Sex scandal threatens Northern Ireland peace process

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Hardline Christian MP in UK embroiled in teenage sex scandal

January 8, 2010 -- A little over forty years ago Hollywood released a movie which captured the world's attention. The Graduate, which starred Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft (pictured), told the story of a young university graduate who took up with the much-older wife of his father's law firm partner. The movie became a sensation, and even today remains the 18th top grossing film of all time. Dustin played the part of Benjamin Braddock, the graduate fresh out of college, while Bancroft starred as Mrs Robinson, his lover. This week memories of the film were revived when on Thursday news broke that a then 59-year old British MP had recently had an affair with a nineteen year old youth in Northern Ireland. The MP, appropriately named Mrs Robinson took up with the then 19-year old Kirk McCambley (now 21). The two became so captivated with each other that Iris Robinson, who currently serves in both the British Parliament and Northern Ireland assembly, arranged loans of the equivalent of $80,000 from two property developers for young Kirk to set up a cafe. It was this financial arrangement, that Mrs Robinson failed to declare, that resulted in the news breaking. Robinson, now 61, a little over a week ago announced she was stepping down saying she was suffering,"severe bouts of depression." Then on Wednesday Robinson's husband Peter, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland's largest political party, held a press conference revealing his wife's affair. "I am determined to try and put this issue behind me," he said at the press conference. "It is my intention to continue the work the people of Northern Ireland have entrusted to me."

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Iris Robinson and Kirk McCambley: a strange tale of Belfast's 'odd couple'

January 8, 2010 -- In what has developed into a stranger-than-fiction tale that has convulsed Northern Ireland, one of the more remarkable details of the affair and financial dealings between Iris Robinson and Kirk McCambley is how they met. Mrs Robinson — MP for Strangford, member of the Northern Ireland assembly, alderman of Castlereagh borough council and wife of Northern Ireland's first minister — was a frequent customer of William (Billy) McCambley's butcher's shop in Ballyhackamore, east Belfast. His young son Kirk would help out in the shop, and first got to know her in the late 1990s when he was still at primary school. Kirk McCambley, now 21, told BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme on Thursday night: "I always seen [sic] her coming in and out. Just knew her from an early age, through the butcher's and through my dad." He could not have failed to have known, even at that early age, who she was. With Peter Robinson's ascension in 2008 to first minister, the couple have officially become the "first couple" of Ulster politics, but have held that role for decades in loyalist east Belfast, where he has been MP since 1979 and a leisure centre is named after him.

Though the DUP leader has a buttoned-up public image, his wife has always been a more colourful figure, exuberant in her manner and carefully coiffed and heavily made up. But no one can have anticipated that this decidedly odd couple – the devout Mrs Robinson, at 59, was old enough to be the then 19-year-old McCambley's grandmother – would have an affair . The relationship developed after Billy McCambley died in early 2008 and Iris promised to look after his only son. "She made sure I was OK," Kirk McCambley told the programme. "Obviously anyone who has ever lost a parent knows that it's an incredibly hard time, and she was there to help." Selwyn Black, Mrs Robinson's former political adviser who turned whistleblower for the BBC exposé, told the programme the couple would take evening walks around Belfast, with Mrs Robinson at first taking a maternal, advisory role. "As for Kirk he is the other son I would have loved to have been a mother to," she texted Black — the Robinsons have two grown up sons and a daughter. But it was not to remain a mother-son relationship; by mid-summer 2008 the couple were having an affair.

It is difficult to overstate the shock Mrs Robinson's admission on Tuesday provoked in Northern Ireland. Both Peter and Iris Robinson are vocal evangelical Christians from a deeply religious and conservative unionist culture. Mrs Robinson's transgression was the more astonishing given the controversy generated last year when she described homosexuality as an abomination on a par with paedophilia that made her nauseous. As the BBC programme coyly noted, the passage in Leviticus that she quoted contains similar sentiments about adultery. Her Christian faith, however, does not seem to have hindered the relationship – nor set limits on her actions as a result of it. Shortly after the couple started sleeping together Mrs Robinson took her young lover on a walk along the river Lagan in Belfast and showed him a new cafe development for which Castlereagh council was advertising for tenants. She told him, said McCambley, "she had … heard about a place down there. I came down and [saw] it, loved it, and started working on my business plan."

But at just 19, with very little business experience and almost no money, McCambley needed help. McCambley says he had heard of the two well-known property developers who each gave Iris Robinson £25,000 which she passed on to him, but had never met them. (It is not known on what terms the men gave the money to the politician, though questions will certainly be asked about the fact that Mrs Robinson, around the same time, was lobbying on one of the men's behalf over a prospective development.) There was one more thing – McCambley was to give her a £5,000 kickback in cash so that she could pay off her own debts. He did. When the question of the lease came to be decided at a council meeting, McCambley was judged the only candidate to have met the criteria. Mrs Robinson was present but did not declare her financial or personal interest.

By the end of 2008 the relationship was over. "Just cut links with Kirk. God's word was very clear on it. He was reasonably OK on it. I am not," she texted to Black. But despite her belated invocation of God, the real reason seems to have been money – Mrs Robinson wanted the investment back. "It seems cruel but I am not going to soften until he has paid back the 45k and he has got until Christmas," read another text. The money was not, at that point, to be returned to the developers, but £20,000 was to be paid to Mrs Robinson's pentecostal church, the Light 'n' Life Free Methodist Tabernacle in Dundonald, on the outskirts of Belfast, and another £20,000 to repay her debts. Black, himself a former chaplain who was increasingly unhappy with the arrangement, texted his employer: "Where is God in all of this?"

That Christmas, at their Florida second home, Mr Robinson found out about the financial arrangement. At his urging, according to Black, McCambley was told to send the two payments of £20,000 (it is unclear what became of the last £5,000) to the two developers. Two months later a Robinson family member, according to Black, found a letter in which details of the relationship emerged. On the night of 1 March 2009 Mrs Robinson tried to take her life. Selwyn Black was summoned to the family home the next morning, where he found her "seriously ill" and called a doctor, who rang for an ambulance. Mr Robinson had left for work; television footage showed him joking in the assembly chamber at the time his wife was being taken to hospital. In her statement, Mrs Robinson said her affair – "the worst thing I have ever done" – was explained by an ongoing battle with depression. "I grieve that I have damaged my profession in Christ, but I am comforted that He was able to forgive even me," she said. Peter Robinson said he had considered leaving his wife but she "would certainly have been less likely to recover if I had left". He has forgiven her; whether the electorate can forgive them both is yet to be seen.

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Iris Robinson expelled from DUP

January 9, 2010 -- In an attempt to limit the damage caused by the Iris Robinson scandal, the Democratic Unionist Party moved today to expel her from the party. Robinson will also leave her Westminster and assembly seats early this week as the DUP punishes her for the furore over her toyboy lover and the £50,000 loan she secured for him. Her husband Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland's first minister, also came under further pressure tonight to maintain his position and remain leader of the DUP. The East Belfast MP has one week to turn his fortunes around as he faces allegations that he failed to report the loan given to his wife, which is a breach of the ministerial code.

The Free Presbyterian church founded by his predecessor, the Rev Ian Paisley, and which is inextricably linked to the DUP dealt a blow to Robinson today when a senior minister and close confidant of Paisley, the Rev David McIlveen called on Robinson to step down as first minister. '"I do believe that his position is becoming increasingly untenable. He has a major problem with regard to solving his own family difficulties, and I personally cannot take the view that a person's private life does not affect their public life. Judgments that we make in private will undoubtedly influence our judgements in public," McIlveen said.

To compound the pressure, Robinson's fellow DUP MP Gregory Campbell said today that his leader had a week to clear his name. Robinson has asked the office of the first and deputy first minister to appoint an independent lawyer who will examine his role in the loan scandal. The DUP repeated this weekend that he did not act improperly and knew nothing about his wife's financial dealings on behalf of her teenage lover.

In a signal that the British government may be preparing for a post-Robinson DUP leadership, the Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward insisted today that the "devolution process is bigger than one man". Although he described Robinson as having been a "pivotal figure" in delivering the unionist community for power sharing, the secretary of state told the Observer: "When Tony Blair left, the process went on. When Bertie Ahern left the process went on. It is not for the government to say who should be first or deputy first minister. In the case of the first minister, that is a matter for the DUP."

The DUP will start to decide on Peter Robinson's future on Monday when the first minister meets the party's officers in Belfast. However, it will be the party's assembly members who will make the ultimate decision whether Robinson remains as DUP leader, and also as first minister. The party has already acted decisively against Iris Robinson who was the "first lady" of unionist politics before the scandal broke. One DUP source said: "There was no question about it, she had to go and go now. There was absolutely no sympathy for the position she found herself in."

Party sources are already suggesting a new team to lead the DUP consisting of Finance Minister Sammy Wilson as first minister and Fermanagh/South Tyrone Assembly member Arlene Foster as the party's leader. British government sources said they hope that, whoever leads the DUP, the party will start to negotiate with Sinn Fein towards devolving policing and justice powers. If the DUP resists, Sinn Fein could use the nomination of a new first minister in the event of Peter Robinson departing to fail to nominate Martin McGuinness as deputy leader. That event would precipitate an election. "The words 'turkeys', 'voting', 'Christmas' come to mind in terms of the DUP forcing Sinn Fein to force an election. The DUP assembly members ought to think about the prospect of half of them losing their seats in the current political climate if they ended up with an election now," said one senior British government source.

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Woodward warns Robinson crisis must not derail assembly

January 9, 2010 -- Northern Ireland's politicians have been warned not to allow the crisis surrounding the future of the first minister to derail devolution. Peter Robinson's position remains uncertain as pressure mounts on him concerning his involvement in his wife Iris's financial dealings. NI Secretary Shaun Woodward said all parties had to ensure political progress in NI did not move backwards. Mrs Robinson is stepping down as an MP and MLA. She is also leaving the DUP. She could leave both her posts as early as next week.

"It is a responsibility on everyone in the assembly to understand that the consequences of allowing the political process to slide would undoubtedly have an impact on the broader canvas," Mr Woodward said. "And that if anybody were to be selfish enough to think this is a moment when that can be allowed to be put in the deep freeze, even some may wish to unpick, they would be extremely irresponsible, foolish and would be playing very, very dangerous games."

Sinn Fein has said it intends to table an emergency motion in the assembly on Monday asking Mr Robinson to answer questions about the recent allegations against him. The party has said it wants to find out if there are any implications for the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister arising from the BBC Spotlight programme. Earlier this week, the BBC alleged Mr Robinson did not tell the authorities his wife failed to register £50,000 she obtained from two property developers. He has asked officials at the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister to investigate his conduct. On Friday, Mr Robinson said he believed he had not done anything wrong. However, he added that he would "not be slow" in taking a decision if the investigation found that he should have acted differently.

The Spotlight programme said Mrs Robinson had obtained the money from two property developers, which was paid to her 19-year-old lover, Kirk McCambley, to help him launch a cafe. It said the DUP leader had known about her financial dealings, but did not tell the proper authorities despite being obliged by the ministerial code to act in the public interest at all times. The financial allegations followed a public admission by Mr Robinson that his wife had attempted suicide after her affair.

Earlier on Saturday, Reverend David McIlveen, a Free Presbyterian minister who is a close friend of former DUP leader Ian Paisley, said he believed Mr Robinson should consider stepping down temporarily. "I do believe that his position is becoming increasingly untenable," he said. "He has a major problem with regard to solving his own family difficulties, and I personally cannot take the view that a person's private life does not affect their public life. Judgements that we make in private will undoubtedly influence our judgements in public."

It is understood the party will appoint someone to replace Mrs Robinson as an MLA as soon as possible. There will not be a by-election for her Westminster seat because a general election is likely to be held before a formal writ can be moved. A party source said the next few days were "absolutely critical for the party". "We wanted to show people we were acting decisively. There was no question about it, she had to go and go now," they said. "There was absolutely no sympathy for the position she found herself in."

Mrs Robinson represents the Strangford constituency in County Down both at Westminster and at the Northern Ireland Assembly. Last month, she issued a statement saying she was leaving politics due to ill health, however, news that she was stepping down came earlier than expected. The Robinsons were married in 1970 and have three grown-up children.

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Paisley 'beyond fury' over Robinson sleaze

January 10, 2010 -- The Reverend Ian Paisley is "beyond fury" following revelations about the behaviour of Peter and Iris Robinson, sources have told the Sunday Tribune. The former DUP leader is deeply saddened by fears that the party he founded, and led for 37 years, could face heavy electoral losses if urgent action isn't taken. It is understood that Paisley, as a family man, is appalled that Iris Robinson had an affair with a teenager she had known from the age of nine and who was in an emotionally vulnerable position following his father's death. Meanwhile, it emerged this weekend that Iris Robinson also had an affair with 19-year-old Kirk McCambley's father, a butcher who died from cancer. She had another affair with a fellow DUP member in the 1980s which was witnessed by the security forces. Paisley is understood to share the feelings of many people across Northern Ireland that the DUP vote could collapse in May's Westminster election. While the majority of DUP MPs still publicly support Peter Robinson, a growing number of senior colleagues have grave doubts about his future.

Willie Frazer of Fair, a group representing thousands of IRA victims, is also demanding Robinson resign. North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds is favourite to take over with East Derry MP Gregory Campbell as his deputy. However, it is unclear if Dodds wants the job. "Peter must go and go as quickly as possible. He is damaging us all," a party officer said. One prominent politician stated: "The danger is that we will all be punished at the polls for the Robinsons' behaviour." While not calling for Robinson's resignation, a veteran member said: "This is the lowest point in our party's history. It's a grim situation." Another senior DUP figure said: "The next few days will be vital in determining whether Peter can recover his position politically or whether he is regarded as an electoral liability."

There are calls for a full investigation into all the Robinsons' past dealings with two property developers, Ken Campbell and the now deceased Fred Fraser, who helped fund the business of Iris Robinson's lover. Peter Robinson has sought legal opinion from a departmental barrister as to the correctness of his actions in not disclosing his wife's financial transaction to the appropriate authorities. Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said this was wholly inadequate and demanded "a proper independent investigation". While Paisley shares Iris Robinson's religious objections to homosexuality, he is said to be deeply disturbed that she was lecturing others while committing adultery. Paisley was one of three DUP MPs who didn't issue a statement supporting Peter Robinson in advance of the BBC Spotlight programme. It is understood he believed MPs should have watched the programme and considered the allegations before giving Robinson their absolute backing.

Iris Robinson's affair with Kirk McCambley isn't her first. She had an affair with a fellow DUP member in the 1980s. It was witnessed by security force members voluntarily guarding the Robinsons' house after the RUC officially withdrew their protection over Peter Robinson's loyalist invasion into Clontibret. Fair director Willie Frazer, said: "Iris Robinson securing £50,000 from businessmen for her lover contrasts strongly with the DUP's lack of largesse for IRA victims. "The widows of security-force members living on the poverty line are very angry. Peter Robinson must resign. It's time to rebuild the credibility of unionist politicians." A Panorama programme tomorrow on the Robinsons will place further pressure on the DUP leader.

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Power-sharing on the brink as Robinson affair stirs election fears

January 10, 2010 -- Overnight snowfalls had transformed the forest park and the footpaths around the Lock Keepers' Inn at the southern edge of Belfast yesterday. Icicles dripping from trees twinkled in the sunshine, the water inside the lock parallel to the River Lagan had frozen over, and the only things moving in the still freezing air were the jets of hot breath from the mouths of joggers, country walkers and the tourists ambling towards the visitors' centre and café on the site of the old lock-keeper's cottage. Inside the café they were serving a winter-warming beefy Irish stew placed within a hollowed-out "Belfast bap" – a home-made, round, rough bread that is a much-loved speciality of the city.

It was hard to imagine that this bucolic tourist trap in Northern Ireland's Lagan valley has been at the centre of a real-life political soap opera over the past 72 hours that has destroyed the career of Iris Robinson, the most famous woman in Northern Irish politics, and now threatens to bring down her husband, Peter, the country's first minister. The drama, which began with an affair between Mrs Robinson, then 59, and 19-year-old Kirk McCambley, threatens to destabilise the entire power-sharing project that has helped to end four decades of sectarian violence and which holds up the province as a model for peace-making around the world.

When the story began to leak out about the affair, his wife's attempted suicide and the £50,000 she had given to McCambley to open the inn, Peter Robinson adopted a strategy of damage limitation and summoned a party of hand-picked journalists to his home in east Belfast. Looking gaunt and with tears welling in his eyes, the east Belfast man poured his heart out in front of the camera as he laid out painful details of his wife's affair. It was an astonishing transformation in Robinson's hard-man, technocratic, cold-blooded public image – from a man in total control to one who appeared battered and broken and eliciting public sympathy.

Twenty-four hours later and the picture had altered radically. Judging by the radio talk-shows' phone-ins and local newspaper opinion polls, public anger was directed at both Robinsons. The family's personal and financial affairs have already been under some scrutiny after it emerged last year that between them the couple earned £571,939.41 in salaries and expenses from both the Stormont and Westminster parliaments. Their luxury cars, property portfolio in Northern Ireland and their holiday home in Florida earned them the nickname the "Swish Family Robinson". Fresh allegations over the £50,000 borrowed by Iris Robinson, and what her husband did or did not say about the money, compounded anger against Northern Ireland's "first family". Iris Robinson has not been seen in public since the scandal broke.

Predictably the most trenchant call for Robinson to resign came from his bitterest rival, the founder of the hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice and former DUP MEP, Jim Allister. The TUV leader said: "The first minister has serious questions to answer about his role in these matters. When he became aware of the money, did he tell his wife to declare it in the register of members' interests? Failure to do so would have assisted in the cover-up. The various standards commissioners should leave no stone unturned in their investigations into these matters. In all of these circumstances Mr Robinson has lost the moral authority to govern and therefore should resign as first minister."

Panic is spreading throughout the Northern Ireland Office and the British government over the prospect of Robinson falling and the entire edifice of power-sharing being endangered. Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland secretary who earlier in the week was among Gordon Brown's stoutest defenders in the face of the attempted Hoon-Hewitt coup against the prime minister, stepped forward yesterday to stand up for another embattled politician. The secretary of state described the DUP leader as a "pivotal figure" in the political process. Woodward called for time for the first minister to clear his name but, in a telling remark, the Northern Ireland secretary also seemed to hint that there was still political life in a post-Robinson future. He said: "Trust is, of course, the essential commodity. I think we have all got to be conscious that the [devolution] process is bigger than any one man."

That man will face his party's officers tomorrow. They will no doubt be nervous about the electoral consequences of this running scandal. One DUP source told the Observer that there were "a lot of very nervous people about" in the party as it faced the general election this year, and possibly an assembly election too. "Do we want to rap doors and stop voters in the high street and have to explain what the Robinsons were up to?" one party member said this weekend.

Until the departure of the Rev Ian Paisley from the DUP leadership, the Free Presbyterian Church was the party-at-prayer. Although the Robinsons are not Free Presbyterians, one of the church's senior ministers and a close friend of Ian Paisley piled the pressure on the first minister yesterday by suggesting he should consider stepping down temporarily. The Rev David McIlveen, who is outspoken on issues of sexual morality for the church, said: "I do believe that his position is becoming increasingly untenable. He has a major problem with regard to solving his own family difficulties, and I personally cannot take the view that a person's private life does not affect their public life. Judgments that we make in private will undoubtedly influence our judgments in public."

Peter Robinson now has about a week to save his career, with first a critical meeting with DUP officers and later an inquiry in which the first minister will face questions about the scandal from a senior lawyer. For Robinson and for the province, stakes are high. A change of leadership could push the party towards the right, forcing them to resist Sinn Féin demands that the DUP agree to devolving policing and justice powers from Westminster to the assembly.

Amid the crisis last week, Lord Morrow, a senior member of the DUP, warned that there would be no transfer of policing and justice powers in the lifetime of this parliament. If Sinn Féin react to this obstinacy by pulling out of the power-sharing government, the devolved executive will fall. And if the TUV capitalises on a post-Robinson backlash against the DUP, the next assembly may not have enough unionist numbers to create a power-sharing administration representing both communities. If Sinn Féin becomes the single largest party, it is clear no one in the DUP would advocate serving under Martin McGuinness as first minister. The entire devolution project would be in chaos.

Iris Robinson's career is over, but she is certainly not the first DUP politician from the party's evangelical Christian wing whose career has been abruptly ended over charges of hypocrisy and double-dealing. Just a two-minute stroll from the Lock Keepers' Inn is the five-star Ramada hotel, the location for the DUP's last sex scandal back in 2005. Paul Berry at 22 was the youngest-ever member elected to the Northern Ireland assembly. A gospel singer as well as DUP activist from the age of 16, Berry went just days before the 2005 election to the Ramada hotel under a false name and booked into a bedroom. There he met a man he had contacted on an online gay chat-room, and according to the latter they had sex, a claim denied by Berry, who said he went there for a "sports massage".

Among those in the DUP high command who insisted that Berry be kicked out of the party, given its traditional policies of homespun family values and born-again Christianity, was Peter Robinson. Among those who wanted to give the young Co Armagh man a fair hearing was Dr Ian Paisley, the founder of both the party and the Free Presbyterian Church. As a result, Paisley was forced to listen to a secret recording the gay masseur had made of his encounter on a mobile phone with Berry. Berry was subsequently expelled from the party over the incident. There was one other DUP politician who stood by Paisley as the lurid recording of gay sex was played to the "Big Man" and who advised the then DUP boss to rid himself of this troublesome young assembly man. He was none other than the party's then rising star Jim Allister, the man who now stands most to gain electorally from the trials and tribulations of Iris Robinson, and the havoc she has wreaked on her husband's career.