Ronald Bunting

Major Ronald Terence Bunting (1 January 1924 – 28 June 1984)[1] was a British Army officer and unionist political figure in Northern Ireland.

Bunting was commissioned into the Armagh and Down Army Cadet Force in May 1946 and resigned in March 1950 when he transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a lieutenant.

[2] Bunting's first involvement with politics was as election agent to Republican Labour Party MP Gerry Fitt,[2][3] although he broke from Fitt and became a close associate of Ian Paisley, playing a leading role in Paisley's campaigns against the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, as well as running unsuccessfully for the Protestant Unionist Party in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969 in Belfast Victoria.

[5] As head of this group, Bunting led the protests against many civil rights marches, most notably the 1969 Belfast to Derry civil rights march organised by People's Democracy, which resulted in a particularly bloody confrontation at Burntollet.

[6] In a fiery court case in 1969, Bunting was sentenced to three months' imprisonment along with Paisley for his role in the disturbances.