Alexander Robinson

[3] Born on York Street in the Sailortown area of Belfast, Ireland, around 1901, Robinson's early life in the docks was indicative of his future problems with the law.

[3] During this time Robinson claimed to have been Dawson Bates' bodyguard, who was Minister for Home Affairs in Sir James Craig's government.

He won his first significant amateur boxing bout at the King's Hall in 1922 representing the USC and would later go on to win the Irish middleweight championship in 1927.

[6] The police thought Robinson, who led a UPA group on Andrews street, was, "a dangerous gunman and leader of a murderous gang".

[3] Several documents on his detention exist, including a letter from the RUC Commissioner recommending his internment: "The respectable and law-abiding Protestants and Unionists residing in the area want to have these men taken from the locality at any cost, as they truly state there can be no peace so long as they are at large."

[10] Sources vary as to how these were acquired, one that they came from a visiting circus which Robinson allowed to use waste ground he owned at the rear of his house on Back Ship Street.

Journalist Seth Linder writes that the lions were acquired from Dublin and Belfast Zoo, with Alec displaying them at a travelling circus throughout Ireland.

Gusty Spence and Ian Paisley attended his funeral, the latter carrying the coffin and describing Robinson as "a rare character, a typical Ulsterman, an interesting facet of Ulster's history".

In his book Formations of Violence, Allen Feldman argues that Robinson was seen as a "hard man" who believed in a fair fight, rather than a common thug.