William Worthington McGrath was a loyalist from Northern Ireland who founded the far-right organisation Tara in the 1960s, having been prominent in the Orange Order until his expulsion due to his paedophilia.
28 Facts About William McGrath
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William McGrath's was a Methodist family which moved to Earl St in the Sailortown district of Belfast.
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William McGrath married his English-born wife Kathleen, who served at the nearby Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade, and the two set up home on the Antrim Road before moving to Finaghy.
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William McGrath was a member of the Orange Order and for a time acted as chaplain to the prestigious Fernhill Orange Lodge.
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William McGrath was a branch member of the Ulster Unionist Party and for a time a delegate to the party, although he did not take a prominent role in party politics.
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William McGrath was married to Kathleen and their marriage produced three children: Worthington, Harvey Andrew and Elizabeth Jean Frances.
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William McGrath travelled widely throughout Northern Ireland preaching his religious message, which included hard-line Ulster loyalist principles.
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William McGrath claimed that Northern Ireland was on the verge of chaos and blamed it on the Provisional Irish Republican Army's supposed turn to communism, which he saw as the enemy of Christianity.
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William McGrath's message was highly anti-Catholic, arguing for instance that the Pope had all nuns and priests as part of his private army and that the Society of Jesus was deliberately destroying Ulster Protestant culture.
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William McGrath argued that until the 12th century Ireland had adhered to a local form of Celtic Christianity until Pope Adrian IV had decreed that Henry II of England should invade and force out the native church in favour of what William McGrath portrayed as the decadent Roman church.
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On this basis William McGrath added an all-Ireland dimension to his thinking that was at odds with the wider political circles in which he was to move.
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Amongst his early converts was Roy Garland, a young Shankill Road native, who claims that on their first meeting William McGrath twice felt his leg and extolled to him the virtues of close relationships between men.
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Clifford Smyth became part of this cell and grew close to William McGrath, stating that at the time he was attracted to his strong anti-Catholic rhetoric.
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In 1966, William McGrath produced a series of leaflets in defence of Gusty Spence, the leader of the recently formed Ulster Volunteer Force, who was on remand for the murder of two young Catholics.
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William McGrath's leaflets alleged that both victims were active communists and claimed that the UVF had been established by members of the Official Unionist Party, with Jim Kilfedder named specifically as being involved.
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William McGrath was not a member of any established branch of religion, with his evangelical group being independent, something Fraser Agnew put down to William McGrath's unwillingness to be constrained by the rules of any organisation.
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William McGrath was secretary of the Christian Fellowship and Irish Emancipation Crusade when he appeared with Paisley at a rally in July 1966: this organisation, based in Wellington Park, was a Tara front in which his son Worthington was involved.
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In November 1966, William McGrath reconstituted the Cell as Tara, choosing the name to reflect his belief in the Irish heritage of his politico-religious mission.
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In 1969, William McGrath paid Billy Hanna, later the commander of the UVF in Mid-Ulster, money for the formation of "vigilante groups" in Lurgan.
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William McGrath had influence over Charles Harding Smith and encouraged him to establish the Ulster Defence Association in 1971, reasoning that the group could replace the recently disbanded Ulster Special Constabulary.
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William McGrath sought to build links with Rhodesia and even sent two members of Tara to join the Rhodesian Army.
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In 1971 William McGrath found employment as a housemaster at Kincora Boys' Home in east Belfast.
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William McGrath was one of two agents MI5 was running inside Kincora.
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From this point on, Moore contends, William McGrath was associated with various aspects of the British secret service, with MI5 becoming his sole group in the early 1970s.
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From his prison cell in January 1982, William McGrath wrote to the Secretary of Ireland's Heritage Lodge tendering his resignation, but at their next meeting this was rejected and instead they passed a motion of expulsion against him.
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William McGrath was released from prison in December 1983 after serving two years of his sentence, settling in Ballyhalbert.
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William McGrath attempted to regain his membership of the Orange Order but was vetoed consistently in his attempts.
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William McGrath died on 12 December 1991, one day after his 75th birthday.