Hugh Ross (Northern Ireland politician)

Hugh Ross (born c. 1944) is a Presbyterian minister and member of the Orange Order, who was previously the leader of the now defunct Ulster Independence Movement (UIM).

Ross began his political involvement with the Ulster Clubs which emerged in the 1980s to galvanise opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement and appeared on the BBC's local news programme in August 1986 to launch an attack on cross-border co-operation. Eventually the UIM developed out of this group and Ross became leader of the main avowedly Ulster nationalist organisation in Northern Ireland's history.

Ross enjoyed relatively high vote shares as a candidate at both the Upper Bann by-election of 1990 and the 1994 European elections. He headed the list for the UIM at the 1996 elections for the Northern Ireland Forum (a precursor to the Northern Ireland Assembly) although he failed to get elected and has since largely left politics, emerging from time to time to write articles for the Ulster Third Way journal, Ulster Nation.

As a member of the Orange Order, Rev Ross was also involved in the difficulties over the march to Drumcree Church and addressed rallies of Order supporters in the area.

Ross' retirement from the political scene was in part caused by accusations in a Channel 4 documentary that he was part of a committee which oversaw collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and loyalists.

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