[2] Attracted to fundamentalism, Doherty joined the Ravenhill Road congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1956 and soon became close to its leader, the Reverend Ian Paisley.
[2] Although Doherty was only 16 years of age when Ulster Protestant Action was set up in 1956, Paisley nominated the east Belfast native to a post on the executive body of the newly formed movement.
[11] Mitchell, who was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), dismissed the attacks as minor, claiming that all Doherty had was "a few sticks of weeping gelly an auld farmer would use to blow up tree stumps" but nonetheless the bombings caused an outcry.
[12] He procured explosives for the Shankill Road UVF but during the transaction a business card belonging to his associate James Murdock was dropped at the scene and found by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
On the day of his imprisonment, Paisley made a speech outside the prison in which he denied all knowledge of Doherty's offences, before announcing that he was forthwith expelled from the UPV and the UCDC.
His conspiracy theories were taken up by the likes of William McGrath, the founder of Tara, and John McKeague, who established a number of groups including the Shankill Defence Association, the Red Hand Commando and the Ulster Independence Party.