51 Facts About Willie Frazer

William Frederick Frazer was a Northern Irish Ulster loyalist activist and advocate for those affected by Irish republican violence in Northern Ireland.

Willie Frazer was the founder and leader of the pressure group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives.

Willie Frazer was a leader of the Love Ulster campaign and more recently, the Belfast City Hall flag protests.

In 2019, from evidence gained in a police report, journalist Mandy McAuley asserted that the Ulster Defence Association had been supplied weapons, in the late 1980s, by the Ulster Resistance and that Willie Frazer was the point of contact for those supplies.

Willie Frazer asserted that multiple sources confirmed this to be true.

William Willie Frazer grew up in the village of Whitecross, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, as one of nine children, with his parents Bertie and Margaret.

Willie Frazer was an ex-member of the Territorial Army, and a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.

Willie Frazer attended a local Catholic school and played Gaelic football up to U14 level.

Willie Frazer's father, who was a part-time member of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment and a council worker, was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 30 August 1975.

The family home had previously been attacked with petrol bombs and gunfire which Willie Frazer claimed were IRA men, due to Bertie's UDR membership.

Willie Frazer has stated that his family was well respected in the area including by "old-school IRA men" and received Mass cards from Catholic neighbours expressing their sorrow over his father's killing.

Willie Frazer believes an IRA member helped carry the coffin at his father's funeral.

An uncle of Willie Frazer's who was a member of the UDR was wounded in a gun attack.

Willie Frazer was president of his local Apprentice Boys club at the time.

Willie Frazer was confronted in an interview on BBC Radio Ulster about the murders by the father of one of the victims, Paul McIlwaine.

Willie Frazer denied the allegations, saying they put his life in danger.

Willie Frazer applied for a licence to hold a firearm for his personal protection and was turned down, a chief inspector said, in part because he was known to associate with loyalist paramilitaries.

In 2019, the BBC investigative journalism programme Spotlight reported that Willie Frazer distributed assault rifles and rocket launchers from Ulster Resistance to loyalist terror groups who used them in more than 70 murders.

In February 2006, Willie Frazer was an organiser of the Love Ulster parade in Dublin that had to be cancelled due to rioting.

In January 2007, Willie Frazer protested outside the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Dublin that voted to join policing structures in Northern Ireland.

In January 2007, Willie Frazer dismissed Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's report into security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.

Willie Frazer had previously picketed McGuinness's home in Derry in 2007 to demand support for calls for Libya to compensate victims of IRA attacks.

When McGuinness stood for election in the 2011 Irish presidential election Willie Frazer announced that he and FAIR would picket the main Sinn Fein election events.

In January 2012, Willie Frazer announced a protest march to be held on 25 February through the mainly Catholic south Armagh village of Whitecross, to recall the killing of ten Protestant workmen by the South Armagh Republican Action Force in January 1976 in the Kingsmill massacre.

Willie Frazer named individuals whom he accused of responsibility for the massacre.

The families expressed disappointment although Willie Frazer stated he was pleased to have met the Taoiseach.

On 16 November 2012 Willie Frazer announced that he was stepping down as director of FAIR, after he had reviewed a copy of the SEUPB audit report which, he claimed, showed no grounds for demanding the reimbursement of funding.

Willie Frazer was not elected, and on most occasions lost his deposit.

Willie Frazer ran as an Ulster Independence Movement candidate in the 1996 Forum Elections and the 1998 Assembly elections, and as an independent in the 2003 Assembly elections and a council by-election.

In November 2012, Willie Frazer announced his intention to contest the 2013 Mid Ulster by-election necessitated by Martin McGuinness's decision to resign the parliamentary seat to concentrate on his Assembly role.

Willie Frazer was quoted in The Irish News in January 2013 as stating that he would not condemn any paramilitary gunman who shot McGuinness.

In 2004 Willie Frazer invited to South Armagh Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, an advocate of the American militia movement, who had admitted links with "the Ku Klux Klan and an Aryan Nation official".

Willie Frazer came to wider attention in October 2005 when he got into a public argument with a Redemptorist priest, Father Alec Reid.

Willie Frazer made remarks that Catholics had butchered Protestants during the Troubles.

Willie Frazer reported Reid to the police for incitement to hatred, but no legal action ensued.

Willie Frazer expressed outrage after his car was stopped and searched by the PSNI in October 2012 under anti-terror laws.

Willie Frazer announced his intention to report the incident to his solicitor and the Police Ombudsman.

Willie Frazer had taken photos of the cars the police were in but police removed the camera from Frazer and deleted the images.

Willie Frazer's car was set on fire at his home outside Markethill in the early hours of 10 February 2013.

Willie Frazer stated that he was asleep inside the house at the time.

Willie Frazer blamed republicans for the incident and claimed to have received a death threat a few hours before the attack.

Willie Frazer posted photos to his Facebook page reportedly showing a bullet that was posted to him, however it was pointed out by the satirical web group LAD that the handwriting on the envelope was the same as his own and that the envelope lacked a sorting office stamp.

In September 2013, when brought before court under the serious crime act of 2007, Willie Frazer arrived to court dressed as radical Muslim cleric and terrorist, Abu Hamza.

Willie Frazer claimed that this was an act of protest, as the legislation he was being charged under was one he believed to be designed for the conviction of Muslim extremists, and therefore should not have applied to him.

In 2014 Willie Frazer attacked the BBC for having a supposed Gaelic Athletic Association top on the soap EastEnders and that "it glorified terrorism" and the IRA.

In 2014 Willie Frazer and the Protestant Coalition led a campaign against a teacher at the Boy's Model School when it was revealed she was a member of Sinn Fein, justifying their stance that due to her politics she should not be teaching at the school.

On 3 January 2013 Willie Frazer said that he had contacted the Garda Siochana to inform them that he and some followers would hold a protest in Dublin over the decision by Belfast City Council to reduce the number of days the Union Flag flew above Belfast City Hall.

On 27 February 2013, Willie Frazer was arrested by the PSNI in his home village of Markethill, for questioning in relation to organising and participating in illegal parades and protests which were centred on the flags issue.

Jamie Bryson, who along with Willie Frazer was one of the most prominent spokespersons for the flag protesters, was later arrested in Bangor after going on the run for several days.

Willie Frazer was charged with three counts of participating in unnotified public processions and obstruction of traffic in a public place.

Material was posted on YouTube by Willie Frazer, who described Galloway as a supporter of terrorist beheadings.