Hugh Smyth OBE (16 March 1939 – 12 May 2014) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who was leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 1979 to 2002, as well as during an interim period in 2011.

[2][4] Smyth first came to attention in the early 1970s when he served as a public spokesman for the Ulster Volunteer Force[6] although he was not an active member of the organisation.

[3] While serving in the Assembly, Smyth was claimed by the UVF as a member of the Ulster Loyalist Front, a political arm that the group had established in October 1973.

Smyth was close to leading UVF member Gusty Spence, who had become a supporter of political methods, and the two worked to recruit David Ervine to the PUP after being impressed by his ability as a speaker.

[3] Although Smyth managed to build up a strong personal following on the Shankill Road, this did not transfer to the rest of the PUP which enjoyed little success elsewhere, barring a single member's election to Carrickfergus Borough Council in 1985 and 1989, until after the 1994 ceasefire.

[3] Following the 1994 ceasefire by the Combined Loyalist Military Command, of which the UVF was a member, Smyth became an important figure in the negotiations that followed, accompanying Ervine and Ulster Democratic Party representatives Gary McMichael and John White to 10 Downing Street in June 1996 for a meeting designed to prevent the collapse of the ceasefire.

[16] The same year Smyth was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum, along with Ervine, as "top-up" members on account of the PUP finishing in seventh place overall.

Referring to the scene of an IRA bomb attack in 1972 at the Four Step Inn where he was helping retrieve bodies from the rubble, Ian Paisley approached him and said "Your worries are over.

"[19] In the 1997 general election Smyth stood as PUP candidate in South Antrim where his 9% vote share was seen as a respectable result in what had been a traditionally solid Ulster Unionist Party seat.

[25][26] His funeral took place on 16 May and set off from the West Belfast Orange Hall on the Shankill Road to the service at St Anne's Cathedral.