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The Independent
13-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Minister honoured after 42 years as chaplain at HMP Magilligan
A prison chaplain who has spent more than 40 years at HMP Magilligan in the north west of Northern Ireland has said he feels incredibly touched to be recognised in the Kings' Birthday Honours. Free Presbyterian Minister Rev Wesley McDowell, 77, survived a siege at the prison when the inmates took over a wing seeking political status, and said while the experience was a little akin to the 'lion's den', he enjoyed his 42 years there, and felt he had made a difference to many. He is now to be awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM), and said it was lovely to be recognised, although it had come as a surprise to him. Rev McDowell started at Magilligan around 1982 after a member of his then church in Limavady recommended he apply. 'I thought, well if I was to spread the gospel, which is my motivation, well why not?' he said. Rev McDowell said he found ways to get attention, including putting the words of the 23rd psalm to the tune of the Loyalist marching song The Sash. 'I thought, some of these boys were never in a church, but they will know that tune,' he said. 'I was brought up in similar circumstances to, I came from a similar background to a lot of the paramilitary boys. I knew where they were coming from, I showed an interest in them. I was just a wee fella from the Shankill Road, the same as many of them. 'I didn't always find out what they were in for, I could have done, looked up the system, but I never did. For if I meet someone in the street and talked to them about the Lord, I don't know who they are and their background. 'I think the men detected that there was a genuine interest in them. 'So it's good to see, and I don't know who the proposer is, that someone recognised it. I have to say I had a lot of help and encouragement from prison staff as well.' While many may view looking after a church congregation as the preferrable option, Rev McDowell pointed out the strong turn-outs to his Sunday services, adding, 'where else would you get that outside … how would you reach that many people'. However, one of those services in the late 1980s saw him trapped inside during a prisoner protest for political status and to be segregated. 'It was just after my Sunday morning service, I went to see if I could help. I realised when I was down the wing, I thought it was a short protest but it lasted from the Sunday morning to Wednesday evening,' he said. 'It was with 30 loyalist prisoners, along with a prison officer and a republican prisoner. I had my collar on for you didn't know what was going to happen, it was a tense stand-off. 'It was nice to get out again, but the men presented no threat to me, nor the prison officer or the other prisoner. 'I often wonder where a lot of them are now.' While Rev McDowell recently retired from his post at Magilligan he said he noticed a lot of changes, with many prisoners more likely to be in for drugs offences, and more for whom English is not their first language. 'Of course we can get material in their language, so there is always a way to reach people,' he said. He added: 'I dealt with situations like prisoners protesting, I knew there were boys that maybe didn't like me, it was like Daniel in the lion's den, you just trust the Lord to keep you. 'I'm pleased that someone has acknowledged the ministry because that sort of work goes unrecognised, it's not in the headlines but the work continues on.'
Sunday World
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Sunday World
Former right-hand man of late DUP firebrand Paisley says he would've loved Irish language row
The former Stormont politician swapped banter with this reporter in a chat outside his south Belfast home last week. Deceased DUP leader the Reverend Ian Paisley would have enjoyed the current row over the Irish language. That is the view of Paisley's former right-hand man Clifford Smyth, who penned a best-selling book about the firebrand Free Presbyterian preacher. He was commenting on the ongoing political fall-out over plans to install Irish language signage at Belfast's new city centre transport hub. The former Stormont politician swapped banter with this reporter in a chat outside his south Belfast home last week. Now 81 and retired, Smyth — who was forced out the DUP nearly 50 years ago — discussed a range of topics, including the Irish language, his teenage years in Scotland and his friendship with the 'Big Man'. 'Ian Paisley would have loved the row over the Irish language. He would have been right in the middle of it,' Mr Smyth said. CONTROVERSIAL: Ian Paisley 'My wife Anne also gets very vexed about this.' But it appears Mr and Mrs Smyth may have agreed to differ over their views on the Irish language. Because Clifford was once a member of the now defunct Ireland's Heritage Orange Lodge, which had Irish in its banner. But on the subject of Ian Paisley, Mr Smyth also added a note of caution: 'The problem with Ian Paisley was he didn't like rivals. He wanted everyone to agree with him. That's what I found anyway.' A former history teacher, Smyth's biography of the DUP founder, Ian Paisley: Voice of Protestant Ulster, offers an insight to the man who dominated unionist politics for over 50 years. 'Ian Paisley became very uncomfortable if someone offered an alternative view. He just didn't like rivals, as I found out to my cost,' he said. Earlier this month Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins sparked a row when she announced that the £350m Grand Central Station — Ireland's biggest transport hub — would become bilingual. STRONG VIEWS: Anne Smyth Many unionists criticised a 'waste' of public money over the £150,000 cost of introducing bilingual signs and ticket machines. However, Irish language groups welcomed the move and said similar signs in Newry on the Dublin-Belfast train route which leaves Belfast's Grand Central created no controversy at all. Clifford Smyth has long left politics behind but still has strong opinions and shares them with his Glasgow-born wife Anne, a TUV activist who stood for the party in the last local government elections in 2023. She received 564 first preference votes and was eliminated in the fourth count. Mrs Smyth, who helped found the DUP, told us in 2023 that she didn't believe research that showed that many Protestants in Northern Ireland could speak Irish in the early part of the last century. She told us: 'It has been claimed Protestant soldiers in the trenches of World War One spoke Irish to each other, but I just don't believe that. I feel many people have been bought off by the government money,' she adds. She has also spoken out against East Belfast GAA club after it cancelled a training session in a local primary school. She claimed the decision was 'justifiable in view of the sectarian nature of the supposed 'sporting' organisation that is the GAA'. Anne and Clifford once performed a travelling stage show at charity events linked to the Orange Order. Anne played the accordion while her husband, dressed as exotic dancer Carmen Miranda — complete with a fruit bowl hat on his head — danced around the room. In 1996, Clifford caused a stir when, during the launch of a book on the Kincora Boys Home scandal, he revealed he was once addicted to wearing his wife's clothes. And Smyth went on to reveal he disclosed his secret passion to William McGrath, a house master in the Kincora Boys Home, who was later jailed over sexually abusing underprivileged boys. Smyth and McGrath were both members of the Ireland's Heritage Orange Lodge. Speaking at the launch, Clifford said: 'At that time I had a fetish for wearing my wife's clothes. I no longer have it. But I made the mistake of mentioning this to William McGrath and this led to McGrath giving me months of bogus therapy in his home.' And Smyth later reiterated his claims when he gave evidence to a Judicial Inquiry into sexual abuse in state-funded institutions in Northern Ireland. And speaking to the Sunday World this week, Clifford was also critical of some of the individuals responsible for the promotion of Ulster Scots language and culture in Northern Ireland. But Smyth stopped short of saying anything controversial on the matter. He smiled before adding: 'On that note, we'll say goodbye.'
