Minister of Home Affairs (Northern Ireland)
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The Minister of Home Affairs was a member of the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland (Cabinet) in the Parliament of Northern Ireland which governed Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972. The Minister of Home Affairs was responsible for a range of non-economic domestic matters, although for a few months in 1953 the office was combined with that of the Minister of Finance.
Under the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922, the Minister was enabled to make any regulation necessary to preserve or re-establish law and order in Northern Ireland. The act specifically entitled him to ban parades, meetings, and publications, and to forbid inquests.[1]
One of the position's more problematic duties was responsibility for parades in Northern Ireland under the Special Powers Act and from 1951 the Public Order Act. Parading was (and is) extremely contentious in Northern Ireland, and so the Minister was bound to anger one community or other regardless of what decision he made. Ministers generally allowed parades by the Orange Order and other Protestant groups to go where they wanted, while restricting nationalist parades to Catholic areas and banning republican or anti-partitionist parades. Communist and other far-left parades were also sometimes banned. From time to time Ministers, for example Brian Maginess, attempted to administer the parading issue more fairly, but usually suffered career damage as a result. The parading issue may be the reason why the Home Affairs portfolio changed hands more often than most other Ministerial positions.
In 1970 the office was combined with that of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland with John Taylor serving as a cabinet rank junior minister, and then abolished along with the rest of the Northern Irish government in 1973.
| # | Name | Took Office | Prime Minister | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Dawson Bates | 7 June 1921 | Craig, Andrews
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 2. | William Lowry | 6 May 1943 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 3. | Edmond Warnock | 3 November 1944 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 4. | Brian Maginess | 21 June 1946 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 5. | Edmond Warnock | 11 September 1946 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 6. | Brian Maginess | 4 November 1949 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 7. | George Hanna | 26 October 1953 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 8. | Terence O'Neill | 20 April 1956 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 9. | W. W. B. Topping | 23 October 1956 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 10. | Brian Faulkner | 15 December 1959 | Brookeborough
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 11. | William Craig | 29 April 1963 | O'Neill
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 12. | Brian McConnell | 22 July 1964 | O'Neill
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 13. | William Craig | 7 October 1966 | O'Neill
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 14. | William Long | 11 December 1968 | O'Neill
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 15. | Robert Porter | 12 March 1969 | O'Neill, Chichester-Clark
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 16. | James Chichester-Clark | 26 August 1970 | Chichester-Clark
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
| 17. | Brian Faulkner | 23 March 1971 | Faulkner
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | |
UUP | |
Ministers of State
- 1970-1972 John Taylor
Senior Parliamentary Secretaries
- 1971-1972 Albert Anderson
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs
- 1921 - 1925 Robert Dick Megaw
- 1925 - 1937 George Boyle Hanna
- 1937 - 1938 John Clarke Davison
- 1938 - 1940 Edmond Warnock
- 1940 - 1943 William Lowry
- 1943 - 1944 Wilson Hungerford
- 1944 - 1955 vacant
- 1955 - 1956 Terence O'Neill
- 1956 - 1963 vacant
- 1963 - 1964 William Kennedy Fitzsimmons
- 1964 - 1969 vacant
- 1969 Robert Porter
- 1969 - 1970 John Taylor
- 1970 office abolished