Ervine, David Walter

▪ 2008

      Northern Irish Protestant militant and politician

born July 21, 1953 , East Belfast, N.Ire.

died Jan. 8, 2007 , Belfast, N.Ire.

abandoned the illegal loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to join the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which he headed from 2002. Although he opposed unification with Ireland, Ervine played a key role in negotiating both the 1994 cease-fire and the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. Ervine, who joined the UVF as a teenager, was arrested by British soldiers in 1974 while transporting a bomb. He spent more than five years in the Maze prison, where he renounced violence, finished his secondary education, and began an Open University degree program. After his release (1980), Ervine became active in the PUP; he was later elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly and to the Belfast city council.

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