James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon

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James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon

1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
In office 1921 – 1940
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	John Miller Andrews

Born	January 8, 1871 Sydenham, Belfast
Died	November 24, 1940 (aged 69)
Constituency	County Down
Political party	Ulster Unionist Party

James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon Bt (8 January 1871 - 24 November 1940) was a prominent Irish unionist politician, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

James Craig was born at Sydenham, Belfast, the son of a wealthy whiskey distiller. His father owned a large house, Craigavon, overlooking Belfast Lough.

He was educated at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Scotland, and after working as a stockbroker served with the British Army in the Second Boer War. On his return to Ireland he was Member of Parliament for East Down from 1906-1918. From 1918 to 1921 he represented Mid Down, and served in government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions (1919-1920) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (1920-1921).

Lord Craigavon rallied the Ulster unionist opposition to Irish Home Rule in Ulster before the First World War, organising the paramilitary Ulster Volunteers and buying arms from Imperial Germany. He succeeded Edward Carson as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in February 1921.

In the 1921 Northern Ireland general election, the first ever, he was elected to the newly created Northern Ireland House of Commons as member for County Down.

In June 1921 Craig became the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. A dedicated member of the Orange Order and staunchly anti-Catholic ^[1], he famously stated, in 1935, in response to Éamon de Valera's 1934 assertion that Ireland was a "Catholic nation"^[2]

“	"I have always said I am an Orangeman first and a politician and Member of this Parliament afterwards ... The Hon. Member must remember that in the South they boasted of a Catholic State. They still boast of Southern Ireland being a Catholic State. All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State."^[3]	”
—James Craig

He was made a baronet in 1918, and was in 1927 created Viscount Craigavon, of Stormont in the County of Down. He was also the recipient of honorary degrees from the Queen's University of Belfast (1922) and Oxford University (1926).

Lord Craigavon was still prime minister when he died peacefully at his home at [1] Glencraig, County Down in 1940. He was buried on the Stormont Estate, and was succeeded as leader of the Northern Ireland Government by the Minister of Finance John Miller Andrews.

His wife, Viscountess Cecil Mary Nowell Dering Craig, née Tupper, President of the Ulster Women's Unionist Council, was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1941.

[edit] References

^ http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crights/pdfs/truth.pdf
^ Bardon, Jonathan (1992), A History of Ulster p. 538
^ Bardon, Jonathan [November 1992] (December 1992). A History of Ulster, 2nd, Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, pp. 539. ISBN 0-85640-476-4. Sir James Craig, Unionist Party, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, 24 April 1934. This speech is often misquoted as: "A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People", or "A Protestant State for a Protestant People".

[edit] See also

Political offices
Preceded by Newly Created Title	Prime Minister of Northern Ireland 1921-1940	Succeeded by John Miller Andrews
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Newly Created Title	Viscount Craigavon 1927-1940	Succeeded by James Craig