Robin Stirling
Robin Stirling is a former Unionist politician in Ballymena, County Antrim. Having previously sat on Ballymena Borough Council as a Traditional Unionist Voice member and for a period before as a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor.[1]
He was quoted as strongly opposing a visit from Irish president Mary McAleese to a Ballymena school in 2006.[2]
A former pupil of Ballymena Academy he was critical of the politics of Roger Casement,a fellow attendee of Ballymena Academy and prominent Protestant Irish Nationalist who was previously a British diplomat later executed for treason.[3]
Stirling resigned from the DUP in April 2007 in protest in the DUP's decision to share power with Sinn Féin.[4] To much surprise Stirling supported a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor becoming mayor of Ballymena in 2008.[5]
He has spoken out on his views of the grammar of the English language being misused and accused former DUP colleagues of using incorrect grammar.[6]
Stirling has also stated he has little faith in a truth commission being set up for victims of The Troubles.[7]
In 2009 Stirling, apparently in a drunken state, was ejected from a Chinese restaurant in Ballymena, at which he was attending a Milk Cup fund raising event, after heckling former Manchester United player Harry Gregg. It was rumoured that Stirling would be disciplined by the TUV[8] though Harry Gregg himself sought to distance himself from the incident.[9]
Stirling did not seek re-election in the 2011 local government elections.
References
- Ballymena Borough Council councillors Archived 6 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- DUP man loves Dublin Nuzhound
- "Casement:Traitor or patriot?" BBC News 6 August 2006 retrieved 5 May 2012
- Two more councillors leaving DUPBBC News
- Stirling says back PJ for mayors job Ballymena Times
- Stirling Grammar school selection not helping grammar Ballymena Times
- Truth commission will mean 'bodies on streets' The Newsletter
- Councillor heckled Man U star BBC News
- Gregg plays down heckling incident The Newsletter