Death of DUP councillor John Finlay IN PICTURES AND VIDEO: Major figure in party’s traditionalist wing spoke out against ‘militant LGBT agenda’ and anti-Orange ‘intolerance’

Here we paint a portrait of the man, after news emerged that he had died at about 8am this morning following a terminal diagnosis of cancer in late spring / early summer.

Councillor Finlay was from Cloughmills in north Antrim, and this reporter has unearthed old copies of both the Ballymoney Times an the News Letter to help paint a picture of who he was.

COUNTLESS ATTACKS:

One of the stand-out things about councillor Finlay’s political career was just how vocal he was on the subject of anti-Protestant sentiment in his constituency.

Our electronic archive goes back to 2007, and there are dozens upon dozens of stories of him speaking out against attacks on Orange halls, with countless pictures of him posing beside wrecked properties daubed with IRA graffiti.

To take one example of many, on 14/07/2009 he was quoted by the Ballymoney times in his capacity as master of Dunloy Union Defenders LOL 496, saying that “republicans in Dunloy are trying to intimidate Protestants but they will not be forced out”.

Another news clipping from the same paper on 07/09/2009 reports that his car was attacked in Rasharkin, a nearby nationalist-dominated village.

A relentless critic of Parades Commission restrictions, he continued to be one of Northern Ireland’s most vocal grassroots advocates for tolerance of Orange culture, right up to the present.

Speaking just last year after another act of vandalism against a hall in Rasharkin, he said: “We must call it out for what it is – sheer sectarian hatred towards the Protestant people of the village and surrounding area.”

CALL TO REMOVE A UNION FLAG:

During his career, he called for poppy-wearing to be mandatory for BBC presenters, refused to sign a book of condolence for Martin McGuinness, and attacked the “menacing and relentless” pro-choice abortion movement.

He also strongly supported South Down DUP man Jim Wells when he faced criticism in 2017 over his traditional view of gay marriage.

In the latter case, he said in the News Letter that Mr Wells “deserves the full support of those across the community who are alarmed at the increasingly militant and all-encompassing nature of the LGBT campaign”.

But whilst councillor Finlay enjoyed a reputation as a loyalist conservative hardliner, he also had this to say in the News Letter on July 8, 2015, after a Union flag was placed in the grounds of Dervock Catholic chapel:

“As someone who is fully committed to the great Protestant principles of civil and religious liberty... I am greatly offended by the refusal of some intolerant elements in our society to allow the loyal orders to exercise their democratic right of peaceful assembly and procession.

“On the basis of those same principles, I am saddened when I see some within my own community misusing our national flag in a way that is deliberately designed to offend or annoy.”

CRITIC OF LIBERAL DRIFT:

Councillor Finlay wrote letters to newspapers backing his party – although in his later years he began to publicly criticise the liberal drift within its leadership.

Despite the common ground he shared with the TUV on moral issues, councillor Finlay attacked it a number of times, saying in 2010 that “they would criticise anything the DUP did because the DUP did it”.

And in a letter to the News Letter the following year he was even more blunt, saying the “there is no appetite for the politics of the TUV; they are a spent force”.

He went on to write an open letter in June 2018 to the DUP top brass, accusing Arlene Foster of “publicly flouting the Lord’s Day” for attending a GAA game on a Sunday.

He further chastised Mrs Foster in 2019 when lesbian candidate Alison Bennington was selected to run for the DUP in Newtownabbey, saying: “Our traditional support base cannot be taken for granted. I can feel the palpable sense of anger on the doorsteps and in various messages I have been receiving.”

OVER 20 YEARS ON COUNCIL:

He stood unsuccessfully for Ballymoney Borough Council in 1997, but fared much better in 2001 when he was the highest-rated unionist in his Bann Valley district in terms of first preference votes.

Once the council merged into Causeway Coast and Glens his success continued, with councillor Finlay continuing to poll at or near the top in terms of first-preference unionist candidates - most recently in 2019 when he comfortably re-took his seat with 1,322 such votes.

He went on to be accorded the ceremonial title of “alderman” (denoting someone who’s informally seen as a senior councillor).

According to a report about the 2011 Stormont election, the Ballymoney Times said that “it is understood Ballymoney DUP councillors John Finlay and Ian Stevenson were also hopeful of having their names put forward but did not succeed” – but such candidacy never came to pass.

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