Terence O'Neill

Terence Marne O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of the Maine, PC (NI) (10 September 1914 – 12 June 1990), was the fourth prime minister of Northern Ireland and leader (1963–1969) of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

Terence O'Neill was born on 10 September 1914 at 29 Ennismore Gardens, Hyde Park, London to The Hon, Arthur O'Neill and his wife Lady Annabel Hungerford Crewe-Milnes.

O'Neill grew up in London and was educated at West Downs School, Winchester and Eton College.

He spent summer holidays in Ulster.

Following school he spent a year in France and Germany and then worked in the City of London and Australia.

In May 1940 he received a commission at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and went on to serve in the 6th Guards Tank Brigade during the 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.

On 4 February 1944 he married Katharine Jean, 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.

At the end of 1945, O'Neill and his family went to live in Northern Ireland in a converted Regency rectory near Ahoghill, County Antrim.

A moderate 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.

In a by-election in 1946, he was elected as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP for the Bannside constituency in the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which sat at Parliament Buildings at Stormont.

O'Neill served in a series of junior positions.

He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Local Government from February 1948 until November 1953, when he was appointed Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.

In 1953 he served as High Sheriff of Antrim.

He was elevated to Cabinet level in the 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In December 1967, Lemass' successor Jack Lynch travelled to Stormont for his first meeting with O'Neill.

On 8 January 1968, they met again in Dublin.

On 19 January 1968, O'Neill made a speech marking five years in office to members of the Irish Association, calling for "a new endeavour by organisations in Northern Ireland to cross denominational barriers and advance the cause of better community relations".

On 20 May 1968, O'Neill was pelted with eggs, flour and stones by members of the Woodvale Unionist Association who disapproved of his policies.

In 1968, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) began street demonstrations.