Glen Kane and Mark Sinclair in one of Sinclar's YouTube videos
A loyalist killer and a former UVF member attended an anti-immigration demonstration in Glasgow that turned violent.
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney and other politicians condemned the violence, which started at Glasgow Green before spreading into the city centre.
Anti-racists gathered at Glasgow Green to oppose a demonstration by anti-immigration protesters. Clips on social media showed attendees performing Nazi salutes and mounted police drew batons and separated the groups.
Those attending the protest from Northern Ireland included Glen Kane who was jailed for nine years for being part of a mob which killed a Catholic man during a sectarian riot in 1992.
He was in Glasgow last weekend with convicted armed robber and former Ulster Volunteer Force member Mark Sinclair, who calls himself ‘Freedom Dad’ on Youtube where he posts videos.
Kane is a former member of the British National Party. He and Sinclair were seen posing for pictures last month with a gang of men in east Belfast, including English far-right agitator Daniel Thomas, shortly before the riots started.
Separately, he appeared in court in Belfast, on a race-hate charge dating from August 2024. He denies the charge and the case is due to be heard in September.
Sinclair was jailed for 18 years in 2003 for a series of bank robberies in Scotland.
Sinclair, a Rangers football club fan, opposes multiculturalism and said he regularly visits Glasgow. In a recent video posted while travelling by boat back to Northern Ireland, he said: “It was a bit of an eye opener for us in Northern Ireland to see Glasgow in such a state. It was ‘spot the white man’ unfortunately and that’s the way it’s going and it’s not going to get any better.
“Nobody’s being removed and they’re going to be here to stay, and they’re going to have children, and their children are going to outbreed us, and Scottish people, especially Glasgow people, will be a minority,” he added. “This is where we’re at today. It’s facts, it’s not misinformation. We aren’t far right racists to love our country, to love our traditions, and to love our cultures, and not want to see changes.
“We’re not going to lie down and let these people, or the government destroy what we know as our culture and traditions in Ulster, Northern Ireland. The bottom line is we’re a white Christian country.”
Following the protest in Glasgow last Saturday, Sinclair posted a video claiming five people had travelled from Belfast, as well as others from Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and Hull.
He described the protest as “pretty eventful” and said “it was really dangerous coming into the demo” because a group called the Green Brigade, which supports Celtic football club, were there.
In the same clip, Kane accused anti-racists of causing trouble in Glasgow. He said police questioned and photographed him at the protest while he was kettled with other anti-immigration protestors. He also admitted being a former member of the BNP but denied being a far-right leader in Scotland when this was put to him by Sinclair. “I just wanted to come over and observe the right wing,” he said. “I had a good day.”
Last June Sinclair attended anti-immigrant protest rallies in Dublin and Limerick.
Ex-BNP member and loyalist preacher Jim Dowson was also in Glasgow during the weekend of the protest. The Ferret revealed yesterday he was helping to fundraise for Scottish “vigilante” patrol groups, who have been criticised for targeting migrants.
Hope not hate claimed both Kane and Sinclair are “well established members of the Northern Irish far-right scene”, adding: “The events in Glasgow last weekend are evidence of a growing issue whereby overtly racialised rhetoric, including ethnonationalism and neo-Nazism, is becoming less taboo.”
Holly Bruce MSP, the Greens’ shadow cabinet secretary for social justice, said: “The violence and intimidation we saw in Glasgow at the weekend was appalling. The reported involvement of people with histories in loyalist paramilitarism, racist politics and serious violence is deeply alarming and cannot be dismissed as a ‘protest’.”
Sinclair has been asked to comment. We were unable to contact Kane.
Billy Briggs is a journalist with The Ferret