Prime Minister of Northern Ireland

Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
Arms of the Executive Committee
Nominator	House of Commons
Appointer	Governor of Northern Ireland
Term length	At Her Majesty's pleasure so long as General Elections are held no more than five years apart.
Inaugural holder	Sir James Craig
Formation	7 June 1921
Deputy	Deputy Prime Minister

Northern Ireland 1921–72
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Northern Ireland 1921–72
Government Governor Privy Council Ministries Prime Minister Craigavon ministry Andrews ministry Brookeborough ministry O'Neill ministry Chichester-Clark ministry Faulkner ministry Northern Ireland Civil Service Departments
Parliament Acts Statutory Rules and Orders Senate Speaker of the Senate Leader of the Senate House of Commons Speaker Leader of the Opposition Members 1921, 1925, 1929, 1933 1938, 1945, 1949, 1953 1958, 1962, 1965, 1969 Senate
Elections Elections in Northern Ireland 1921, 1925, 1929, 1933 1938, 1945, 1949, 1953 1958, 1962, 1965, 1969 By-elections Constituencies Political parties
See also Fourth Home Rule Bill Constitution Act 1973
Other countries British politics portal

The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920,^[1] however the Lord Lieutenant,^[2] as with Governors-General in other Westminster Systems such as in Canada, chose to appoint someone to head the executive even though no such post existed in statute law. The office-holder assumed the title Prime Minister to draw parallels with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. On the advice of the new Prime Minister, the Lord Lieutenant then created the Department of the Prime Minister.^[3] The office of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland was abolished in 1972, along with the contemporary government, when direct rule of Northern Ireland was transferred to London.

The Government of Ireland Act provided for the appointment of the Executive Committee of the Privy Council by the Governor.^[4] No parliamentary vote was required. Nor, theoretically, was the Executive Committee and its prime minister responsible to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. In reality the Governor chose the leader of the party with a majority in the House to form a government. On each occasion this was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, such was the UUP's electoral dominance using both a simple plurality and for the first two elections, a proportional electoral system. All Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland were members of the Orange Order.

The Prime Minister's residence from 1920 until 1922 was Cabin Hill, later to become the junior school for Campbell College. After 1922 Stormont Castle was used, though some prime ministers chose to live in Stormont House, the unused residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

The new offices of First Minister and deputy First Minister were created by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In contrast with the Westminster-style system of the earlier Stormont government, the new Northern Ireland Executive operates on the principles of consociational democracy.

List of office-holders

No.		Name (Birth–Death) Constituency	Portrait	Term of office		Elected (Parliament)	Ministry	Party	Last office(s) held before election
	1.	Sir James Craig[5] (1871–1940) MP for Down until 1929 MP for North Down from 1929		7 June 1921	24 November 1940	1921 (1st)	Craigavon	Ulster Unionist Party	Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty (1920–1921)
						1925 (2nd)
						1929 (3rd)
						1933 (4th)
						1938 (5th)
	2.	John Miller Andrews (1871–1956) MP for Mid Down		27 November 1940	1 May 1943	— (5th)	Andrews	Ulster Unionist Party	Minister of Finance (1937–1941)
	3.	Sir Basil Brooke[6] (1888–1973) MP for Lisnaskea		1 May 1943	26 March 1963	— (5th)	Brookeborough	Ulster Unionist Party	Minister of Commerce (1941–1943)
						1945 (6th)
						1949 (7th)
						1953 (8th)
						1958 (9th)
						1962 (10th)
	4.	Terence O'Neill (1914–1990) MP for Bannside		25 March 1963	1 May 1969	— (10th)	O'Neill	Ulster Unionist Party	Minister of Finance (1956–1963)
						1965 (11th)
						1969 (12th)
	5.	James Chichester-Clark (1923–2002) MP for South Londonderry		1 May 1969	23 March 1971	— (12th)	Chichester-Clark	Ulster Unionist Party	Minister of Agriculture (1967–1969) Leader of the House of Commons (1968–1969)
	6.	Brian Faulkner (1921–1977) MP for East Down		23 March 1971	30 March 1972	— (12th)	Faulkner	Ulster Unionist Party	Minister of Development (1969–1971)

Parliamentary Secretary, Department of the Prime Minister

• 1921-1929 Algernon Skeffington, 12th Viscount Massereene
• 1929-1930 Maxwell Ward, 6th Viscount Bangor
• 1930-1941 John Andrew Long
• 1941-1948 Joseph Davison
• 1948-1960 William Moore Wallis Clark
• 1960-1970 Daniel McGladdery
• 1970-1972 Captain John Brooke, 2nd Viscount Brookeborough

Additional Parliamentary Secretary, Department of the Prime Minister

• 1969 Robert Simpson

Sources

• Alan J. Ward, The Irish Constitutional Tradition (Irish Academic Press, 1994)
• Government of Ireland Act, 1920
• The Government of Northern Ireland

Footnotes