Executive of the 1974 Northern Ireland Assembly | |
---|---|
1974 Executive of Northern Ireland | |
Date formed | 1 January 1974 |
Date dissolved | 28 May 1974 |
People and organisations | |
Head of state | Elizabeth II |
Head of government | Brian Faulkner |
Deputy head of government | Gerry Fitt |
No. of ministers | 9 |
Member party | UUP (pro-assembly) SDLP Alliance |
Status in legislature | Coalition |
History | |
Election(s) | 1973 assembly election |
Legislature term(s) | 1973 Assembly |
Predecessor | Faulkner ministry |
Successor | Direct rule (1974–98) 1st Executive of Northern Ireland |
A power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive was formed following the Northern Ireland Assembly elections of 1973. The executive served as the devolved government of Northern Ireland from 1 January 1974 until its collapse on 28 May 1974.
Elections to a Northern Ireland Assembly were held on 28 June 1973. On 21 November, the Sunningdale Agreement was reached on a voluntary coalition of pro-agreement parties, and the Executive took office on 1 January 1974. Prominent members of the executive included former Ulster Unionist Party Prime Minister Brian Faulkner as Chief Executive, then Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Gerry Fitt as Deputy Chief Executive, future Nobel Laureate and SDLP leader John Hume as Minister for Commerce and then leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Oliver Napier as Legal Minister and head of the Office of Law Reform.
The UUP was deeply divided; its Standing Committee voted to participate in the executive by a margin of only 132 to 105. Since the partition of Ireland, unionists had been opposed to sharing power with the Irish nationalist minority and the end of majoritarianism caused great strife in the UUP. Other contentious issues were internment, policing and the question of the planned Council of Ireland.
After opposition from within the UUP and the Ulster Workers' Council strike, the executive and Assembly collapsed on 28 May 1974 when Faulkner resigned as Chief Executive.
In January 1974 Brian Faulkner became Chief Executive in the power-sharing executive with the SDLP and the non-sectarian Alliance Party, a political alliance cemented at the Sunningdale Conference that year. After opposition from within the UUP and the Ulster Workers Council Strike, the executive and assembly collapsed on 28 May 1974 when Faulkner resigned as Chief Executive. Brian Faulkner would later then form his own political party known as the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. They contested the 1975 Constitutional Convention Elections in which they got only 5 seats and no new Chief Executive was elected to replace Brian Faulkner.
No. | Name (Birth–Death) Constituency | Portrait | Term of office | Elected (Assembly) | Executive | Party | Last office(s) held before election | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Brian Faulkner (1921–1977) MLA for South Down | 1 January 1974 | 28 May 1974 | 1973 (Assembly) | 1974 Executive | Ulster Unionist Party | Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (1971–1972) Minister of Home Affairs (1971–1972) |
Interim bodies |
---|
Elections |
Members |
See also |
Office | Name | Term | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chief Executive | Brian Faulkner | 1974 | UUP | |
Deputy Chief Executive | Gerry Fitt | 1974 | SDLP | |
Minister of Agriculture | Leslie Morrell | 1974 | UUP | |
Minister of Commerce | John Hume | 1974 | SDLP | |
Minister of Education | Basil McIvor | 1974 | UUP | |
Minister of the Environment | Roy Bradford | 1974 | UUP | |
Minister of Finance | Herbert Kirk | 1974 | UUP | |
Minister of Health and Social Services | Paddy Devlin | 1974 | SDLP | |
Minister of Housing, Local Government and Planning | Austin Currie | 1974 | SDLP | |
Minister of Information | John Baxter | 1974 | UUP | |
Legal Minister and Head of the Office of Law Reform | Oliver Napier | 1974 | Alliance |
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland, it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles, during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which followed the Good Friday Agreement. The executive is referred to in the legislation as the Executive Committee of the assembly and is an example of consociationalist ("power-sharing") government.
Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick,, 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.
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Northcote House in Sunningdale Park, located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unionist opposition, violence and a general strike caused the collapse of the agreement in May 1974.
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP), informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1978. Led by William Craig, the party emerged from a split in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and was closely affiliated with several loyalist paramilitary groups. The party was set up in opposition to power sharing with Irish nationalist parties. It opposed the Sunningdale Agreement and was involved in extra-parliamentary activity against the agreement. However, in 1975, during discussions on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in the constitutional convention, William Craig suggested the possibility of voluntary power sharing with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. In consequence the party split, with dissenters forming the United Ulster Unionist Party. Thereafter Vanguard declined and following poor results in the 1977 local government elections, Craig merged the remainder of Vanguard into the UUP in February 1978.
The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974.
William "Bill" Craig was a Northern Irish politician best known for forming the Unionist Vanguard movement.
William Basil McIvor OBE, PC (NI) was an Ulster Unionist politician, barrister and pioneer of integrated education.
Robert Jonathan Bradford was a Methodist Minister and a Vanguard Unionist and Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for the Belfast South constituency in Northern Ireland until his assassination by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 14 November 1981.
Henry William West was a politician in Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1974 until 1979.
The United Ulster Unionist Council was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Assembly established in 1982 represented an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to restore the devolution to Northern Ireland which had been suspended 10 years previously. The Assembly was abolished in 1986.
The 1973 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly took place following the publication of the British government's white paper Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals which proposed a 78-member Northern Ireland Assembly, elected by proportional representation. The proposals for a Northern Ireland Assembly contained in the White Paper were put into effect through the Northern Ireland Assembly Act 1973 in May 1973.
The Northern Ireland Assembly was a legislative assembly set up by the Government of the United Kingdom on 3 May 1973 to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland with the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive made up of unionists and nationalists. It was abolished by the Northern Ireland Act 1974.
Roy Hamilton Bradford was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland and a government minister in both the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly.
Leslie Morrell is a former unionist politician in Northern Ireland.
The 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election took place on Thursday, 5 May, following the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Assembly at midnight on 24 March 2011. It was the fourth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998.
The February 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 28 February with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.
The October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 10 October with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.