35-714: The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974. The party emerged following splits in the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973 and 1974 over the British government's white paper Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals , the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election , and the Sunningdale Agreement . Faulkner had led the majority of the UUP into
70-463: A company which he proved instrumental in attracting to Northern Ireland during his tenure as Minister of Commerce. His twenty-four-day life peerage was thus the shortest-lived until the death of Lord Heywood of Whitehall in 2018 just nine days after ennoblement, although there have been hereditary peerages, such as that of Lord Leighton , which have been shorter still. Prime Minister of Northern Ireland The prime minister of Northern Ireland
105-521: A government without security powers which the British government under Edward Heath decided to take back. The Stormont parliament was subsequently prorogued (initially for a period of one year) and following the appointment of a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland , William Whitelaw , direct rule was introduced. In June 1973, elections were held to a new devolved parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly . The elections split
140-549: A move without precedent in the United Kingdom in modern times, Faulkner introduced internment on 9 August 1971. This was a disaster; instead of lessening the violence, it caused the situation to worsen. David Bleakley resigned in September 1971 over internment and Faulkner appointed Dr G. B. Newe , a prominent Catholic, as Minister of State in the Cabinet Office. Faulkner's administration staggered on through
175-558: A narrow country road when his horse slipped. Faulkner was thrown off and killed instantly. He was laid to rest at Magherahamlet Presbyterian Church near Spa in County Down where he had been a regular member of the congregation. Lord Faulkner had retired from active politics and was pursuing his interests in industry at the time of his death. He had recently become a European consultant for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company ,
210-458: A personal setback in his South Down constituency. He finished in 7th place with 6,000 first preference votes in an area where he had topped the poll with 16,000 votes just two years earlier. Consequently the influence of both the UPNI and Faulkner waned. In 1976 Faulkner stepped down as leader of the party (and withdrew from active politics) and was succeeded by Anne Dickson , the first woman to lead
245-597: A political party in Northern Ireland. However the party continued to make little ground. In 1977 UPNI won just six local council seats. The 1979 Westminster election proved to be a further disappointment, as the main consequence of the party standing seemed to be to split the centre vote. In North Belfast , Dickson's 4,000 votes were greater than the DUP majority of 1,000 over the UUP. Similarly in East Belfast
280-696: A power-sharing coalition but in January 1974 he was deposed as leader as the anti-Sunningdale faction of the party won control. In the February 1974 general election a number of Faulkner's followers (including several sitting MPs) stood as Pro-Assembly Unionists against a coalition of the Ulster Unionist Party , the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party . They failed to win
315-536: A result in autumn 1981 the UPNI was formally dissolved. William Bailie, their last remaining councillor, joined the Alliance Party and was re-elected as an Alliance councillor in North Down. Faulkner himself died in a riding accident in 1977. Anne Dickson replaced him as leader of the party. However, the party had poor showings at the 1977 local elections and also the 1979 general election . The party
350-654: A single seat at Westminster, and this defeat contributed to the downfall of the power-sharing Executive established by Sunningdale. However they remained active and in September constituted themselves as the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, committed to a return to power-sharing as a settlement for Northern Ireland. The party did not prosper. In the October 1974 general election they again failed to make much ground. The weakness of Faulkner's position within Unionism
385-615: The Republic of Ireland Act by remarking "They have no right to the title Ireland, a name of which we are just as proud as they". Lord Faulkner, a keen huntsman, died on 3 March 1977 at the age of 56 following a riding accident whilst hunting with the County Down Staghounds at the Ballyagherty/Station Road junction near Saintfield , County Down . Faulkner had been riding at full gallop along
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#1732776662756420-708: The Ulster Young Unionist Council in 1949. In 1956 Faulkner was offered and accepted the job of Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, or Government Chief Whip. In 1959, he became Minister of Home Affairs and his handling of security for most of the Irish Republican Army 's Border Campaign of 1956–62 bolstered his reputation in the eyes of the right wing of Ulster unionism. When Terence O'Neill became prime minister in 1963 he appointed Faulkner, his chief rival for
455-475: The Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party , which contested the elections in opposition to the UUP. The power-sharing Executive which he led lasted only six months and was brought down by a loyalist Ulster Workers Council Strike in May 1974. Loyalist paramilitary organisations were prominent in intimidating utility workers and blockading roads. The strike had the tacit support of many unionists. In 1974, Faulkner lost
490-532: The prime minister of the United Kingdom . On the advice of the new prime minister, the lord lieutenant then created the Department of the Prime Minister . The office of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972 and then abolished in 1973, along with the contemporary government, when direct rule of Northern Ireland was transferred to London. The Government of Ireland Act provided for
525-579: The DUP finished 64 votes ahead of the UUP and 900 ahead of the Alliance party with Norman Agnew taking 2,000 votes for UPNI. In 1981 the party admitted the weakness of its own position during the local government election campaign and that power-sharing on the 1973 model was no longer a viable option. The party fought the 1981 local elections in an electoral pact with the Ulster Popular Unionist Party but only won two seats. As
560-538: The UUP. Faulkner became chief executive in a power-sharing executive with the SDLP and the centre-ground Alliance Party , a political alliance cemented at the Sunningdale Conference that year. However, the prominence in the Sunningdale Agreement of the cross-border Council of Ireland suggested that Faulkner had strayed too far ahead of his party. A section of the party had previously broken away to form
595-566: The appointment of the executive committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland by the governor . No parliamentary vote was required. Nor, theoretically, was the executive committee and its prime minister responsible to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland . In reality the governor chose the leader of the party with a majority in the House to form a government. On each occasion this
630-515: The ensuing leadership contest, Faulkner lost out again when O'Neill gave his casting vote to his cousin, James Chichester-Clark . In 1970, Faulkner became the Father of the House . Faulkner came back into government as Minister of Development under Chichester-Clark and in a sharp turn-around, began the implementation of the political reforms that were the main cause of his resignation from O'Neill's cabinet. Chichester-Clark himself resigned in 1971;
665-493: The family's former holiday house on the island of Islandmore on Strangford Lough . Michael Faulkner died on 1 June 2024 at the age of 71. Brian Faulkner was a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry but was expelled from the group in 1971. Faulkner considered himself to be both Irish and British, writing "the Northern Ireland citizen is Irish and British; it is a question of complement, not of conflict" and reacted to
700-534: The final seat. In 1976 Faulkner announced that he was quitting active politics. He was elevated to the House of Lords in the New Year's Honours list of 1977, being created Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick , of Downpatrick in the County of Down on 7 February 1977. Faulkner married Lucy Forsythe , a graduate of Trinity College Dublin , in 1951. They met through their common interests in politics and hunting. She
735-622: The first of his family to do so, and was elected to the Parliament of Northern Ireland as the Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of East Down in 1949. His vociferous traditional unionist approach to politics ensured him a prominent backbench position. He was, at the time, the youngest ever MP in the Northern Irish Parliament. He was also the first Chairman of
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#1732776662756770-468: The job, as Minister of Commerce . Faulkner resigned in 1969 over the technicalities of how and when to bring in the local government reforms which the British Labour government was pushing for. This was a factor in the resignation of Terence O'Neill, who resigned as prime minister in the aftermath of his failure to achieve a good enough result in the 1969 Northern Ireland general election . In
805-697: The leadership of the UUP to anti-Sunningdale elements led by Harry West . He subsequently resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party and formed the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland . The UPNI fared badly in the Convention elections of 1975, winning only five out of the 78 seats contested. Whereas Faulkner had topped the poll in South Down in 1973 with over 16,000 votes, he polled just 6,035 votes in 1975 and finished seventh, winning
840-568: The opposition salaried chairmanships of two of them. However, this initiative (radical at the time) was soon overtaken by events. The shooting of two Catholic youths in Derry by British soldiers prompted the SDLP , the largest Nationalist party and main opposition to boycott the Stormont parliament. The political climate deteriorated further when, in response to the worsening security situation, and in
875-487: The political and security situation and the more intensive British interest proving difficult. In March 1971 Faulkner was elected leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and thus became prime minister. In his initial innovative approach to government, he gave a non-unionist, David Bleakley , a former Northern Ireland Labour Party MP, a position in his cabinet as Minister for Community Relations . In June 1971, he proposed three new powerful committees at Stormont which would give
910-484: The rest of 1971, insisting that security was the paramount issue. In January 1972, an incident occurred during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Derry, during which paratroopers shot and killed thirteen unarmed civilians. A fourteenth civilian was to die later. What history has come to know as Bloody Sunday was, in essence, the end of Faulkner's government. In March 1972, Faulkner refused to maintain
945-623: The school was Michael Yeats , son of W. B. Yeats . He was the only prime minister of Northern Ireland to have been educated in the Irish Free State and one of only two to have been educated in Ireland . Faulkner entered the Queen's University of Belfast in 1939 to study law, but, with the advent of World War II , he quit his studies to work full-time in the family shirt-making business. Faulkner became involved in unionist politics,
980-554: Was also the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1971 to 1974. Faulkner was born in Helen's Bay , County Down , Ireland , some 2 months before the creation of Northern Ireland . The elder of two sons of James and Nora Faulkner. His younger brother was Colonel Sir Dennis Faulkner , CBE VRD UD DL . James Faulkner owned the Belfast Collar Company which traded under the name Faulat. At that time, Faulat
1015-459: Was dissolved soon afterwards. Brian Faulkner Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick , PC (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland , from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive of the short-lived Northern Ireland Executive during the first half of 1974. Faulkner
1050-580: Was equally suited to a political partnership having had a career in journalism with the Belfast Telegraph and was secretary to the Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Sir Basil Brooke , when they met. Together they had three children: a daughter and two sons. They took up residence at Highlands, not far from the village of Seaforde. One of his sons, Michael, has written a memoir, The Blue Cabin (2006) about his move to
1085-558: Was reflected in the fact that only about a dozen of the approximately 250 local councillors elected for the UUP in 1973 chose to join the new party. The 1975 elections to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention were another blow to the party. Of 13 UPNI candidates elected as UUP members in 1973, only five succeeded in holding their seats, compared to 47 seats won by other Unionist candidates. The five UPNI members included Faulkner who suffered
Unionist Party of Northern Ireland - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-621: Was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920 ; however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , as with governors-general in other Westminster systems such as in Canada , chose to appoint someone to head the executive even though no such post existed in statute law . The office-holder assumed the title prime minister to draw parallels with
1155-656: Was the largest single-purpose shirt manufacturer in the world, employing some 3,000 people. He was educated initially at Elm Park preparatory school, Killylea , County Armagh , but at 14 was sent to the Church of Ireland -affiliated St Columba's College at Rathfarnham in Dublin, although Faulkner was Presbyterian . Faulkner chose St Columba's, preferring to stay in Ireland rather than go to school in England. His best friend at
1190-525: Was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party ; such was the UUP's electoral dominance using both a simple plurality and for the first two elections, a proportional electoral system. All prime ministers of Northern Ireland were members of the Orange Order . The prime minister's residence from 1920 until 1922 was Cabin Hill, later to become the junior school for Campbell College . After 1922 Stormont Castle
1225-660: Was used, though some prime ministers chose to live in Stormont House , the unused residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland . The new offices of first minister and deputy first minister were created by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In contrast with the Westminster-style system of the earlier Stormont government, the new Northern Ireland Executive operates on
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