Prime Minister of Northern Ireland | |
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Nominator | House of Commons |
Appointer | Governor of Northern Ireland |
Term length | At His Majesty's pleasure so long as General Elections are held no more than five years apart. |
Inaugural holder | Sir James Craig |
Formation | 7 June 1921 |
Final holder | Brian Faulkner |
Abolished | 30 March 1972 (suspended) 18 July 1973 (abolished) suspended in 1972 and then abolished in 1973, along with the contemporary government, when direct rule of Northern Ireland was transferred to London. |
Succession |
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The prime minister of Northern Ireland 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; [1] however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, [2] 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 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. [3] 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 the appointment of the executive committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland by the governor. [4] 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 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. [5]
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 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 the principles of consociational democracy.
In 1974, Brian Faulkner was chosen to lead the Northern Ireland Executive not as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland but as Chief Executive of Northern Ireland.
No. | Name (Birth–Death) Constituency | Portrait | Term of office | Elected (Parliament) | Ministry | Party | Last office(s) held before election | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Sir James Craig (created The 1st Viscount Craigavon in 1927) [6] (1871–1940) MP for Down until 1929 MP for North Down from 1929 | 7 June 1921 | 24 November 1940 | 1921 (1st) | Craigavon | Ulster Unionist Party | Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty (1920–1921) | ||
1925 (2nd) | |||||||||
1929 (3rd) | |||||||||
1933 (4th) | |||||||||
1938 (5th) | |||||||||
2. | John Miller Andrews (1871–1956) MP for Mid Down | 27 November 1940 | 1 May 1943 | — (5th) | Andrews | Ulster Unionist Party | Minister of Finance (1937–1941) | ||
3. | Sir Basil Brooke (created The 1st Viscount Brookeborough in 1952) [7] (1888–1973) MP for Lisnaskea | 1 May 1943 | 26 March 1963 | — (5th) | Brookeborough | Ulster Unionist Party | Minister of Commerce (1941–1943) | ||
1945 (6th) | |||||||||
1949 (7th) | |||||||||
1953 (8th) | |||||||||
1958 (9th) | |||||||||
1962 (10th) | |||||||||
4. | Terence O'Neill (1914–1990) MP for Bannside | 25 March 1963 | 1 May 1969 | — (10th) | O'Neill | Ulster Unionist Party | Minister of Finance (1956–1963) | ||
1965 (11th) | |||||||||
1969 (12th) | |||||||||
5. | James Chichester-Clark (1923–2002) MP for South Londonderry | 1 May 1969 | 23 March 1971 | — (12th) | Chichester-Clark | Ulster Unionist Party | Minister of Agriculture (1967–1969) Leader of the House of Commons (1968–1969) | ||
6. | Brian Faulkner (1921–1977) MP for East Down | 23 March 1971 | 30 March 1972 | — (12th) | Faulkner | Ulster Unionist Party | Minister of Development (1969–1971) |
By the 20th century, the Order had pervaded the highest echelons of society. Every prime minister of Northern Ireland, from Partition in 1921 to the return of direct rule in 1972, was an Orangeman, as are a number of current ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill or (inaccurately) as the Fourth Home Rule Act and informally known as the Partition Act. The Act was intended to partition Ireland into two self-governing polities: the six north-eastern counties were to form "Northern Ireland", while the larger part of the country was to form "Southern Ireland". Both territories were to remain part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and provision was made for their future reunification through a Council of Ireland. The Act was passed by the British Parliament in November 1920, received royal assent in December and came into force on 3 May 1921.
Southern Ireland was the larger of the two parts of Ireland that were created when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland or about five-sixths of the area of the island, whilst the remaining six counties, which occupied most of Ulster in the north of the island, formed Northern Ireland. Southern Ireland included County Donegal, despite it being the largest county in Ulster and the most northerly county in all of Ireland.
A number of legislatures have existed in Ireland since mediaeval times. The first Irish legislature was the Parliament of Ireland. However, after its abolition, in 1801, there was no legislature in Ireland, of any kind until 1919. Since that date a number of legislatures have existed on the island.
James Craig, 1st Viscount CraigavonPC PC (NI) DL, was a leading Irish unionist and a key architect of Northern Ireland as a devolved region within the United Kingdom. During the Home Rule Crisis of 1912–14, he defied the British government in preparing an armed resistance in Ulster to an all-Ireland parliament. He accepted partition as a final settlement, securing the opt out of six Ulster counties from the dominion statehood accorded Ireland under the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. From then until his death in 1940, he led the Ulster Unionist Party and served Northern Ireland as its first Prime Minister. He publicly characterised his administration as a "Protestant" counterpart to the "Catholic state" nationalists had established in the south. Craig was created a baronet in 1918 and raised to the Peerage in 1927.
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1800) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922). The office, under its various names, was often more generally known as the Viceroy, and his wife was known as the vicereine. The government of Ireland in practice was usually in the hands of the Lord Deputy up to the 17th century, and later of the Chief Secretary for Ireland.
The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, also referred to as the Northern Ireland secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The officeholder is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The incumbent secretary of state for Northern Ireland is Hilary Benn.
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore order during The Troubles, resulting in the introduction of Direct Rule. It was abolished under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It was created as a separate legal entity on 3 May 1921, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The new autonomous Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster: four counties with unionist majorities – Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Derry/Londonderry – and two counties with slight Irish nationalist majorities – Fermanagh and Tyrone – in the 1918 General Election. The remaining three Ulster counties with larger nationalist majorities were not included. In large part unionists, at least in the north-east, supported its creation while nationalists were opposed.
Basil Stanlake Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough,, styled Sir Basil Brooke, 5th Baronet, between 1907 and 1952, and commonly referred to as Lord Brookeborough, was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician who served as the third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from May 1943, until March 1963.
The governor of Northern Ireland was the principal officer and representative in Northern Ireland of the British monarch. The office was established on 9 December 1922 and abolished on 18 July 1973.
The Parliament of Southern Ireland was a Home Rule legislature established by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was designed to legislate for Southern Ireland, a political entity which was created by the British Government to solve the issue of rising Irish nationalism and the issue of partitionism, while retaining the whole of Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.
The Senate of Northern Ireland was the upper house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was abolished with the passing of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished with the passing of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
John Warden Brooke, 2nd Viscount Brookeborough, PC (NI), was a Northern Irish politician. He was the son of the 1st Viscount Brookeborough, third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
Dublin Castle was the centre of the government of Ireland under English and later British rule. "Dublin Castle" is used metonymically to describe British rule in Ireland. The Castle held only the executive branch of government and the Privy Council of Ireland, both appointed by the British government. The Castle did not hold the judicial branch, which was centred on the Four Courts, or the legislature, which met at College Green until the Act of Union 1800, and thereafter at Westminster.
The Privy Council of Northern Ireland was a privy council advising the Governor of Northern Ireland in his role as viceroy of the British Crown, in particular in the exercise of the monarch's prerogative powers. The council was the successor within Northern Ireland of the Privy Council of Ireland, which offered advice to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
The Executive Committee or the Executive Committee for Northern Ireland was the government of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Generally known as either the Cabinet or the Government, the executive committee existed from 1922 to 1972. It exercised executive authority formally vested in the British monarch in relation to devolved matters.
The Executive Office (TEO) is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive with overall responsibility for the running of the Executive. The ministers with overall responsibility for the department are the First Minister and deputy First Minister.