In October 2011 Billy Hutchinson was elected leader of the Progressive Unionist Party at the party's annual conference in succession to Brian Ervine. Hutchinson and Ervine in particular became close personal friends as well as colleagues and also enjoyed a friendly rivalry with Hutchinson being a Linfield-supporting west Belfast man and Ervine from the east of the city and a Glentoran F.

Hutchinson’s intervention comes as letters signed by members of the loyalist community, urging the DUP to maintain its Stormont boycott, are being collected in halls and centres across Northern Ireland.Hutchinson lost his seat in the 2003 election after the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin took an extra seat each. I can’t justify anything to you, can’t justify anything to anybody out there, I can only justify it to myself, and that’s what you need to do . Billy Hutchinson stands out as a distinguished Humanist Celebrant, accredited by the Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) and officially recognised as a Registered Solemniser by the HSE. Whether you agree or not with the path taken by Billy Hutchinson it is important to hear this story.

I do not think Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance have done so; rather they have inflamed tensions with their blatant disregard for the foundational principles upon which peace and our political process rests. From when I was a young man, I watched this preacher preaching hate and wanting people to kill people, but whenever people had to do it, or were doing it, he didn’t want to know. PUP leader Billy Hutchinson was speaking in the wake of a letter from the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) to unionist political leaders.However, it does appear to me that there is a clear reluctance on the part of those proponents of accepting a deal to open it up to scrutiny. Former Home Affairs Minister, Bill Craig, told a Vanguard rally in 1972, to “build up the dossiers on the men and women who are a menace to this country, because if the politicians fail, it may be our job to liquidate the enemy”. During the early 1990s Hutchinson and David Ervine became more familiar faces in the media, presenting loyalist political demands. Along with Spence and Ervine, Hutchinson was a strong advocate of moves towards peace and he played a leading role in helping to convince UVF commanders to endorse the Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire in 1994. As an authentic link between the UVF and the PUP, he was at the forefront of negotiations that led to the Belfast Agreement and was the UVF’s point of contact during the weapons decommissioning programme.

To be able to try and make sense of NI, the story and experiences of the people of the Shankill Rd and other loyalist communities needs to be heard. Brilliant book,well written, and what the feeling was like as a loyalist,while republicans got the headlines and loyalists were painted as the monsters,we were the real victims of Irish republican violence.The war of words had ignited despite the fact that Hutchinson and White had enjoyed a close friendship in prison.