Willie Frazer - Other Activities

Other Activities

In 2004 Frazer invited to South Armagh Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, an advocate of citizen's militias who had written approvingly of their use against insurgencies in Central America and the Philippines.

Frazer came to wider attention in October 2005 when he got into a public argument with a Redemptorist priest, Father Alec Reid. Frazer made remarks that Catholics had butchered Protestants during the Troubles. Father Reid likened unionist treatment of Catholics to the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis. Reid later apologised for the remark, saying he had lost his temper. Frazer reported Reid to the police for incitement to hatred, but no legal action ensued.

In October 2011 he attended a protest in Pomeroy against the use of rubble from a demolished police station to level out the playing field of the local GAA club, which hosts an annual tug-of-war event in memory of Seamus Woods, an IRA member killed by the premature explosion of a mortar while attacking the station. The station was the target of many such IRA attacks during The Troubles. Frazer stated that "moving the rubble to the GAA club would cause a lot of heartache for many families. The unionist population is small in Pomeroy and they certainly feel betrayed."

After attending a Sinn Féin conference in November 2011 in Newry he reacted furiously to an apology by Ulster Unionist Party MLA John McCallister for "unionist failings" in the past. Frazer stated that people were "appalled" by McCallister's remarks.

In 2012 when the city council in Florence, Italy, announced its intention to name a street in honour of the late IRA member and hunger striker Bobby Sands, Frazer condemned the move and stated that he wanted a meeting with the council to discuss the issue.

In May 2012, after seeing the Italian flag being flown as part of a cultural event held in Donaghmore's St Patrick's Primary School and mistaking it for the Irish Tricolour, Frazer accused the school for 4-11 year old children of being "the junior headquarters of SF/IRA youth", stating on Facebook that "I wounder do they also train the children in how to use weapons, for it seems they can do what they wont." Concerned for the safety of students and the school's reputation, teachers informed police of the accusations and photographs of the school posted by Frazer were later removed from Facebook.

Frazer expressed outrage after his car was stopped and searched by the PSNI in October 2012 under anti-terror laws. He announced his intention to report the incident to his solicitor and the Police Ombudsman. The incident occurred outside Whitecross and Frazer's wallet and documents were taken away for examination. Unknown to police, he made a voice recording on his mobile phone. He had taken photos of the cars the police were in but police removed the camera from Frazer and deleted the images. Police provided no explanation to Frazer as to why the stop and search procedure was undertaken.

Following the 2013 horse meat contamination in burgers scandal Frazer gave an interview to The University Times in which he claimed horse meat had actually been introduced to the food chain by the IRA five years before the scandal broke. He also claimed that republicans were behind "old fat cows that are 30 months old" being sold for food before adding that "a blind eye has been turned to it" and that "this is the kind of thing that's going on that we're sick of". However no evidence emerged to support this claim.

Frazer's car was set on fire at his home outside Markethill in the early hours of 10 February 2013. Frazer stated that he was asleep inside the house at the time. A passing police patrol noticed the fire but the car was destroyed. Frazer blamed republicans for the incident and claimed to have received a death threat a few hours before the attack.