‘Peace fund’ sponsors arms charge loyalist

There have been calls for an investigation into the activities of the ‘International Fund for Ireland’ after it emerged the organisation is a leading funder of a loyalist group headed by alleged active paramilitary boss Winston ‘Winkie’ Irvine.

Irvine (pictured, inset), who has recently been arrested over possession of guns and ammunition, is a key figure in a group that received close to £1m from the ‘charity’ – and just over six months after he was blamed for a hoax bomb attack against an Irish government Minister.

According to a report in the Irish News, Irvine was ironically due in court this week in connection with serious arms possession charges on the same day a ‘culture’ conference was taking place in south Belfast for which he was named as an organiser.

The charges followed from his arrest in June 2022 over a hoax bomb alert that forced the 26 County Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, to abandon a speaking engagement in north Belfast.

Irvine’s ‘Building Cultural Networks’ (BCN) group, formed in January 2023, is part of ‘Action for Community Transformation’ (ACT), the Shankill Road-based organisation supposedly engaged in the “civilianisation” of the paramilitary UVF.

Last year, BCN was awarded £878,000 by the ‘International Fund for Ireland’, a body which is registered as an Irish charity.

The government-founded IFI claims to be working to “encourage contact, dialogue and reconciliation between nationalists and unionists”. However, it is being accused of funding active loyalist paramilitaries while at the same time snubbing peaceful Irish republican organisations.

Irvine was arrested in a PSNI surveillance operation three months after the dramatic hoax bomb alert at an event attended by Mr Coveney in March 2022. The minister was evacuated from the Houben Centre next to Holy Cross Church on Crumlin Road after a van was reportedly hijacked and driven to the venue. A controlled explosion was carried out on the van.

Irvine has been charged with possession of two pistols, an air gun, magazines and more than 200 rounds of ammunition found inside a holdall in the boot of a vehicle he was driving.

The DUP’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly was also named publicly by the organisers as a ‘special guest’ at the conference but pulled out after details emerged.

Upper Bann DUP MP Carla Lockhart was named on the event programme as a panelist, as were the boxer Carl Frampton and the leaders of both the Apprentice Boys and the Orange Order.

Urgent Appeal