Ken Gibson (loyalist)

Ken Gibson
Ken Gibson with VPP rosette, 1974
Born	Kenneth Gibson East Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Occupation	Manual worker
Known for	Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party (VPP) Spokesman and Chief of Staff of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)

Kenneth "Ken" Gibson was a Northern Irish politician who was the Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party (VPP), which he had helped to form in 1974. He also served as a spokesman and Chief of Staff of the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

Born in predominantly unionist East Belfast, Northern Ireland, Gibson was brought up in the Willowfield area. He was a member of the Free Presbyterian religion before splitting with the church. He had been active as a member of the Sunday men's Bible study group at the Martyrs' Memorial Church, the Free Presbyterians' headquarters on the Ravenhill Road in south-east Belfast. From an early age he identified strongly with loyalism and Unionism. Author Sarah Nelson described him as a "skilled manual worker".

In the early stages of The Troubles, he joined the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and soon had a seat on its Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership on the Shankill Road). According to journalist Joe Tiernan, Gibson, leader Jim Hanna from the Shankill Road UVF, and senior West Belfast member Billy Mitchell, comprised part of the UVF team that planted the Liberty Hall and Sackville Place car bombs in Dublin in December 1972 and January 1973, which left a total of three men dead and 133 people injured. Tiernan also maintained that Gibson and his bombing unit were directed and controlled by officers from the British Intelligence community operating out of Army Headquarters in Lisburn. From January 1973 to December of that year Gibson, described as a "top intelligence officer" in the UVF, was interned in Long Kesh Prison. This experience inside Long Kesh, including contact with Gusty Spence, left him a vehement opponent of internment and a critic of Ian Paisley and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Gibson having previously been chairman of the DUP East Belfast Branch. He then became a leading figure in the Loyalist Association of Workers, a joint UVF-Ulster Defence Association (UDA) front organisation which was eventually merged into the Ulster Workers' Council.