William Frederick Frazer (8 July 1960 – 28 June 2019) was a Northern Irish Ulster loyalist activist and advocate for those affected by Irish republican violence in Northern Ireland. He was the founder and leader of the pressure group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR). He was also a leader of the Love Ulster campaign and then, the Belfast City Hall flag protests. In the late 1980s during The Troubles, Frazer supplied Ulster Resistance weapons to the Ulster Defence Association. Those weapons were linked to at least 70 paramilitary murders.
His funeral was attended by the leaders of three Unionist political parties: Arlene Foster, Robin Swann and Jim Allister
Background
William Frazer grew up in the village of Whitecross, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, as one of nine children, with his parents Bertie and Margaret. He was an ex-member of the Territorial Army, and a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. He attended a local Catholic school and played Gaelic football up to U14 level. Frazer described his early years as a “truly cross-community lifestyle”. Growing up, he was a fan of the American actor John Wayne and wrestling."Willie Frazer: In many ways, he is his own worst enemy, says Alex Kane" Belfast Telegraph, 14 February 2015 His father, who was a part-time member of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and a council worker, was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 30 August 1975. The family home had previously been attacked with petrol bombs and gunfire which Frazer claimed were IRA men, due to Bertie's UDR membership. Frazer has stated that his family was well respected in the area including by "old-school IRA men" and received Mass cards from Catholic neighbours expressing their sorrow over his father's killing. Frazer believes an IRA member helped carry the coffin at his father's funeral. Over the next ten years four members of Frazer's family who were members or ex-members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary or British Army were killed by the IRA. An uncle of Frazer's who was a member of the UDR was also wounded in a gun attack.
Soon after his father's death, the IRA began targeting Frazer's older brother who was also a UDR member. Like many South Armagh unionists, the family moved north to the village of Markethill. He worked for a local haulage company, then set up his own haulage company, which he later sold.
During the Drumcree conflict, Frazer was a supporter of the Portadown Orange Order who were demanding the right to march down the Garvaghy Road against the wishes of local residents. Frazer was president of his local Apprentice Boys club at the time.
For a brief period after selling his haulage firm Frazer ran "The Spot", a nightclub in Tandragee, County Armagh, which closed down after two Ulster Protestant civilians who had been in the club, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, were stabbed to death in February 2000 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), after one of them had allegedly made derogatory remarks about dead UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Richard Jameson.David McIlwaine and Andrew Robb killer Stephen Brown loses appeal BBC News, 24 November 2011 Frazer was confronted in an interview on BBC Radio Ulster about the murders by the father of one of the victims, Paul McIlwaine. During the Smithwick Tribunal (set up to investigate allegations of collusion in the 1989 Jonesborough ambush) it was alleged by a member of Garda Síochána that Frazer was a part of a loyalist paramilitary group called the Red Hand Commando.Sunday Life, 5 August 2012 I'm No Red Hand, insists Campaigner Frazer denied the allegations, saying they put his life in danger.
Frazer applied for a licence to hold a firearm for his personal protection and was turned down, a chief inspector said, in part because he was known to associate with loyalist paramilitaries.Protection move after court plea BBC News, 27 October 2004
In 2019, the BBC investigative journalism programme Spotlight reported that Frazer distributed assault rifles and rocket launchers from Ulster Resistance to loyalist paramilitary groups who used them in more than 70 murders. A police report on the activities of the former UDA boss Johnny Adair states he was receiving weapons from Ulster Resistance in the early 1990s and his contact in Ulster Resistance was Frazer.
FAIR campaign and related activism FAIR, founded by Frazer in 1998, claims to represent the victims of IRA violence in South Armagh. It has been criticised by some for not doing the same for victims of loyalist paramilitary organisations or for those killed by security forces. In the past, Frazer had said of loyalist paramilitary prisoners that "they should never have been locked up in the first place", and that he had "a lot of time for Billy Wright" a loyalist who rejected the Good Friday Agreement. He had also defended security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, stating in an interview with Susan McKay: "If you were in the UDR and your brother was shot, are you telling me you wouldn't [pass information on to loyalists]? ... See if a Paki comes from India and kills a Provo? I'm going to shake his hand."
In February 2006, Frazer was an organiser of the Love Ulster parade in Dublin that had to be cancelled due to rioting. In January 2007, Frazer protested outside the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin that voted to join policing structures in Northern Ireland.Adams urges SF support for police BBC News, 28 January 2007 He "expressed outrage at the idea that the 'law-abiding population' would negotiate with terrorists to get them to support democracy, law and order."
In January 2007, Frazer dismissed Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's report into security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
In March 2010, he claimed to have served a civil writ on deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, of Sinn Féin, seeking damages arising from the killing of Frazer's father by the Provisional IRA. Both Sinn Féin and the courts denied that any such writ had been served, but in June 2010 Frazer announced that he would seek to progress his claim in the High Court.McGuinness facing civil court action News Letter, 21 June 2010 There has since been no report of any such litigation. Frazer had previously picketed McGuinness's home in Derry in 2007 to demand support for calls for Libya to compensate victims of IRA attacks. Accompanied by two men, Frazer attempted to post a letter to the house but was confronted by local residents and verbally abused. When McGuinness stood for election in the 2011 Irish presidential election Frazer announced that he and FAIR would picket the main Sinn Féin election events. He said, "If the people of the South want a terrorist to represent them around the world as their president then heaven help them." In the event, however, no such pickets took place.
In September 2010, the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) revoked all funding to FAIR (more than £800,000 over three years) due to "major failures in the organisation's ability to adhere to the conditions associated with its funding allocation" uncovered following a "thorough audit" of the tendering and administration procedures used by FAIR. In a statement the SEUPB said: "The SEUPB is charged with ensuring the proper use of public money and as such has no option but to revoke all financial assistance, (amounting to approximately £880,000), that has been offered to the organisation... FAIR has been given every opportunity to respond to and address these issues. The decision to revoke and recover all financial assistance given to the project has not been taken lightly, however, given the seriousness of the issues no other recourse is available."
In November 2011, SEUPB announced that it was seeking the return of funding to FAIR and another Markethill victims' group, Saver/Naver. FAIR was asked to return £350,000 while Saver/Naver was asked to return £200,000. Former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Lord Empey demanded that the conclusions about FAIR's finances be released into the public domain.
In January 2012, Frazer announced a protest march to be held on 25 February through the mainly Catholic south Armagh village of Whitecross, to recall the killing of ten Protestant workmen by the South Armagh Republican Action Force in January 1976 in the Kingsmill massacre. He also named individuals whom he accused of responsibility for the massacre.Kingsmills 'murderers' are named News Letter, 5 January 2010 Frazer later announced that the march had been postponed "at the request of the Kingsmills families". A 2011 report by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) found that members of the Provisional IRA carried out the attack despite the organisation being on ceasefire.
A delegation including Frazer, UUP politician Danny Kennedy and relatives of the Kingsmill families travelled to Dublin in September 2012 to seek an apology from the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. The apology was being sought for what they described as the Irish government's "blatant inaction" over the Kingmills killings."Families of Kingsmills victims seek government apology" BBC News, 13 September 2012; Retrieved 15 September 2012 The Taoiseach said he couldn't apologise for the actions of the IRA but assured the families there was no hierarchy for victims and their concerns were just as important as any other victims' families. The families expressed disappointment although Frazer stated he was pleased to have met the Taoiseach."Kingsmills victims' relatives unhappy with Taoiseach meeting" BBC News, 13 September 2012; Retrieved 15 September 2012
On 16 November 2012 Frazer announced that he was stepping down as director of FAIR, after he had reviewed a copy of the SEUPB audit report which, he claimed, showed no grounds for demanding the reimbursement of funding. He added "I will still be working in the victims sector.""Willie Frazer steps down from victims' group Fair", BBC News, 16 November 2012
Political career In addition to his advocacy for Protestant victims, Frazer contested several elections in County Armagh. He was not elected, and on most occasions lost his deposit. He ran as an Ulster Independence Movement candidate in the 1996 Forum Elections and the 1998 Assembly elections, and as an independent in the 2003 Assembly elections and a council by-election.
Frazer's best electoral showing was 1,427 votes, 25.9%, in a Newry and Mourne District Council by-election in August 2006, when Frazer had the backing of the local UUP and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The total votes polled 5,587 (47.6% of the local electorate); it was a two-candidate race for the Fews Area between Frazer and Sinn Féin candidate Turlough Murphy. The combined unionist vote in 2005 in the area had been 2,446.
In the 2010 UK general election, Frazer contested the Newry and Armagh Parliamentary constituency as an independent candidate. He received 656 votes (1.5%). The seat was retained by Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy who received 18,857 votes.Election of a Member of Parliament for the NEWRY AND ARMAGH Constituency - STATEMENT OF PERSONS NOMINATED and NOTICE OF POLL Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, 21 April 2010
In the 2011 Assembly elections he was listed as a subscriber for the Traditional Unionist Voice candidate for the Newry and Armagh constituency, Barrie Halliday who secured 1.8% of the vote.2011 Election results, BBC News, 11 May 2011 At Newry Crown Court on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, Pastor Barrie Gordon Halliday was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for eighteen months, when he pleaded guilty to seventeen counts of VAT repayment fraud.Election of Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the NEWRY AND ARMAGH Constituency - STATEMENT OF PERSONS NOMINATED and NOTICE OF POLL Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, 5 May 2011