The Pride of the Rock flute band taking part in an Orange Walk in Dumbarton.
By Hugh Jordan in Belfast
A Dumbarton-based loyalist band’s support for a dead UVF bomber is said to have helped sway a Scottish Court’s decision to ban a controversial Orange parade.
Paying tribute to terror chief ‘Big Bill’ Campbell, the Sons of the Rock Flute Band, described him on its website as a ‘great man and a leader of our community.’
But Campbell from the Bridgeton area of Glasgow, is suspected of supplying the deadly explosives which claimed the lives of 15 innocent people in a UVF bomb attack on McGurk’s Bar in Belfast in 1971.
On Friday afternoon, a judge at Aberdeen Sheriff Court approved an earlier decision by Aberdeenshire Council, to show the red card to Orange marchers planning to parade through the coastal town of Stonehaven.
The Dumbarton-based Sons of the Rock band had been booked to lead off the parade from the town centre to a newly opened Orange Hall.
But the Stonehaven branch of the RNLI – which funds the town’s lifeboat – had already rejected the offer of an £850 donation from the West of Scotland musicians.
And the organisation cited the loyalist band’s support for the infamous UVF man Bill Campbell, as one of its reasons for turning down the cash.
A notorious loyalist terrorist – who spent many years behind bars – Campbell became well-known in Scotland, when he was convicted and jailed for masterminding a bomb attack on a Catholic-owned pub in Glasgow.
Local councillors in the Kincardine and Mearns district of Aberdeen, recently expressed serious concerns that the parade – if it were to proceed through the picturesque town – would place undue strain on the police and local businesses, as well as the wider community.
Over 10,000 locals signed a petition pleading with politicians to “put the peace, unity and welfare of our community first.”
Earlier this month, Aberdeen Council unanimously voted to block the parade at a tense meeting on March 5.
But the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland went to the Sheriff Court in Aberdeen in an attempt to have the Council’s decision overturned.
Greg Saunders – an advocate for the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland – told the Sheriff he believed there was bias within the committee which came to the decision.
He said: “The applicants wish to hold a procession in Stonehaven to mark the opening of a new Orange Lodge. It will be one of the very few processions that will have occurred in the north east of Scotland in recent years.”
The lawyer pointed out, the police have no objections to the parade which it was estimated would last around 30 minutes.
And he invited the Sheriff to reverse the Council’s decision.
In rejecting the application, Sheriff Ian Millar said: “I feel the major premise of this case is missing – and accordingly I have to refuse the appeal.”
But I have been informed that the Sons of the Rock Flute Bands support for UVF terrorist ‘Big Bill’ Campbell shocked many Stonehaven folk with little or no knowledge of the Ulster Troubles.
“Locals in Stonehaven were appalled to learned that people who offered support to terrorist bombers planned to parade through their town, where community relations are excellent,” a local bar owner told us.
“It was the talk of the town prior to the court hearing and we believe the Sheriff knew how most people here felt about it.”
And he added: ”If the parade had been allowed to go ahead, we would have closed for the day.”
Now deceased, ‘Big Bill’ Campbell, joined the UVF in the mid-1960s, when the organisation’s then leader Gusty Spence installed him as boss of the Scottish section of the UVF.
Using his extensive contacts in the Scottish Quarries, Campbell set up supply lines for explosives to be sent across the Irish Sea on a regular basis.
He is suspected a supplying explosives used in the bombing of the Catholic-owned McGurk’s bar in Belfast’s North Queen Street in 1971, which claimed the lives of 15 people.
But it was a pub bombing campaign in Glasgow which landed Big Bill and his brother Colin, lengthy stretches behind bars.
The Campbells were jailed for 16 and 15 years respectively, when a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found them guilty of a string of major terror charges linked to the UVF.
Big Bill Campbell died of natural causes in 1995. His dying wish was that he would be buried in Belfast’s Roselawn Cemetery, alongside other UVF terrorists.
A plaque in the centre of the Shankill Road was unveiled in his honour and acknowledgement of loyal service to the UVF cause.
Cairncastle Flute Band and others went on social media over the weekend to express their dismay
They said: “What a sad world we live in when our community cannot even do charity work without being demonised.
“Our thoughts go out to Pride of the Rock Dumbarton, we hope that this sectarian decision is reviewed and the people held responsible are reprimanded.
