paid an allowance.
“If you are going to put effort into a job, you have got to have the working support mechanisms to do the job as an MLA and I didn’t feel I had them,” Dr Leonard said.
This reflects criticisms by Sandra McLellan, a Sinn Fein TD, who said that she paid in €92,000 (£74,000) and only got €34,000 (£27,000).
This has sparked an inquiry from the Republic’s Standards in Public Office Committee because expenses were allegedly not put to the intended purpose and the party had not allegedly declared the full extent of the donations.
He says that in his time, last year, Sinn Fein’s “evolution from the paramilitary structures of the Troubles to a democratic party” was still under way.
He describes “deep ambivalence and cynical laughter among many” republicans after the IRA denied the December 2004 Northern Bank robbery which netted £26m.
Dr Leonard left the SDLP because he didn’t believe the party put enough emphasis on Irish unity. He now wants to launch an organisation to promote a united Ireland called ‘Vision Ireland’.
Profile
Billy Leonard (57) has worn many hats in his time. He was an Orangeman, a Seventh Day Adventist lay preacher, an RUC reservist and then an SDLP councillor before joining Sinn Fein.
He served as an Coleraine SDLP councillor from 2001 and says he was due to take up office as chairman when he switched allegiance to Sinn Fein three years later.
The party co-opted him as an MLA in January 2010, but suspended him from membership in March last year.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news....7on3469
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Thursday, 2012-08-02, 11:09 PM | Message # 6 |
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| You really couldn't make this story up, a very confused man however what's worse is he will earn tens of thousands from his book, as it's a story that everyone will want to read about.
What really is scary, is just how many others within our community could turn out like Mr Leonard, with so many of our kids now playing GAA, and so many Protestants going to Sinn Fein over housing and health issues, over time more and more traitors will arise from within our community, although I don't think you can just change over time. I believe Leonard has been working as the fifth column within our community for the enemy over many years.
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| Slappataig | Date: Sunday, 2012-08-26, 3:18 PM | Message # 7 |
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| wonder how many more are just like him
that made me sick and billsticker the HET only care about the atrocities the MOPES suffered, not the other way around 
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| RSAUB | Date: Sunday, 2012-08-26, 8:51 PM | Message # 8 |
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| In all honesty, when you look at Ballymena parading issues, same in Coleraine etc, those mainly involved in causing a lot off the bother and attacking Protestant houses are by and large the products of mixed relationships. In the under-30s age range outside of some very hard line areas, the amount of mixed relationships is staggering, In my circle of friends or people I know, it's almost a 50-50 split between the numbers of our own who are going with a fellow Protestant or with a Roman Catholic, so over time with the decline in Protestantism, and many parents deciding on RC schools for the simple reason of better educational results, the future for our community are very scarey indeed. I know from experience, the amount of Roman Catholics with such surnames as:Thompson, Crozier, Beattie,Williamson etc is staggering in certain republican areas, obviously the products of mixed relationships.
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| Culzie | Date: Monday, 2012-08-27, 8:06 PM | Message # 9 |
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| Your so right. Given time the products of those mixed relationships will be felt even more so. The recent poll in the BT which mentioned that only 7% were for a united ireland also said in its Editorial that in the under thirty age group Protestants were in the minority.
According to the book 'The Politics of Antagonism' which was published in the 1980s we were in the same situation then (1980s) as Carson and Craig was when they gave up the three counties because the Protestant numbers wern't big enough to hold a nine county Ulster for any length of time.
To sum it up we wil be beholding to the Catholic vote to keep us in the UK,and maybe some of the foreigners who are coming in.
But the indifference of many Protestants to all of this is one thing I can't understand. Seems if they get to parade that is their main concern
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Tuesday, 2012-08-28, 0:48 AM | Message # 10 |
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| Yeah, that's what get's me, very few are prepared to sit up and accept the reality of what's really going on in this Country, but then as long as they can shout "we are the people", a few times a year then nothing else happens.
In the long run Northern Ireland can remain politically British due to foreign and Roman Catholic votes, and that's not a bad thing, every vote counts! but the bottom line it's the people who make the Nation, demographics is destiny, so if we want to preserve and maintain and keep our culture moving forward instead of into the bad pages of the history books then we need to keep the territory for our people to live and stay together.
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| Culzie | Date: Tuesday, 2012-08-28, 3:17 PM | Message # 11 |
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| Thats the way it should be and hopefully will be. It was always going to be a dilemma we would have to face, seeing as we wern't interested in maintaining our majority. Think the majority of Prods are more interested in self-interest than the overall interest of the future of their country.
But whatever way it works out we are going to be relying on a Catholic and foreign vote. Of course the trend could change as it did a couple of times before but I can't see it happening this time round. There was always Belfast but it seems to be losing out too.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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