Robert Seymour (loyalist)

Robert Seymour
Robert Seymour is depicted second from the right in this UVF mural. The mural stood for over ten years in Ballymacarrett Road, East Belfast.
Born	c. 1955 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died	15 June 1988 (aged 32–33) Woodstock Road, east Belfast
Nationality	British
Other names	"Squeak" "Bobby Blood"
Occupation	Video shop proprietor
Known for	Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) East Belfast commander

Robert Seymour (c. 1955 – 15 June 1988) was a Northern Irish loyalist and a leading member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He served as the paramilitary organisation's East Belfast commander before being shot dead by the Provisional IRA in an alley behind his video shop in Woodstock Road, east Belfast. His killing was in retaliation for the UVF bombing of a nationalist pub in which three Catholics died.

In 1983, Seymour was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1981 murder of leading IRA member James "Skipper" Burns. Seymour cycled to Burns' home in Rodney Parade, off the Donegall Road, and shot him to death as he lay sleeping beside his girlfriend. Seymour's conviction was overturned in the Appeal Court after the judge found the testimony of supergrass Joe Bennett "unbelievable".

Until 2011, Seymour's image featured on a large mural painted on a gable in Ballymacarrett Road, east Belfast. He had become a local legend after the killing of Burns.

Robert Seymour was born around 1955 in Belfast. He was raised in a Protestant family in staunchly Ulster loyalist east Belfast. On an unknown date he joined the illegal paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He rose in the ranks of its Belfast Brigade, acquiring a reputation as a hitman, and eventually he became the UVF East Belfast commander. The Los Angeles Times alleged that he was number three in the hierarchy of the UVF command. Never having married, Seymour was described by journalists Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald as having been a "quiet single man". He was known by the nicknames of "Squeak" and "Bobby Blood".

Late at night on 23 February 1981 he cycled across Belfast to the home of leading Provisional IRA member James "Skipper" Burns in Rodney Parade, Donegall Road, close to the Falls Road. After breaking into the house whilst Burns and his girlfriend were out, he waited downstairs until the couple returned and went to bed. Seymour then climbed the stairs and shot Burns dead as he lay sleeping beside his girlfriend, using a pistol with a silencer. Burns' girlfriend never woke during the attack and Seymour was able to leave the house undetected. However, as it had started to snow, Seymour, fearing that his bicycle would leave tracks which would ultimately lead the security forces back to him, carried the bicycle on his back along the Donegall Road, across the M1 motorway until he reached the loyalist Village area. This feat, along with the shooting of such a high-ranking IRA member in the Irish republican stronghold of west Belfast, made him a local legend and loyalist folk hero.