Oliver Napier

Sir Oliver Napier (born July 11, 1935 in Belfast ; † July 2, 2011 ) was a Northern Irish politician who, as chairman of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland , tried to establish a dialogue between Catholics and Protestants during the Northern Ireland conflict and was instrumental in bringing about this after only six months of the failed Sunningdale Agreement .

Life

After attending St Malachy College in Belfast, Napier studied law at Queen's University Belfast and, after graduating, joined his father's law firm Napier and Sons Solicitors as a lawyer .

The Catholic was of the opinion that a cooperation with the Protestants was possible and in 1970 he was one of the co-founders of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, which was founded shortly after the beginning of the Northern Ireland conflict as a nondenominational and liberal regional party in Northern Ireland. Between 1970 and 1972 he was joint chairman of the party with Bob Cooper .

In 1973 he finally became the sole chairman of the Alliance Party and endeavored in his term of office, which lasted until 1984, for a dialogue in the Northern Ireland conflict. He succeeded at least for a short time when the Sunningdale Agreement was reached on December 9, 1973. In the executive administration formed as a result of this ( Northern Ireland Executive ) under Brian Faulkner as Chief Executive , he became Minister of Justice and Chairman of the Office of Law Reform . After a motion rejecting a bipartisan government failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly , the Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) called a general strike on May 15. Brian Faulkner stepped down as chief executive after two weeks of food shortages, riots, roadblocks and intimidation. The Sunningdale Agreement broke up on May 28, 1974 and Napier lost his government office.

In the British general election on May 3, 1979 candidate Napier for a seat in the lower house ( House of Commons ) in the inhabited predominantly by Protestant constituency East Belfast . However, he was defeated by around 1000 votes to the candidate of the Democratic Unionist Party , Peter Robinson , who represented this constituency in the House of Commons until February 2010 and has been Northern Ireland's First Minister since then .

After the election defeat, he continued to hold the office of chairman of the Alliance Party, but then withdrew from politics in 1984.

In 1985 he was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree and since then has had the suffix "Sir".

Web links

• BBC NEWS: Former Alliance leader Sir Oliver Napier dies (July 2nd 2011)