Northern Ireland

Winston 'Winkie' Irvine arrested by police investigating Simon Coveney hoax bomb alert

Prominent loyalist Winston 'Winkie' Irvine
Prominent loyalist Winston 'Winkie' Irvine Prominent loyalist Winston 'Winkie' Irvine

PROMINENT loyalist Winston 'Winkie' Irvine has been arrested by police investigating a hoax bomb alert targeting Irish government minister Simon Coveney.

A leading member of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), an umbrella group which represents the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando, he was one of two men detained yesterday after an operation carried out by Terrorism Investigation Unit detectives investigating a hijacking and security alert in north Belfast on March 25.

The 46-year-old was arrested under the Terrorism Act in the Shankill Road area.

Two suspected firearms were recovered and a vehicle was taken away for examination.

It is understood a search was also carried out at a property in the Ballysillan area of north Belfast.

A 51-year-old was also arrested in the Ballymena area of Co Antrim under the Terrorism Act and a van was seized.

Both men were being questioned last night at Musgrave Police Station in Belfast.

The arrests are linked to a hoax bomb alert targeting Mr Coveney during a visit to north Belfast earlier this year.

The minister was forced to flee the Houben Centre in Ardoyne during an event in honour of Nobel peace prize winner John Hume and his wife Pat when a man was forced to drive a van from the Shankill Road area to the venue after being told there was a bomb on board.

Simon Coveney was the target of a UVF bomb hoax in March
Simon Coveney was the target of a UVF bomb hoax in March Simon Coveney was the target of a UVF bomb hoax in March

The incident has been linked to opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which puts an economic border down the Irish Sea.

The PSNI later blamed the UVF.

One man has been charged in relation to the incident.

The UVF was also later linked to a hoax alert at a pub in Warrenpoint, Co Down, while the UDA is believed to have been behind a security alert aimed at north-south train services around the same time.

Mr Irvine is a former communications officer with the Progressive Unionist Party and is well known in the community sector in Belfast.

Relatives of people killed by loyalist paramilitary groups criticised a Northern Ireland Office decision to meet representatives of the LCC, including Mr Irvine, virtually last year.

A former member of North Belfast District Policing Community Safety Partnership, in 2020 he was embroiled in controversy when he asked North Belfast Sinn Féin MP John Finucane to leave a protest on the Crumlin Road.

As a spokesman for the North and West Belfast Parades Forum, he has previously been embroiled in parading disputes in the north of the city, including around the Ardoyne shops interface.

He was also linked to a loyalist protest camp set up close to the interface at Twaddell Avenue in 2013 after Orangemen were banned from marching past Ardoyne.