A neighbour of Ervine's, William Irvine, who was a member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), had died in one of the bomb blasts on that day.

[7] He was part of a delegation to Downing Street in June 1996 that met then British Prime Minister John Major to discuss the loyalist ceasefire.

In 1996 Ervine was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum from the regional list, having been an unsuccessful candidate in the East Belfast constituency.

[16] In April 2001, he provoked a direct political attack from the DUP over being the only unionist to vote against a motion condemning the display of lilies commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising at Parliament Buildings.

[18] In May 2005, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) recommended a continuation of the financial sanctions on Ervine's Assembly salary imposed following its report of April 2004.

The IMC was of the opinion that the UVF and the PUP maintained strong links while the former was heavily involved in criminality such as drug dealing and tobacco and fuel smuggling.

It further noted that the UVF was responsible for a number of acts of violence (including murder) and was actively maintaining its capacity to wage a terrorist campaign.

It concluded that, 12 months after the sanctions were originally imposed, the PUP leadership was still not doing enough to address the UVF's criminal and paramilitary activities.

Ervine appealed the IMC's recommendation to newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain on the basis that he could not be held directly responsible for the UVF's actions and thus it was wrong to penalise him personally.

It argued that the PUP leadership was still in a position significantly to influence the UVF: the party could not have it both ways by associating with an active paramilitary organisation without facing political consequences.

In its final regular reports of Ervine's life in April and October 2006, the IMC concluded that it was satisfied the PUP leadership had taken appropriate action to de-escalate UVF's violence and criminality, and it withdrew its punitive recommendations.

"[1] Ervine dismissed allegations of collusion between loyalists and British security forces as "sheer unadulterated nonsense", saying, "there comes a point when the concept insults me, insomuch as that a Provo could lie in bed and with a crystal ball... could pick their targets but a Prod could only do the same if there was an SAS man driving the car".

"[23]Ervine was reported as having suffered two massive heart attacks and a stroke[24] after attending a football match between Glentoran and Armagh City at The Oval in Belfast on Saturday 6 January 2007.

It was attended by Mark Durkan, George Cassidy, Gerry Adams, Peter Hain, Dermot Ahern, Hugh Orde and David Trimble, among others.