That quote seems a rather unusual - maybe even flippant - way to begin my tribute to the late Rev Martin Smyth, a former UUP MP for South Belfast and former Grand Master of the Orange Order, who died recently aged 94.
It was actually said to me by Rev Smyth in the Seventies as we had Sunday lunch in Clough Presbyterian Manse in the heart of the north Antrim Bible Belt.
I was in my teens and my political activity, until that time, had been limited to serving sandwiches to UUP candidates and party workers who called at the Manse to visit my dad, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE.
In the Seventies, when Rev Smyth was Grand Master of the Orange Institution, dad was a Deputy Imperial Grand Chaplain. Dad and Rev Smyth also held senior office in the Loyal Orders’ senior movement, the Royal Black Institution.
The personal photos with this column are from an event in Newry in the 1980s. Seated on the platform, are my dad beside Rev Smyth, and UUP leader Jim Molyneaux on the right. The other photo has Rev Smyth and Mr Molyneaux chatting as my dad prepares to give his sermon at the podium.
But as I entered my late teens, I could become more practically involved in politics - but the issue for me was, which pro-Union party to join? It was the traditional Children’s Day morning service in Clough Presbyterian Church and the guest preacher was Rev Smyth.
Dad and he had done a pulpit swop for the day, with dad preaching in Rev Smyth’s church in Belfast, Alexandra Presbyterian in north Belfast.
Rev Smyth delivered a brilliant evangelical Children’s Day address to the congregation in Clough and afterwards he joined my mum and myself for Sunday lunch.
We began chatting about political parties and Rev Smyth asked me what I was politically, to which I replied “radical Right-wing Unionist”, a remark which immediately brought the retort: “Whatever you do, have nothing to do with the National Front!”
We began chatting about political parties and Rev Smyth asked me what I was politically, to which I replied “radical Right-wing Unionist”, a remark which immediately brought the retort: “Whatever you do, have nothing to do with the National Front!”
Ironically, in the Eighties when I was a staff journalist at the Belfast News Letter and began investigating the activities of the NF in Northern Ireland, the Front turned on me like a taunted rattlesnake and published details about where I lived.
If I was wanting to develop my political experience along family lines, I had a range of choices at that time. My parents were both Ulster Unionists. On my mother’s side, I had a relation who was active in the old Northern Ireland Labour Party. I also had relations I suspected to be staunch Paisleyites! So there were my choices - UUP, DUP or NILP?
In terms of my teenage political journey, I had come a long way from my early teens. At that time, I considered myself to be Alliance and one of my chums from Ballymena Academy days was fellow Presbyterian minister’s son, John Alderdice, now Lord Alderdice, later a former leader of the Alliance Party.
But my conversion to radical Right-wing Unionism was as a result of a sectarian attack on me in my school bus by a person suspected of being in the Junior IRA. He targeted me not simply because I was a Protestant, but because dad was a senior member of the Loyal Orders.
Until this individual started to come on our school bus, there had been no sectarian trouble. But this individual was viewed to be a real republican rabble rouser. It wasn’t just verbal abuse.
This suspected Fianna member set my school coat on fire and thankfully, the burning was put out by two other students on the bus. The coat had been a present from an aunt and it was destroyed.
So in my mid-teens, I made a simple political deduction. Being middle of the road Alliance is too ‘pussy footing’ to deal with the republican movement. I needed to become a hardline Unionist! My journey into radical Right-wing Unionism had begun.
By the time that Sunday lunch was over, the gentle conversation with Rev Smyth had persuaded me that my political home would be to follow family tradition into the Young Unionists, the youth wing of the UUP.
School chums were later shocked at my decision to join the UUP. Given the views I had been expressing at class, they all assumed I’d be a prime candidate for the DUP!
What was even more surprising to my chums was at that time, the Young Unionist Movement in the North Antrim constituency was run by liberal Unionists! But within a decade, radical Right-wingers like myself had taken over and the North Antrim Young Unionist Association was noted to be one of the most Right-wing of all the associations!
When chums asked me why I chose the UUP, I simply told them it was the result of a conversation with Rev Smyth. I emphasise the word ‘conversation’, not a firebrand sermon in terms of communication from the Rev Smyth.
One of his greatest attributes was Rev Smyth’s ability to appeal to the ordinary folk. He took this pastoral care which he had gained in his Presbyterian ministry into his politics when he was elected South Belfast MP in 1982.
There would be many political conversations between myself and Rev Smyth over the years at UUP and Loyal Order events. Like UUP leader Molyneaux, Rev Smyth knew ‘how to work the room’ in political terms. He was never aloof.
Even when the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 saw myself in the Yes camp and Rev Smyth in the No camp, we could always have a civil conversation.
For me, whilst his fellow South Down UUP MP Enoch Powell was the greatest Prime Minister the UK never had, I always held to the view that Rev Smyth would have made a great First Minister of Northern Ireland.
When ‘Gentleman Jim’ Molyneaux stepped down as UUP leader in the 1990s, I was disappointed that Rev Smyth did not win the ballot.
Ironically, I believe David Trimble won because of his march from Drumcree holding hands aloft with Paisley. It was one of the issues which swung the influential Orange Order vote in the UUP away from Rev Smyth and into the Trimble camp.
I wonder what type of agreement would have been negotiated if Rev Smyth had won the leadership? I wonder would the UUP now be playing third fiddle in the latest opinion poll behind the DUP and TUV?
Rev Smyth’s political speeches were as eloquently composed as his evangelical sermons. His gentle tone was very persuasive as was his rapport with his audiences be they church, Loyal Order, or political.
I remain a radical Right-wing Unionist, but I will be forever grateful to the Presbyterian minister who steered me in the correct political direction during that Manse Sunday lunch in the Seventies.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
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