Terence O'Neill

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For other people with similar names, see Terry O'Neill (disambiguation).

Captain The Right Honourable
The Lord O'Neill of the Maine
PC (NI)
O'Neill in 1966
4th Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
In office
25 March 1963 – 28 April 1969
MonarchElizabeth II
Governor
Preceded by
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament
for Bannside
In office
7 November 1946 – 16 April 1970
Preceded byMalcolm William Patrick
Succeeded byIan Paisley
Personal details
Born(1914-09-10)10 September 1914
London, England
Died12 June 1990(1990-06-12) (aged 75)
Lymington, England
Political partyUlster Unionist Party
Spouse
Katharine Jean
​
(m. 1944)​
Children2
RelativesJames Chichester-Clark
Phelim O’Neill
EducationEton College
Alma materSandhurst
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service British Army
Years of service1940–1945
RankCaptain
Unit6th Guards Tank Brigade
Battles/warsWorld War II

Terence Marne O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of the Maine,

unionist, who sought to reconcile the sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland society, he was a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the Bannside constituency from 1946 until his resignation in January 1970; his successor in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland was Ian Paisley
, while control of the UUP also passed to more hard-line elements.

Background

O'Neill Conroy family tree

Terence O'Neill was born on 10 September 1914 at 29

Ennismore Gardens, Hyde Park, London[1]to The Hon, Arthur O'Neill
and his wife Lady Annabel Hungerford Crewe-Milnes.

O'Neill grew up in London and was educated at

Second World War, in which both of his brothers died. Like many other unionist politicians, the rank he held during the war followed him into his political career, hence "Captain" Terence O'Neill.[2]

On 4 February 1944 he married Katharine Jean,[3] the daughter of William Ingham Whitaker, of Pylewell Park, Lymington, Hampshire. They had one son, Patrick (born 1945), and one daughter, Anne (born 1947). His great-nephew is popular British record-producer and DJ, Fred Again.

Like all Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland, he was a member of the Orange Order.[4]

Politics

At the end of 1945, O'Neill and his family went to live in

Government of Northern Ireland in April 1956 when he was made Minister of Home Affairs and sworn into the Privy Council of Northern Ireland. Six months later he was also appointed as Minister of Finance, a senior portfolio that he administered alongside Home Affairs until he divested the latter to focus on Finance. He remained Minister of Finance until his appointment as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1963.[6]

Prime Minister

In 1963, O'Neill succeeded Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. He introduced new policies that would have been unthinkable with Lord Brookeborough as Prime Minister. He aimed to end sectarianism and to bring Catholics and Protestants into working relationships. A visit to a convent proved controversial among many Protestants. He also had aspirations in the industrial sector, seeking improved relations with the trade union movement and attracting new investment from abroad to replace failing industry in Northern Ireland.[2] O'Neill seemed to strongly believe in industrialisation and modernisation. However it is clear that O'Neill was in some ways trying to prevent the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) from gaining ground.[7] The arrival of Harold Wilson's Labour government in Downing Street meant the NILP had a significant ally there. Wilson was not a committed UUP supporter, so that O'Neill was the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland who could not rely on the support of the UK Government.[7]

As O'Neill promoted industrialisation and modernisation, Taoiseach Seán Lemass was doing similar things in the Republic of Ireland, thus leading to the first real rapprochement between the two jurisdictions since partition.[8] In January 1965, O'Neill invited the Taoiseach for talks in Belfast. O'Neill met with strong opposition from his own party, having informed very few of the visit, and from Ian Paisley, who rejected any dealings with the Republic. Paisley and his followers threw snowballs at Lemass' car during the visit. In February, O'Neill visited Lemass in Dublin. Opposition to O'Neill's reforms was so strong that in 1967 George Forrest – the MP for Mid Ulster, who supported the Prime Minister – was pulled off the platform at the Twelfth of July celebrations in Coagh, County Tyrone, and kicked unconscious by fellow members of the Orange Order.[9]

In December 1967, Lemass' successor

Woodvale Unionist Association[10]
who disapproved of his policies.

In 1968, the

Minister of Home Affairs, was met with violence from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) who used batons on protesters, among whom were prominent politicians. The O'Neill government was unable to deal with the disturbances, so Harold Wilson summoned O'Neill to Downing Street.[11] The Stormont cabinet minutes from 14 October show O'Neill recalling his time in Britain. He stated that Wilson had threatened to take over if O'Neill could not manage to gain control. Finally he concluded that if they couldn't manage it politically then they would be forced into a period of governance by police power alone.[12] The police violence was filmed by RTÉ television and broadcast worldwide.[13] The date of this march is taken by some historians as being the start of the Northern Ireland Troubles
.

In response to these events, O'Neill introduced a

unionists. Although many RUC men were present during the attack none intervened. It later emerged that some of the assailants were in fact off-duty policemen. Many marchers were injured, 13 requiring hospital treatment. The Burntollet attack sparked several days of rioting between the RUC and Catholic protesters in the Bogside
area of Derry.

In February 1969, O'Neill called a surprise general election because of the turmoil inside the UUP, after twelve dissident MPs signed a motion of no confidence against O'Neill, and Brian Faulkner resigned from the Government following its appointment of the Cameron Commission. Although pro-O'Neill candidates won a plurality of seats in the general election, O'Neill lost an overall majority among UUP MPs in order to pass his reforms through Parliament.

Resignation

From O'Neill's point of view, the 1969 general election was inconclusive. He was humiliated by his near-defeat in his own constituency of Bannside by Ian Paisley and resigned as leader of the UUP and as Prime Minister on 28 April 1969 after a series of bomb explosions on Belfast's water supply by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) brought his personal political crisis to a head.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph published on 10 May 1969 he stated: "It is frightfully hard to explain to Protestants that if you give Roman Catholics a good job and a good house they will live like Protestants because they will see neighbours with cars and television sets; they will refuse to have eighteen children. But if a Roman Catholic is jobless, and lives in the most ghastly hovel he will rear eighteen children on National Assistance. If you treat Roman Catholics with due consideration and kindness they will live like Protestants in spite of the authoritative nature of their Church".[14]

Retirement

O'Neill retired from Stormont politics in January 1970 when he resigned his seat, having become the

County of Antrim.[15] (The Maine
(or Main) is a river which flows near Ahoghill.)

O'Neill spent his last years at Lisle Court,

Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
.

Death

He died at his home of cancer on 12 June 1990. He was survived by his wife, son, and daughter. His estate was valued at £443,043.[17]

Arms

Coat of arms of Terence O'Neill
Crest
1st, an Arm embowed in Armour the Hand grasping a Sword all proper; 2nd, a Stork rising with a Snake in its beak all proper
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1st and 4th, per fess wavy the Chief Argent and the base representing Waves of the Sea in chief a Dexter Hand couped at the wrist Gules in base a Salmon naiant proper (O'Neill); 2nd and 3rd, checky Or and Gules a Chief Vair (Chichester)
Supporters
Dexter: a Lion Gules gorged with an Eastern Crown Argent pendent therefrom by a Chain Gold an Escutcheon charged with the Arms of O'Neill as in the Arms; Sinister: a Horse Argent collared gemel resting the interior hind foot on a Mascle Azure
Motto
Invitum Sequitur Honos (Honours follow us without asking); Lamh Dearg E'rin (The Red Hand of Ireland) [18]

See also

Bibliography

Writings

  • Terence O'Neill, Ulster at the crossroads, Faber and Faber, London, 1969.
  • Terence O'Neill, The autobiography of Terence O'Neill, Hart-Davies, London, 1972.

References

  1. ^ a b Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ a b McKittrick, David, and David McVea (2002), Making Sense of The Troubles, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, p.27
  3. ^ "Lady O'Neill of the Maine". The Daily Telegraph. London. 3 August 2008. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  4. ^ "Who are the Orangemen?". BBC News. 11 July 2012. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  5. ^ "No. 1645". The Belfast Gazette. 2 January 1953. p. 2.
  6. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39857. Retrieved 15 April 2014. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  7. ^ a b McKittrick, David, and David McVea (2002), Making Sense of The Troubles, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, p.29
  8. ^ McKittrick, David, and David McVea (2002), Making Sense of The Troubles, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, p.30
  9. ^ "Mid-Ulster 1950–1970". Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  10. ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict – 1968". Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  11. ^ McKittrick, David, and David McVea (2002), Making Sense of The Troubles, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, p. 42
  12. ^ McKittrick, David, and David McVea (2002), Making Sense of The Troubles, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, p.43
  13. ISBN 978-0856403231
    .
  14. ^ "Online quotation accessed 14-1-2009". Archived from the original on 17 September 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  15. ^ "No. 45025". The London Gazette. 23 January 1970. p. 957.
  16. ^ Film of the exchange, 'Enoch Powell after election victory in 1974', published on Youtube 19 January 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS9-_CKhGSE Archived 27 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ probate, 28 August 1990, CGPLA England and Wales
  18. ^ "Life Peerages – O". Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2019.

Sources

  • Marc Mulholland, Northern Ireland at the crossroads: Ulster Unionism in the O'Neill years 1960-9, (Macmillan, London 2000).
Parliament of Northern Ireland
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bannside
1946–1970 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Father of the House
1969–1970 		Succeeded by
Political offices
New office
Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Local Government

1948–1953 		Vacant


Preceded by Chairman of Ways and Means and
Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland House of Commons

1953–1955 		Succeeded by
Vacant Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Local Government
1955–1956 		Vacant
Vacant
Title last held by
Wilson Hungerford 		Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs
1955–1956 		Vacant
Title next held by
William Fitzsimmons
Preceded by
George Boyle Hanna
 Minister of Home Affairs
Apr – Oct 1956 		Succeeded by
Minister of Finance
1956–1963 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
1963–1969 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
1963–1969 		Succeeded by
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