Bryson: Peter Robinson joked that he was once '˜more hardline' than me

Despite launching extensive allegations against the former First Minister over links with the NAMA bad debts bank, the former flag protester told the News Letter that his actions had been “nothing personal”.

Mr Bryson was speaking after he confirmed he would act as Assembly election campaign manager for former DUP councillor Ruth Patterson, who resigned from the party last year.

As to suggestions that he might be co-opted to her seat on Belfast City Council, should she be elected to the Assembly as an independent, he replied: “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves”.

“Everybody changes as they get older,” he said, emphasising that while he did not profess to have changed any principles, he had reviewed how he goes about working them out.

Confirming his ambitions now lie in electoral rather than street politics, Mr Bryson said he is studying for a law degree through the Open University.

“I don’t think a conventional university would work due to the number of death threats against me,” he laughed.

But at this moment in time, he asks that the spotlight rests on Mrs Patterson.

Comparisons between himself and a young Mr Robinson again drew more laughter.

“I had that conversation with Peter Robinson in his Stormont office in the summer of 2013,” he said.

The meeting took place after Mr Bryson was released from prison in the wake of the flag protests.

“The discussion was that Peter Robinson when he was younger believed what I believe now.

“I said, ‘you were once just as hard-line as I am’, and he laughed and said, ‘maybe even more so’.”

But Mr Bryson is also quick to praise the former DUP leader.

“When I was in prison he was very compassionate towards me and my family. He criticised the judiciary and welcomed by mother up to Stormont.

“I later wrote to him to thank him for all that he did.

“There are no hard feelings. It was never personal – it was political.”

The core issue on which he disagreed with the former First Minister, he said, was that Mr Robinson had been sustaining “a still active and still armed IRA Army Council in government”.

Asked if he would not end up with a similar political outlook at his retirement, he replied: “I would be very disappointed in myself if I was.

“But I wish him well. I hope his health keeps up for a long and healthy retirement.”