Chris Hudson (trade unionist)

Christopher Hudson is an Irish former trade union activist who subsequently became a Unitarian minister in Northern Ireland. During the final years of the Troubles Hudson became prominent as a negotiator between the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Irish government and played a key role helping to deliver the Northern Ireland peace process.

Hudson was born in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland into a Catholic family with a strong Irish republican tradition. His father was a member of the original Irish Republican Army and an associate of Éamon de Valera, becoming a founder member of his political party Fianna Fáil. His mother originally came from Belfast but her parents fled their Ormeau Road home in 1922 after receiving death threats from loyalists, moving to Dublin. Their marriage had been mixed-faith, something frowned upon at the time in Belfast.

Hudson's uncle was executed by the Irish Free State government during the Irish Civil War for his activity with the IRA and later a road in his native Dún Laoghaire was named in his honour.

Hudson played in a band, the Chosen Few, with Fran O'Toole, who also played in the Miami Showband. O'Toole was subsequently killed in 1975 by the Mid-Ulster UVF as part of the Miami Showband killings. He also worked as a hairdresser, a writer and in amateur theatre before following a career in the Irish post office.

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