[4] As well as being a shipyard worker he also served as a lay preacher[5] and was an elder in north Belfast's John Knox Memorial Free Presbyterian Church.

Seawright, who had initially campaigned for John McQuade before securing his own candidacy, had problems with the party leadership from the beginning of his political career.

[8] In 1984, following the erection of an Irish tricolour on Whiterock leisure centre, Seawright, along with UVF men John Bingham and William 'Frenchie' Marchant, wielded handguns to physically remove it.

[17] Nonetheless, he did not sever his ties with all DUP members and in mid-1985 joined Ivan Foster, Jim Wells and George Graham in a failed attempt to force a banned loyalist march through the mainly nationalist town of Castlewellan.

He stated that he felt it would be impossible to resist the Agreement solely through non-violence and further argued that it would be inevitable for loyalists to break from Ian Paisley and Jim Molyneaux as the two leaders of unionism would never publicly endorse a violent response.

[21] For Seawright conflict was inevitable, especially with the growing electoral success of Sinn Féin which he argued would harden both communities' stances and bring about civil war.

[25] He courted further controversy in September 1986, when he publicly called for revenge after the killing of John Bingham, a leading UVF member and friend of Seawright, by the IRA.

[27] He made similar remarks the following year when UVF member William "Frenchie" Marchant was killed by republicans, stating that he had "no hesitation in calling for revenge and retribution".

Nonetheless, on 19 November 1987, Seawright was shot whilst he waited in a car near a taxi firm on the Shankill Road (for whom he was due to begin working) by the IPLO, dying two weeks later from his wounds on 3 December.

[30] Dillon further stated that Seawright's details, as well as those of Bingham, Lenny Murphy and William Marchant, had been supplied to their killers by leading Ulster Defence Association member James Craig in return for the republicans guaranteeing his safety.

[31] According to an internal UDA document investigating claims of collusion with republicans, Craig had brought two other members to the car park of the Shankill Road leisure centre on the day Seawright was killed, a location only fifty yards away from the murder scene.