Terence O'Neill

Terence Marne O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of the Maine (born September 10, 1914 in County Antrim , Northern Ireland , † June 12, 1990 in Hampshire , England ) was the fourth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland .

background

Terence O'Neill was born on September 10, 1914 to Captain Arthur O'Neill . Arthur O'Neill was the first deputy of the House of Commons that the First World War was killed. Terence O'Neill went to Eton College and then entered the British Army . During the Second World War he served in the Irish Guards .

Political beginnings

O'Neill was elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1946 as the Ulster Unionist Party candidate for the Bannside constituency. He served in a number of subordinate positions before becoming Minister of Home Affairs in April 1956 . In October of the same year he became Minister for Finance .

The time as prime minister

In 1963 he succeeded Lord Brookeborough as Prime Minister. In terms of content, he began a new policy that would not have existed in this form with his predecessor. He tried to overcome the denominational separation and to get Catholics and Protestants to work together. In January 1965, O'Neill invited the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland , Seán Lemass , to Belfast for talks .

O'Neill met with considerable opposition from his own party, as he had briefed few about the meeting. Resistance also came from Ian Paisley , who categorically opposed any talks with the Republic of Ireland. Paisley and his supporters pelted Lemass' car with snowballs. In February, O'Neill visited Lemass in Dublin . Opposition to O'Neill's reforms was so strong that at an event organized by the Orange Order, the O'Neill supporter and MP for Mid Ulster , George Forrest , was pulled off the podium by members of his own order and knocked unconscious.

In 1968 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) started street demonstrations. A march in Derry on October 5, 1968, which had previously been banned by Home Secretary William Craig, was broken up by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) using batons. Prominent politicians were among the injured. This outbreak of violence was documented by television cameras and broadcast worldwide. The date of this march is considered by many historians to be the beginning of the troubles in Northern Ireland. In May 1968, O'Neill was pelted with eggs, flour and stones by members of the Woodvale Unionist Association who disagreed with his policy of concessions.

In response to the bad press, O'Neill presented a five-point reform plan. This plan gave NICRA a number of the concessions they had requested. However, it did not include the principle of free elections based on the principle of “ one man, one vote ”. Despite this qualification, NICRA decided that it had achieved something and agreed to the proposal to postpone the protest marches. It was only expected that things would get better, but many in the Catholic community felt that the limited reforms were enough. A group of students founded under the direction of Bernadette Devlin and Michael Farrell , the People's Democracy . She organized a four-day march from Belfast to Derry, which began on January 1, 1969. The march was ambushed by about 200 unionists on the fourth day . Despite the strong presence of the RUC, it did not intervene. It later emerged that the majority of the attackers were members of the RUC themselves. Thirteen protesters then had to be hospitalized for treatment for their injuries. This attack sparked a wave of riots lasting several days between the RUC and Catholic demonstrators in Derry's Bogside district .

In February 1969 there was an uproar in the Ulster Unionist Party, sparked by ten to twelve dissenters and Brian Faulkner's withdrawal from government. O'Neill therefore decided to hold new elections.

resignation

The voters faced an easy choice: for or against O'Neill. From O'Neill's point of view, however, the election result was inconclusive. The near defeat in Bannside's own constituency against Ian Paisley was particularly humiliating. He then resigned as chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party and as prime minister in April 1969 after a series of bombings on the Belfast waterworks by the Ulster Volunteer Force worsened the political crisis.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph published in May 1969, he said:

“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… they will refuse to have 18 children… If you treat Roman Catholics with due consideration and kindness, they will live like Protestants in spite of the authoritative nature of their Church. "

“It is frighteningly difficult to explain to Protestants that if you give a Catholic a house and a job, they will live like Protestants ... They will not want 18 children ... If you treat Catholics with appropriate forbearance and kindness, they will in spite of the authoritarian nature of their church like Protestants. "

retirement

With the abandonment of his parliamentary seat in January 1970, O'Neill said goodbye to politics after he was elected Father of the House the previous year . In the same year he was promoted to Life Peer ( Baron O'Neill of the Maine, of Ahoghill in the County of Antrim ).

O'Neill died on June 12, 1990 in Hampshire, England.

swell

• 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
• Marc Mulholland: Northern Ireland at the crossroads: Ulster Unionism in the O'Neill years 1960-9 . Macmillan, London 2000