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Robert Bradford, in full Robert John Bradford, (born June 8, 1941, Limavady, Northern Ireland—died November 14, 1981, Belfast), Northern Irish Methodist clergyman and politician who served as a unionist member of the British Parliament for seven years (1974–81) until his assassination by militants of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
After attending Queen’s University, Belfast, Bradford was ordained a Methodist minister and first stood unsuccessfully for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973. In the general election of 1974 he was elected to Parliament as a member of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition (an alliance of Northern Irish unionist parties) for Belfast South. Bradford was expelled from the coalition for his support of power sharing between Protestants and Roman Catholics, but he came to revise this view and in 1975 joined the Official Unionist Party, retaining the seat for it in 1979. He was a leading member of the Orange Order and a close friend of the Rev. Ian Paisley, who shared Bradford’s opposition to the ecumenical movement. Bradford was an advocate of conservative policies in social matters, and he opposed the movement to reform laws on homosexuality.
Bradford opposed any conciliatory gestures toward the IRA and supported more-vigorous security measures in Northern Ireland and the imposition of the death penalty for terrorist activities. At the time of his death, Bradford was engaged in a campaign to discredit the IRA in the eyes of its American supporters.
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