Sammy Wilson

Samuel Wilson (born 4 April 1952) is a Northern Irish politician who was Chief Whip of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the House of Commons from 2019 to 2024.

One of the Canadians, Howard Wright, was convicted of illegally exporting firearms to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) between 1979 and 1986.

Another Canadian man named during the trial, Bill Taylor, was imprisoned in Canada on an extradition warrant for charges of conspiring to import arms into the United Kingdom.

In 1981, he was elected as a DUP councillor to Belfast City Council, a position that he held until March 2010.

He served as Press Officer from 1982 to 1996.

Wilson stood in East Belfast at the 1982 Assembly election but was not elected.

Wilson aroused controversy as a DUP councillor in June 1985 when he issued a threat to Ulsterbus vehicles and staff after it refused to transport unionists to a demonstration in Castlewellan, which ended in violence.

Wilson said "it now seems that the Northern Ireland office has enlisted not only the RUC but the transport industry in its offensive against the Unionist population. Such a move can place Ulsterbus vehicles and drivers in an extremely vulnerable position."

He served as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1986 to 1987 and again from 2000 to 2001, the first person from the DUP to hold the office.

He has also served as Minister of Finance and Personnel and Minister of the Environment in the Northern Ireland Executive.

Wilson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the son of Alexander (Sandy) Wilson, pastor of Bangor Elim Pentecostal Church.

Both of his parents died of Alzheimer's disease.

He was educated at Methodist College in Belfast, and then went on to study Economics and Politics at both Queen's University of Belfast and Stranmillis University College.

Wilson's first job was a teaching post at Grosvenor Grammar School.

He later became the Head of Economics at the school, and also served as Assistant Chief Examiner for A-Level Economics for the CCEA exam board in Northern Ireland.

Through his membership of the city council, Wilson became the first person from the DUP to serve as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1986 / 1987.

In August 1986, while Lord Mayor of Belfast, Wilson said his party had no difficulty in working alongside the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

The following day Social Democratic and Labour Party MP Seamus Mallon accused Wilson of supporting random killings, intimidations and "other outrages".

Wilson chaired a rally in Ulster Hall in November 1986 declaring the founding of a new loyalist paramilitary group, Ulster Resistance.

The event was addressed by DUP party colleagues Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Ivan Foster.

After a large arms cache linked to Ulster Resistance was discovered in County Armagh in November 1988, Wilson told the Sunday Tribune that he "[defended] the right of Unionist people to resist" and "Ulster Resistance are doing no more and no less than Lord Edward Carson."

Wilson refused to say when he had last been in contact with Ulster Resistance.

In September 1988 Sammy Wilson was named in a Canadian court as having hosted Canada-based gunrunners in Belfast City Hall in October 1986 when he was Lord Mayor.

It was also claimed that in Wilson's City Hall sitting room the Canadian arms traffickers met two prominent loyalist paramilitary figures.

Wilson left the room shortly before the loyalists entered and was absent for this second meeting.

In June 1991, during a heated council meeting where Nigel Dodds was installed as mayor, Wilson congratulated those who had "rid Ireland over the last month of those who have politically or militarily supported [the IRA]", referring to the death of three IRA men in an SAS ambush in County Tyrone and the assassination of Sinn Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton by the UDA.

He first contested a seat for Parliament in 1992, when he stood for Strangford, but came second with 23% of the vote.

In January 1992 at a meeting of Belfast City Council, Sinn Féin councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir accused Wilson of involvement in the formation of Ulster Resistance; Wilson reportedly shouted back "I'm proud of it."

In September 1993 the day after the UDA (under its "Ulster Freedom Fighters" cover name) claimed responsibility for firebomb attacks on several Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) premises, Wilson described the GAA as "the IRA at play".

In January 1994, the UDA released a document calling for ethnic cleansing and repartition of Ireland, with the goal of making Northern Ireland wholly Protestant.

The plan was to be implemented should the British Army withdraw from Northern Ireland.

Some areas with strong Catholic/nationalist majorities near the Irish border would be handed over to the Republic of Ireland, and those Catholics left stranded in the "Protestant state" would be "expelled, nullified, or interned".

Controversially, Wilson called the plan a "very valuable return to reality".

He added: "[it] shows that some loyalist paramilitaries are looking ahead and contemplating what needs to be done to maintain our separate Ulster identity".

In May 1996, the Sunday World published a series of candid holiday photographs showing Wilson and his girlfriend naked.

Wilson subsequently sued the paper for damages, which were settled out of court.

Two years after the incident, at the inaugural sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin addressed the Assembly by saying "It is also very good to come across someone like Mr Sammy Wilson, whom I have never met, and it is great to see him today with his clothes on."

Wilson began his political life as the Democratic Unionist Party's Press Officer.

He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 to 2003 and for East Antrim from 2003 until 2015.

Wilson has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Antrim since 2005.