Glenn Barr

Glenn Barr OBE
Born	Albert Glenn Barr 1932 (age 84–85) County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK
Nationality	British
Years active	1969-date
Organization	Ulster Workers' Council
Known for	Politician, loyalist activist, community worker
Notable work	Beyond the Religious Divide (co-author)
Title	Joint Deputy Leader of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Term	1975–1978
Predecessor	Ernest Baird
Successor	none
Political party	Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Military career
Allegiance	Ulster Defence Association
Years of service	1971–1975
Rank	Brigadier
Commands held	North-West Brigade
Conflict	The Troubles

Albert Glenn Barr, OBE (born 1932), known as Glen Barr, is a former politician from Derry, Northern Ireland who was an advocate of Ulster nationalism. For a time during the 1970s he straddled both Unionism and Loyalism due to simultaneously holding important positions in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Defence Association.

Initially a member of a general trade union, Barr first came to prominence at the very start of the Troubles in 1969 when he was involved in an initiative to ensure Protestant workers did not join in strikes called by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. He went on to join the Loyalist Association of Workers in the early 1970s and from there became involved in the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). The loose associations of shop stewards that existed in Derry and the surrounding areas formed the basis of the UDA in this area. Indeed, it was Barr who served as Brigadier of the North-West Brigade of the UDA, which would later be known as the Londonderry and North Antrim Brigade.

Around this time Barr also became involved in politics by joining the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party (VPUP) and was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which had been set up under the Sunningdale Agreement, in 1973. As a result, Barr was the only UDA member to serve in either of the two bodies elected in Northern Ireland following the collapse of the Stormont Parliament. However, according to Ian S. Wood it had been Barr's profile as a trade unionist and community worker, rather than any UDA connections, that had won him the election.

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