Sergeant Robert James Irvine (Hansard, 21 October 1992)

§ Rev. Ian Paisley (Antrim, North)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the slaughter of Sergeant Robert James Irvine. the first member of the Royal Irish Regiment to be murdered by the IRA in Northern Ireland. The matter is specific, and the stark facts are as follows. Sergeant Irvine served in the police reserve and served for 15 years in the Ulster Defence Regiment. When that regiment was merged, he joined the Royal Irish Regiment. He had to shift from his present accommodation because it had to be rebuilt and enlarged for his family. He moved to his mother's home where his sister and his uncle still live. His family of two and his wife moved into an outbuilding of his mother's home.

Last night, after he came home and had a bath at his mother's home, he went over to the house where his wife and family were. He was brutally and in a cowardly way shot down by the IRA and was riddled with bullets. When Margaret his wife, his son Gordon and his daughter Allison opened the door, their father's dead body slumped in across the threshold.

I must tell the House today that, with the clampdown on the roads of Ulster by the security forces, which is welcomed and the resulting hindrance for the IRA to shift its bombing material, no doubt the IRA is now turning to soft targets. As members of the Royal Irish Regiment often live in isolated areas—the part of my constituency where the murder took place last night is isolated—they arc more prone to such attacks than ever before.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that this matter, and the safety of wives and families of members of the Royal Irish Regiment, which we were told when it was formed would gain acceptance in the community, be considered. It is a prime necessity that urgent steps be taken along the lines that I have described.