Kenny McClinton
Encyclopedia
Kenneth McClinton is a Northern Irish
pastor and sometime political activist. During his early years McClinton was an active member of the Ulster Defence Association
(UDA). He was a close friend of Loyalist Volunteer Force
(LVF) leader Billy Wright
and was the main orator at his funeral following his killing by the Irish National Liberation Army
(INLA) in December 1997.
. His father, a coalman, was an alcoholic and frequently spent time in prison. His parents' marriage broke up whilst he was a child and as a result of the ensuing poverty his mother moved around a lot with the children whilst McClinton himself spent three years in a borstal
.
He left school in 1962 and briefly worked as a labourer before enlisting for a spell in the Merchant Navy. McClinton was regularly involved in violence during his time away at sea and left the Merchant Navy with 200 stitches in his body from the knife fights in which he had participated. Following his return to Belfast McClinton found himself involved in further street-fighting and heavy drinking until in 1972 he enlisted with the Ulster Defence Regiment
. McClinton however lasted only the six months basic training in the UDR, feeling that the regiment was too restricted in what it was allowed to do. In particular he complained that he had to fill in sixteen reports if he shot at rioters.
would later uncover a confession given to police by McClinton for a number of other crimes in 1977 which police had agreed to strike clean.
McClinton was ultimately to be charged for two later murders. In March 1977 McClinton murdered Catholic civilian Daniel Carville. The attack took place as Carville was driving his son down Cambrai Street, which links the Shankill and Crumlin roads
, on St Patrick's Day.
During the failed 1977 second strike by the Ulster Workers' Council McClinton boarded a bus on which he shot dead Harry Bradshaw, the driver of the bus and a Protestant. Following the killing the UDA wrote to his widow Sheila Bradshaw stating that they were sorry for the murder and that they believed her husband to be a Catholic. A ten pound note was included with the letter. However according to Martin Dillon
the attack was ordered by James Craig
who knew that any Citybus driver on the Crumlin Road where the attack took place would be a Protestant. Craig wanted to send out a message to other Protestant bus drivers that their failure to support the stike as they had done in 1974
was not going unnoticed.
Following this killing he went to work on a plan to send hollowed-out books containing bombs through the post to Catholic targets. As McClinton would admit in later life at this time he wished to behead Catholics and place the severed heads on the railings of the Shankill's Woodvale Park and told the UDA leadership that he was prepared to do so in order to provide a rival to the Ulster Volunteer Force's Shankill Butchers
. Craig however began to fear that McClinton, whose own alcohol abuse as well as his extreme suggestions about murder, was becoming too much of a loose cannon and so he contacted members of the police he knew in order to give McClinton up to them.
Initially held in Crumlin Road Gaol
McClinton's successive violent outbursts saw him transferred to the Maze prison where he went 'on the blanket
' in protest at having to wear a prison uniform. He retained his reputation for violence in the Maze although he also took to writing poetry, which generally dealt with the theme of anger at his and other loyalists incarceration when he felt they were simply supporting British rule through their actions.
McClinton had an appeal heard before a Diplock court
chaired by Lord Justice Turlough O'Donnell in February 1979. He argued that his confession had been extracted under duress but judge found no evidence to overturn the conviction and , describing McClinton as a "cold-blooded assassin", gave him a life sentence with a minimum of twenty years advised.
as well as a correspondence course in theology
from the Emmaus Bible School in Liverpool
.
During his time in prison McClinton started his own Christian Fellowship and converted 24 inmates to Christianity, including Robert "Basher" Bates
of the Shankill Butchers
. However eight of the converts would later drift from Christianity. According to McClinton he and Bates even performed baptisms in a tub in prison.
McClinton's conversion saw him chosen by prison staff to begin an attempt at integration of prisoners and in 1982 he was sent to work in a workshop on the republican wing of the prison. The experiment was abandoned on 24 March 1983 when McClinton, who had been ostracised by the republican prisoners, was attacked and badly beaten.
-based Christian ministry founded by Charles Colson
. It has been noted that even at this stage McClinton was preaching a particularly hard-line form of fundamentalist Protestantism
.
Nonetheless following his release the "saved
" McClinton became a regular on Northern Irish television discussing his conversion. He soon became a widely reported figure in the media and used his comparative fame to establish "Higher Force Challenge", a youth scheme that sought to initiate dialogue between young people from the two communities. He initially returned to the Shankill where he worked for the Stadium youth project.
Taking advantage of his contacts in the United States
, McClinton also established his own Ulster American Christian foundation which provided funding for his own ministry. However it has been claimed by Henry McDonald
and Jim Cusack that McClinton's American contacts were largely made up of fringe white supremacist churches active in the American south. Martin Dillon
has also claimed that McClinton facilitated meetings between representatives of these groups and Mid-Ulster UVF
leader Billy Wright
; he went on to claim that a strong strain of anti-communism
that ran through the thinking of both McClinton and Wright had come from contact with these far right
American groups.
McClinton holds three postgraduate degrees, a Masters in Theology (gained in 2002), a PhD in Philosophy, which he was awarded in 2003, and a further doctorate in Literature which he was awarded in 2004, all from the Birmingham
-based European Theological Seminary and College of the Bible International
. The Seminary however is not officially recognised as having degree-awarding status and has been portrayed as a diploma mill
.
and it was here that he returned to activism. McClinton's Shankill home had been attacked by UVF members and he sought to resettle outside Belfast, with Billy Wright inviting him to Portadown. According to Wright's sister Angela the Portadown loyalist leader had met McClinton in prison and their friendship had been cemented by Wright's fixation with the Shankill, an area he recognised as the bulwark of loyalism. This was sparked by the Drumcree conflict
which erupted in 1995 and which he sought to portray as a threat to Protestantism in Northern Ireland from Catholics. McClinton became a regular face at the Drumcree stand-off and frequently in the company of the Orange Order leaders on site. He also wrote poetry in praise of Billy Wright for the role he played in the Drumcree conflict.
As well as his conversion to Christianity McClinton also became an advocate of Ulster nationalism
, endorsing the establishment of a Calvinist state. McClinton joined the Ulster Independence Movement
and began to produce pamphlets for them in which he called for Northern Irish Protestants to be allowed to bear arms and use them against "Fenian rebels". He further argued that Catholics who did not honour the Union Flag
and other traditional Protestant and loyalist symbols should be denied citizenship of Northern Ireland. He was a candidate for the UIM in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum
in West Belfast
and in Upper Bann
for the 1998 Assembly election
. Like the rest of the UIM McClinton was a strong opponent of the Good Friday Agreement was involved in the "no" campaign.
McClinton became a close associate of Clifford Peoples, a Shankill-based former Ulster Volunteer Force
member who was a leading figure in Families Against Intimidation and Terror
. According to McDonald and Cusack McClinton and Peoples were close to a British intelligence agent known as "the Pastor". The three men were involved in a propaganda campaign against the Progressive Unionist Party
and Ulster Democratic Party
aimed at destabilising the Northern Ireland peace process
. They further claimed that the three helped to convince Billy Wright to split from the UVF and establish the Loyalist Volunteer Force
by convincing the Mid-Ulster leader that they intended to establish an evangelical "army of God". Wright's hand was ultimately forced in this matter when the UVF Brigade Staff expelled him from the movement. McClinton's public attacks on the pro-peace process loyalist parties included his taunt that UDP stood for "Ulster Drugs Party" as part an allegation that UDP members were leading figures in the illegal drugs trade.
(INLA) in December 1997. As a result he served as a spokesman and mediator for LVF prisoners.
McClinton served as the liaison between the LVF and John de Chastelain
's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
. Following the LVF ceasefire David Trimble
, who hoped to achieve LVF decommissioning, called on Sean O'Callaghan
who in turn knew a prison guard who had been close to McClinton during his time in jail. Through this channel it was revealed that the LVF would decommision guns in return for recognition of their ceasefire and a promise of early prisoner releases. The ceasefire was recognised officially by Mo Mowlam
on 12 November 1998 and 25 prisoners were made eligible for early release. As a result of the initiative on 18 December 1998 9 guns, 350 bullets, two pipe bombs and six detonators were given to de Chastelaine. Criticism followed however as many of the devices were crudely home-made or very old, including a Steyr-Daimler-Puch
weapon that had belonged to the original Ulster Volunteers. McClinton invited select journalists to watch the destruction of some LVF weapons.
Although there was no indication of any direct link McClinton's name appeared on a list of people issued by Johnny Adair
's C Company of the UDA as part of an attempt to initiate a loyalist feud
with the UVF. McClinton was listed along with Peoples, Jackie Mahood and the already murdered Frankie Curry
as examples of dissident loyalists that C Company accused the UVF of trying to kill.
In 2005 McClinton was warned by police that his name was on a UVF hit list after the organisation killed four men with LVF connections. Commenting on the alleged death threat McClinton told the Sunday Life newspaper "if I am killed by the UVF, then it is only an opportunity to meet the Lord, and I will accept that opportunity".
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
pastor and sometime political activist. During his early years McClinton was an active member of the Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
(UDA). He was a close friend of Loyalist Volunteer Force
Loyalist Volunteer Force
The Loyalist Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and the Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force's Mid-Ulster Brigade was stood down by the UVF leadership. He had been the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. The...
(LVF) leader Billy Wright
Billy Wright (loyalist)
William Stephen "Billy" Wright was a prominent Ulster loyalist during the period of violent religious/political conflict known as "The Troubles". He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1975 and became commander of its Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s...
and was the main orator at his funeral following his killing by the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
(INLA) in December 1997.
Early years
McClinton was born in the Shankill Road area of Belfast and raised initially in a Nissen hutNissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, a variant of which was used extensively during World War II.-Description:...
. His father, a coalman, was an alcoholic and frequently spent time in prison. His parents' marriage broke up whilst he was a child and as a result of the ensuing poverty his mother moved around a lot with the children whilst McClinton himself spent three years in a borstal
Borstal
A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court...
.
He left school in 1962 and briefly worked as a labourer before enlisting for a spell in the Merchant Navy. McClinton was regularly involved in violence during his time away at sea and left the Merchant Navy with 200 stitches in his body from the knife fights in which he had participated. Following his return to Belfast McClinton found himself involved in further street-fighting and heavy drinking until in 1972 he enlisted with the Ulster Defence Regiment
Ulster Defence Regiment
The Ulster Defence Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army which became operational in 1970, formed on similar lines to other British reserve forces but with the operational role of defence of life or property in Northern Ireland against armed attack or sabotage...
. McClinton however lasted only the six months basic training in the UDR, feeling that the regiment was too restricted in what it was allowed to do. In particular he complained that he had to fill in sixteen reports if he shot at rioters.
UDA
McClinton joined the UDA after leaving the UDR and, with his military background, was soon added to the ranks of their Ulster Freedom Fighters elite squad. He became commander of several UFF active service units and through these was involved in a series of what he later admitted were particularly brutal attacks. McClinton however has refused to reveal any details of these events, despite admitting his involvement in this type of activity, as he has never been charged for them. Martin DillonMartin Dillon
Martin Dillon is an author and journalist from Northern Ireland. He worked for eighteen years at the BBC and has written a number of plays and novels, but he is best known for his non-fiction books about the Troubles....
would later uncover a confession given to police by McClinton for a number of other crimes in 1977 which police had agreed to strike clean.
McClinton was ultimately to be charged for two later murders. In March 1977 McClinton murdered Catholic civilian Daniel Carville. The attack took place as Carville was driving his son down Cambrai Street, which links the Shankill and Crumlin roads
Crumlin Road
The Crumlin Road is a main road in north-west Belfast, Northern Ireland. The road runs from north of Belfast City Centre for about four miles to the outskirts of the city. It also forms part of the longer A52 road.-Lower Crumlin Road:...
, on St Patrick's Day.
During the failed 1977 second strike by the Ulster Workers' Council McClinton boarded a bus on which he shot dead Harry Bradshaw, the driver of the bus and a Protestant. Following the killing the UDA wrote to his widow Sheila Bradshaw stating that they were sorry for the murder and that they believed her husband to be a Catholic. A ten pound note was included with the letter. However according to Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon is an author and journalist from Northern Ireland. He worked for eighteen years at the BBC and has written a number of plays and novels, but he is best known for his non-fiction books about the Troubles....
the attack was ordered by James Craig
James Craig (loyalist)
James Pratt "Jim" Craig was a Northern Irish loyalist, who served as a fund-raiser for the Ulster Defence Association and sat on its Inner Council. He also ran a large protection racket from west Belfast's Shankill Road area, where he lived...
who knew that any Citybus driver on the Crumlin Road where the attack took place would be a Protestant. Craig wanted to send out a message to other Protestant bus drivers that their failure to support the stike as they had done in 1974
Ulster Workers' Council Strike
The Ulster Workers' Council strike was a general strike that took place in Northern Ireland between 15 May and 28 May 1974, during "The Troubles". The strike was called by loyalists and unionists who were against the Sunningdale Agreement, which had been signed in December 1973...
was not going unnoticed.
Following this killing he went to work on a plan to send hollowed-out books containing bombs through the post to Catholic targets. As McClinton would admit in later life at this time he wished to behead Catholics and place the severed heads on the railings of the Shankill's Woodvale Park and told the UDA leadership that he was prepared to do so in order to provide a rival to the Ulster Volunteer Force's Shankill Butchers
Shankill Butchers
The Shankill Butchers is the name given to an Ulster loyalist gang, many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force . The gang conducted paramilitary activities during the 1970s in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was most notorious for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder of random...
. Craig however began to fear that McClinton, whose own alcohol abuse as well as his extreme suggestions about murder, was becoming too much of a loose cannon and so he contacted members of the police he knew in order to give McClinton up to them.
Arrest and imprisonment
On 27 August 1977 McClinton's home on Rosapenna Street was raided and he was taken into police custody where he confessed to the murders of Carville and Bradshaw. When he came to trial however McClinton retracted his confession and changed his plea to not guilty, appearing in court naked in what he claimed was a display of contempt for the trial. He was convicted of both killings.Initially held in Crumlin Road Gaol
Crumlin Road Gaol
HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the only Victorian era prison remaining in Northern Ireland and has been derelict since 1996...
McClinton's successive violent outbursts saw him transferred to the Maze prison where he went 'on the blanket
Blanket protest
The blanket protest was part of a five year protest during the Troubles by Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners held in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. The republican prisoners' status as political prisoners, known as Special Category Status, had...
' in protest at having to wear a prison uniform. He retained his reputation for violence in the Maze although he also took to writing poetry, which generally dealt with the theme of anger at his and other loyalists incarceration when he felt they were simply supporting British rule through their actions.
McClinton had an appeal heard before a Diplock court
Diplock courts
The Diplock courts were a type of court established by the Government of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland on 8 August 1973, in an attempt to overcome widespread jury intimidation associated with the Troubles. The right to trial by jury was suspended for certain "scheduled offences" and the...
chaired by Lord Justice Turlough O'Donnell in February 1979. He argued that his confession had been extracted under duress but judge found no evidence to overturn the conviction and , describing McClinton as a "cold-blooded assassin", gave him a life sentence with a minimum of twenty years advised.
Conversion
According to McClinton he spent the few months after his failed appeal embroiled in inner turmoil until 12 August 1979 when he called upon God and told Him that he accepted His word. As a result McClinton became a born-again Christian. He announced his conversion to fellow inmates the next day, a moved which initially earned him scorn and saw his reputation, which had been based on his extreme violence, plummet. Seeking to change his ways he undertook various programmes of study, obtaning a degree in criminology and social sciences from the Open UniversityOpen University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
as well as a correspondence course in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
from the Emmaus Bible School in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
.
During his time in prison McClinton started his own Christian Fellowship and converted 24 inmates to Christianity, including Robert "Basher" Bates
Robert Bates (loyalist)
Robert William Bates was an Ulster loyalist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the infamous Shankill Butchers gang, led by Lenny Murphy....
of the Shankill Butchers
Shankill Butchers
The Shankill Butchers is the name given to an Ulster loyalist gang, many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force . The gang conducted paramilitary activities during the 1970s in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was most notorious for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder of random...
. However eight of the converts would later drift from Christianity. According to McClinton he and Bates even performed baptisms in a tub in prison.
McClinton's conversion saw him chosen by prison staff to begin an attempt at integration of prisoners and in 1982 he was sent to work in a workshop on the republican wing of the prison. The experiment was abandoned on 24 March 1983 when McClinton, who had been ostracised by the republican prisoners, was attacked and badly beaten.
Ministry
McClinton was released from prison in 1993 and was soon baptised a pastor by a TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
-based Christian ministry founded by Charles Colson
Charles Colson
Charles Wendell "Chuck" Colson is a Christian leader, cultural commentator, and former Special Counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973....
. It has been noted that even at this stage McClinton was preaching a particularly hard-line form of fundamentalist Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
.
Nonetheless following his release the "saved
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
" McClinton became a regular on Northern Irish television discussing his conversion. He soon became a widely reported figure in the media and used his comparative fame to establish "Higher Force Challenge", a youth scheme that sought to initiate dialogue between young people from the two communities. He initially returned to the Shankill where he worked for the Stadium youth project.
Taking advantage of his contacts in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, McClinton also established his own Ulster American Christian foundation which provided funding for his own ministry. However it has been claimed by Henry McDonald
Henry McDonald (writer)
Henry McDonald is a writer and is the Irish editor for The Observer, the sister paper of The Guardian.McDonald has written extensively about The Troubles, its precedents, its consequences, its demographics, and such. He was born in the nationalist Markets area of Belfast and attended St. Malachy's...
and Jim Cusack that McClinton's American contacts were largely made up of fringe white supremacist churches active in the American south. Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon is an author and journalist from Northern Ireland. He worked for eighteen years at the BBC and has written a number of plays and novels, but he is best known for his non-fiction books about the Troubles....
has also claimed that McClinton facilitated meetings between representatives of these groups and Mid-Ulster UVF
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade formed part of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland. The brigade was established in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna. The unit operated mainly around the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Subsequent leaders of the...
leader Billy Wright
Billy Wright (loyalist)
William Stephen "Billy" Wright was a prominent Ulster loyalist during the period of violent religious/political conflict known as "The Troubles". He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1975 and became commander of its Mid-Ulster Brigade in the early 1990s...
; he went on to claim that a strong strain of anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
that ran through the thinking of both McClinton and Wright had come from contact with these far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
American groups.
McClinton holds three postgraduate degrees, a Masters in Theology (gained in 2002), a PhD in Philosophy, which he was awarded in 2003, and a further doctorate in Literature which he was awarded in 2004, all from the Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
-based European Theological Seminary and College of the Bible International
European Theological Seminary and College of the Bible International
The European Theological Seminary and College of the Bible International is an unaccredited fundamentalist Christian college based in Northern Ireland and Birmingham, England. It has no buildings and is operated from the home of its founder and president, Gordon Beck...
. The Seminary however is not officially recognised as having degree-awarding status and has been portrayed as a diploma mill
Diploma mill
A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit...
.
Return to political activity
After a time back on the Shankill McClinton moved to PortadownPortadown
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...
and it was here that he returned to activism. McClinton's Shankill home had been attacked by UVF members and he sought to resettle outside Belfast, with Billy Wright inviting him to Portadown. According to Wright's sister Angela the Portadown loyalist leader had met McClinton in prison and their friendship had been cemented by Wright's fixation with the Shankill, an area he recognised as the bulwark of loyalism. This was sparked by the Drumcree conflict
Drumcree conflict
The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is an ongoing dispute over a yearly parade in the town of Portadown, Northern Ireland. The dispute is between the Orange Order and local residents. The residents are currently represented by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition ; before 1995 they were...
which erupted in 1995 and which he sought to portray as a threat to Protestantism in Northern Ireland from Catholics. McClinton became a regular face at the Drumcree stand-off and frequently in the company of the Orange Order leaders on site. He also wrote poetry in praise of Billy Wright for the role he played in the Drumcree conflict.
As well as his conversion to Christianity McClinton also became an advocate of Ulster nationalism
Ulster nationalism
Ulster nationalism is the name given to a school of thought in Northern Irish politics that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without becoming part of the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovereign state separate from England, Scotland and Wales...
, endorsing the establishment of a Calvinist state. McClinton joined the Ulster Independence Movement
Ulster Independence Movement
The Ulster Independence Movement was an Ulster nationalist political party founded on 17 November 1988. The group emerged from the Ulster Clubs, after a series of 15 public meetings across Northern Ireland...
and began to produce pamphlets for them in which he called for Northern Irish Protestants to be allowed to bear arms and use them against "Fenian rebels". He further argued that Catholics who did not honour the Union Flag
Union Flag
The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...
and other traditional Protestant and loyalist symbols should be denied citizenship of Northern Ireland. He was a candidate for the UIM in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum
Northern Ireland Forum
The Northern Ireland Forum was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Belfast Agreement in 1998....
in West Belfast
Belfast West (Assembly constituency)
Belfast West is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973...
and in Upper Bann
Upper Bann (Assembly constituency)
Upper Bann is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996...
for the 1998 Assembly election
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998
-Seats summary:-Details:Although the SDLP won the most first preference votes, the Ulster Unionists won the most seats in the Assembly. This has been attributed to several reasons, including:...
. Like the rest of the UIM McClinton was a strong opponent of the Good Friday Agreement was involved in the "no" campaign.
McClinton became a close associate of Clifford Peoples, a Shankill-based former Ulster Volunteer Force
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in late 1965 or early 1966 and named after the Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913. The group's volunteers undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles...
member who was a leading figure in Families Against Intimidation and Terror
Families Against Intimidation and Terror
Families Against Intimidation and Terror was a group that campaigned against paramilitary violence during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1990 by Nancy Gracey and others following the shooting of her son by a paramilitary organisation, it was funded by, among others, the British...
. According to McDonald and Cusack McClinton and Peoples were close to a British intelligence agent known as "the Pastor". The three men were involved in a propaganda campaign against the Progressive Unionist Party
Progressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...
and Ulster Democratic Party
Ulster Democratic Party
The Ulster Democratic Party was a small loyalist political party in Northern Ireland. It was established in June 1981 as the Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party by the Ulster Defence Association to replace their New Ulster Political Research Group...
aimed at destabilising the Northern Ireland peace process
Northern Ireland peace process
The peace process, when discussing the history of Northern Ireland, is often considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast Agreement, and subsequent political developments.-Towards a...
. They further claimed that the three helped to convince Billy Wright to split from the UVF and establish the Loyalist Volunteer Force
Loyalist Volunteer Force
The Loyalist Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and the Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force's Mid-Ulster Brigade was stood down by the UVF leadership. He had been the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. The...
by convincing the Mid-Ulster leader that they intended to establish an evangelical "army of God". Wright's hand was ultimately forced in this matter when the UVF Brigade Staff expelled him from the movement. McClinton's public attacks on the pro-peace process loyalist parties included his taunt that UDP stood for "Ulster Drugs Party" as part an allegation that UDP members were leading figures in the illegal drugs trade.
LVF
McClinton had been close personally to Billy Wright and was the main orator at the Loyalist Volunteer Force leader's funeral following his killing inside the Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation ArmyIrish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
(INLA) in December 1997. As a result he served as a spokesman and mediator for LVF prisoners.
McClinton served as the liaison between the LVF and John de Chastelain
John de Chastelain
Alfred John Gardyne Drummond de Chastelain is a retired Canadian soldier and diplomat.De Chastelain was born in Romania and educated in England and in Scotland before his family immigrated to Canada in 1954...
's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was established to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Northern Ireland, as part of the peace process.-Legislation and organisation:...
. Following the LVF ceasefire David Trimble
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC , is a politician from Northern Ireland. He served as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party , was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland , and was a Member of the British Parliament . He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party...
, who hoped to achieve LVF decommissioning, called on Sean O'Callaghan
Sean O'Callaghan
Sean O'Callaghan is a former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who became an informer for the Garda Síochána and who was later debriefed by the UK's MI5 in the Netherlands...
who in turn knew a prison guard who had been close to McClinton during his time in jail. Through this channel it was revealed that the LVF would decommision guns in return for recognition of their ceasefire and a promise of early prisoner releases. The ceasefire was recognised officially by Mo Mowlam
Mo Mowlam
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.Mowlam's time as Northern...
on 12 November 1998 and 25 prisoners were made eligible for early release. As a result of the initiative on 18 December 1998 9 guns, 350 bullets, two pipe bombs and six detonators were given to de Chastelaine. Criticism followed however as many of the devices were crudely home-made or very old, including a Steyr-Daimler-Puch
Steyr-Daimler-Puch
Steyr-Daimler-Puch was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names.-History:...
weapon that had belonged to the original Ulster Volunteers. McClinton invited select journalists to watch the destruction of some LVF weapons.
Although there was no indication of any direct link McClinton's name appeared on a list of people issued by Johnny Adair
Johnny Adair
Jonathan Adair, better known as Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair is the former leader of the "C Company", 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, West Belfast Brigade of the "Ulster Freedom Fighters" . This was a cover name used by the Ulster Defence Association , an Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation...
's C Company of the UDA as part of an attempt to initiate a loyalist feud
Loyalist feud
A loyalist feud refers to any of the sporadic feuds which have erupted almost routinely between Northern Ireland's various loyalist paramilitary groups since they were founded shortly before and after the religious/political conflict known as The Troubles broke out in the late 1960s...
with the UVF. McClinton was listed along with Peoples, Jackie Mahood and the already murdered Frankie Curry
Frankie Curry
Frankie Curry nicknamed "Pigface", was an Ulster loyalist who was involved with a number of paramilitary groups during his long career...
as examples of dissident loyalists that C Company accused the UVF of trying to kill.
In 2005 McClinton was warned by police that his name was on a UVF hit list after the organisation killed four men with LVF connections. Commenting on the alleged death threat McClinton told the Sunday Life newspaper "if I am killed by the UVF, then it is only an opportunity to meet the Lord, and I will accept that opportunity".