John Carson (Northern Ireland politician)
John Carson CBE (born 1933) is a former Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist Party politician.
A draper who owned a shop in the interface area of the Duncairn Gardens in north Belfast, Carson was elected to Belfast City Council in 1973.[1] The following year he was elected as a member of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition as Member of Parliament for Belfast North from 1974. However, he was de-selected in 1979 after voting in favour of the Labour government in the crucial vote of confidence which they lost.[2]
Despite this, he retained his popularity, topping the local government poll in the electoral area 'H',[1] which included over half of the parliamentary seat. He also topped the poll in North Belfast at the 1982 Assembly elections.[2]
Carson was Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1985–6 and in his capacity as a councillor was sometimes at odds with his party colleagues. For example, he attended a City Hall lunch attended by the then Secretary of State Tom King despite the Unionist policy of boycotting meetings with Government ministers in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.[3] For this he was threatened with expulsion from the UUP, which never happened.[3]
He remained a member of Belfast City Council until 1997, when he lost his seat after 24 consecutive years on the council. [1][4][5]
He married Martha in 1953 and had two daughters. They celebrated their Diamond Anniversary in 2013.[6]
References
- ^ a b c "Local Government Elections 1973 - 1981: Belfast". ark.ac.uk.
- ^ a b "North Belfast 1973-82". ark.ac.uk.
- ^ a b Feargal Cochrane (1997). Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism Since the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Cork University Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-85918-138-6.
- ^ "Belfast City Council, 1993 - 2011". ark.ac.uk.
- ^ "Local Government Elections 1985-1989: Belfast". ark.ac.uk.
- ^ Amanda Ferguson (3 October 2013). "Former Lord Mayor's diamond day". Belfast Telegraph.
Sources
- The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, October 1974
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
External links
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- 1933 births
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
- High Sheriffs of Belfast
- Living people
- Lord Mayors of Belfast
- Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
- Members of Belfast City Council
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Belfast constituencies (since 1922)
- Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986
- UK MPs 1974
- UK MPs 1974–1979
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