No love for his grandson either then I take it? 
1 Like
Heâs giving an absolute Tour De France at the minute
1 Like
The GardaĂ in his locality love him even more.
His thoughts on the hunger strikers sickened me to the core and after that time I could never stand him, quite aside of his cheerleading of the pro abortion movement.
Great man to give a blast of an oul musical
Jim Kemmy
David Irvine could have been what loyalists needed as a politician
Gusty Spence, if youâd call him a politician.
Have you gotten a bang to the head?
Spence was an evil, poisonous Loyalist, committed to the subjugation and extermination if necessary of the Catholic people by any means available.
A Black Orange Bastard.
2 Likes
Between Gusty Spence and salivating at girls less than half his age, today has been a bad day for @farmerinthecity
What do you admire about him?
Lovely turns of phrase there mate. Phrases certain to mend the many divisions in society in Northern Ireland.
Gusty Spence was sent to jail for the sectarian killing of a Catholic in the mid 60s. Shortly after he completely saw the error of his ways and turned away from violence. He brought along many loyalists with him that were also incarcerated. He preached constantly the requirement for the agreement of differences on both sides and the need to live in harmony. He reportedly wrote letters to the families of IRA volunteers who are jailed or killed saying that he admired them as soldiers and that they should be proud.
His speech announcing the loyalist ceasefire of 1994 was one of the most powerful of the Troubles. Like McGuinness or Adams, the degree to which he could actually influence activities on the ground was unknown, but he tried and was really the only loyalist or unionist to do so. Gerry Kelly is on record noting his contribution to the peace process,
1 Like
I donât buy it. He was a head honcho in the UVF, committed to the repression or eradication of Catholics (Kill an IRA man but if you canât find one any Taigs will do).
You donât need me to inform you on their activities. Gusty got old and could smell the way the wind was blowing like most of his contemporaries.
He ground out a few flowery phrases there at the end but by then Gusty had realised the inevitable : Some days youâre the dog, other days youâre the lamppost.
But your entitled to your views, personally I donât believe this Road to Damascus biblical guff, Iâm sticking with the leopards and spots line.
Gusty Spence was ultimately a good egg. He was a product of his environment but saw the error of his ways and tried to make amends like David Erving.
Very interesting video Farmer. It was Gusty Sence who organised the first romper room killings. Romper rooms were rooms around the back of their social clubs (eg. the Lawn Brook Social Club, I think they had another one called the Independent Social Club) and then everyone in the club that night took turns hitting, kicking, stabbing or slicing the victim until eventually they were dead. Sometimes that could take hours. You could have 20 people involved in a murder so then youâd know that nobody could talk and youâd gave grown your organisation. Some of the victims were hung from the ceiling and then hacked away at like the loyalists were carving a statue. All the early victims were innocent nationalists (not paramilitaries), later on they started taking out rival loyalists as well.
Iâm slightly surprised to hear his regret there. I know he wanted to change to a more socialist struggle at one stage. I think that a lot of what drove that culture was that it placed a ridiculously hugh value on machismo (probably fairly similar to the Latin culture that formed the drug gangs of Mexico and Colombia) and they were placing this value on machismo in circumstances where their society was starting to change and the status of the working class male was beginning to become permanently reduced (eg. the closure of the shipyards). Hatred of Catholics was/is viewed as a very macho behaviour.
1 Like
Spence was the first from either side to arrange a meeting of rival leaderships in the maze. His first comment to whoever was RA leader was to point out the backgrounds of all the prisoners under their command whilst Paisley and Dublin looked down from their ivory tower.
He was right
1 Like
Youâre way off with your timelines there. Spence ârepentedâ while he was still a relatively young man. He wasnât like Paisley,
Youâre entitled to your view of course but would you say the same about McGuinness or Adams?
He was spot on.
Basher Bates and Brendan Hughes became best mates afterwards.
Youâve hit on one of the great overlooked issues of the Troubles. Working class pitted against working class, and Unionist politicians in particular happy to accommodate it.
2 Likes
Thatâs another kettle of fish. One a great guy, the other not so much.
Youâre a supporter of the most evil bastard of them all - Dinny Manning.
Basher did some really nasty stuff in the Beano. Out of control so he was.