Reginald James Lawrence

Reginald James Lawrence (born June 16, 1914 in Lambeth ; died July 14, 2002 ) was a Northern Irish political scientist .

Life

Lawrence was born on June 16, 1914 in Lambeth, a borough of London , the son of a house painter . He grew up in Dover in the south of England . After finishing school he did an apprenticeship as a printer and then worked in this profession in Watford in southern England. At the beginning of the Second World War he went to the British Army, where he served himself from simple soldier to captain .

Since his wife Helen, whom he married in 1939, came from a wealthy family, he was able to study political science at the London School of Economics after the war . He graduated with honors and then worked in the UK Cabinet Office in London.

In 1952 Lawrence got a job at Queen's University in the Northern Irish capital Belfast : first in the field of adult education , later at the political science institute. He was appointed to his chair in 1972 and held it until his retirement in 1979.

Lawrence personally valued the countryside, for example, he owned a cottage in the Morne Mountains . He spent his retirement in the New Forest , where he volunteered in nature conservation . When he died on July 14, 2002, he had two sons; his wife had died five years earlier.

Act

Lawrence was regarded as a proven expert on the structures of the Northern Irish state administration, especially in matters of finance, in particular the interdependencies with the central government in London, as well as the provision of public services . In the mid-1970s he was hired by the British government to investigate the funding of public sports and leisure facilities. He presented the final report of this Lawrence Commission in 1978.

Another main topic was the scientific examination of the segregation of the two large population groups of Northern Ireland. At first, he benevolently assessed the policy of the country's government, which at the time was still consistently composed of Protestant Unionists , towards the Catholic population as relatively progressive, sensible and balanced. For this reason, opponents accused him of promoting “unionism with footnotes ”. The later publication of unknown documents to Lawrence could provide evidence that the government policy of the time was more irrational, chaotic and one-sided than he thought.

After the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict at the end of the 1960s, he relativized his position insofar as he saw the permanent participation of Catholic-Republican parties in the political decision-making processes as a prerequisite for lasting peace in the country. This view was ultimately implemented in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and has been retained until today. At the outcome of the referendum in 1973 , he stated that both sides were ultimately successful: the Unionists because their wish to remain with the United Kingdom had won a clear majority, and the Republicans because their call to boycott the referendum had been largely followed in Catholic circles.

Lawrence had come into contact with communist circles at an early age, and it was in this environment that he had met his future wife. Although later much more moderate, he was considered a political leftist throughout his life .

Works (selection)

• Government of Northern Ireland: Public Finance and Public Services, 1921–64. Oxford 1965 ISBN 978-0198271550 ISBN 0198271557
• (with Sydney Elliott): The Northern Ireland border poll, 1973. London 1975, ISBN 0101587503
• Politics and political science. Belfast 1975, ISBN 0853890706
• Report of the Lawrence Committee. Belfast 1978, ISBN 0337232695

Web links

• Biographical entry in the Dictionary of Ulster Biography (English)
• Obituary for Lawrence on the Telegraph website , August 13, 2002