On This Day / March 24, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19710324
Reference Date
19710324
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 24th March 1971, Brian Faulkner emerged as Northern Ireland’s new Prime Minister amid Unionist division while London warned Stormont over authority and reform. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Faulkner is New Premier | On This Day 24 March 1971
MR BRIAN Faulkner, the Minister of Development, became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in succession to Mr James Chichester-Clark in all but name yesterday.
His election will be confirmed at a meeting of the Unionist Parliamentary Party today.
It is believed inevitable that four Unionist MPs including Mr William Craig (former Minister of Home Affairs and a contender for the premiership) and Mr Harry West will be readmitted to the Parliamentary Party.
But even with four extra votes, Mr Faulkner is expected to coast home.
Mr Faulkner, who saw the Premiership slip from his grasp to Mr Terence [now Lord] O’Neill [in 1963] and who was pipped at the post – by a single vote – to Mr Chichester-Clark, is a tenacious fighter.
But even his best friends last night admitted that, faced with formidable opposition from the right wing and distrusted by the Opposition, his tenure of office is likely to be only about a year.
On the eve of Mr Faulkner’s election, a Minority Rights Group was formed yesterday – and with it came a clear warning to the Unionist Party that any reversal of the reform programme would lead to total withdrawal of the Catholic minority from public life.
Fifty representatives of trades unions and professional and business life formed the group.
In a plea to the Protestant population, they called for united community support for its aims as ‘only in this way can a community in peaceful partnership be established’.
Heath Warns Unionist Hardliners
THE British Prime Minister, Mr Edward Heath yesterday reminded the warring Unionist factions that his government held ‘the ultimate authority and responsibility for NI’.
His government would support any Stormont administration provided it cooperated in implementing policies approved by Westminster.
Mr Heath and the Opposition leader, Mr Harold Wilson made it clear that Britain’s two major parties agreed on a programme of reconciliation, equality and an end to violence and terrorism.
The PM assured Mr Wilson that the Conservatives are opposed to reconstituting the B Specials or rearming the RUC.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Clark’s failure to persuade Westminster to double troop numbers to counter the IRA campaign ensured the election of the suave, ambitious and Dublin-educated Brian Faulkner.
Within months Faulkner’s predictable resort to internment – directed exclusively at the minority – would trigger total Catholic alienation from the Northern Ireland state.)
On This Day – 24th March 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710324
Reference Date
19710324
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 24th March 1971, Brian Faulkner emerged as Northern Ireland’s new Prime Minister amid Unionist division while London warned Stormont over authority and reform. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Faulkner is New Premier | On This Day 24 March 1971
MR BRIAN Faulkner, the Minister of Development, became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in succession to Mr James Chichester-Clark in all but name yesterday.
His election will be confirmed at a meeting of the Unionist Parliamentary Party today.
It is believed inevitable that four Unionist MPs including Mr William Craig (former Minister of Home Affairs and a contender for the premiership) and Mr Harry West will be readmitted to the Parliamentary Party.
But even with four extra votes, Mr Faulkner is expected to coast home.
Mr Faulkner, who saw the Premiership slip from his grasp to Mr Terence [now Lord] O’Neill [in 1963] and who was pipped at the post – by a single vote – to Mr Chichester-Clark, is a tenacious fighter.
But even his best friends last night admitted that, faced with formidable opposition from the right wing and distrusted by the Opposition, his tenure of office is likely to be only about a year.
On the eve of Mr Faulkner’s election, a Minority Rights Group was formed yesterday – and with it came a clear warning to the Unionist Party that any reversal of the reform programme would lead to total withdrawal of the Catholic minority from public life.
Fifty representatives of trades unions and professional and business life formed the group.
In a plea to the Protestant population, they called for united community support for its aims as ‘only in this way can a community in peaceful partnership be established’.
Heath Warns Unionist Hardliners
THE British Prime Minister, Mr Edward Heath yesterday reminded the warring Unionist factions that his government held ‘the ultimate authority and responsibility for NI’.
His government would support any Stormont administration provided it cooperated in implementing policies approved by Westminster.
Mr Heath and the Opposition leader, Mr Harold Wilson made it clear that Britain’s two major parties agreed on a programme of reconciliation, equality and an end to violence and terrorism.
The PM assured Mr Wilson that the Conservatives are opposed to reconstituting the B Specials or rearming the RUC.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Clark’s failure to persuade Westminster to double troop numbers to counter the IRA campaign ensured the election of the suave, ambitious and Dublin-educated Brian Faulkner.
Within months Faulkner’s predictable resort to internment – directed exclusively at the minority – would trigger total Catholic alienation from the Northern Ireland state.)
On This Day – 24th March 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710324
Reference Date
March 24, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 24th March 1971, Brian Faulkner emerged as Northern Ireland’s new Prime Minister amid Unionist division while London warned Stormont over authority and reform. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Faulkner is New Premier | On This Day 24 March 1971
MR BRIAN Faulkner, the Minister of Development, became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in succession to Mr James Chichester-Clark in all but name yesterday.
His election will be confirmed at a meeting of the Unionist Parliamentary Party today.
It is believed inevitable that four Unionist MPs including Mr William Craig (former Minister of Home Affairs and a contender for the premiership) and Mr Harry West will be readmitted to the Parliamentary Party.
But even with four extra votes, Mr Faulkner is expected to coast home.
Mr Faulkner, who saw the Premiership slip from his grasp to Mr Terence [now Lord] O’Neill [in 1963] and who was pipped at the post – by a single vote – to Mr Chichester-Clark, is a tenacious fighter.
But even his best friends last night admitted that, faced with formidable opposition from the right wing and distrusted by the Opposition, his tenure of office is likely to be only about a year.
On the eve of Mr Faulkner’s election, a Minority Rights Group was formed yesterday – and with it came a clear warning to the Unionist Party that any reversal of the reform programme would lead to total withdrawal of the Catholic minority from public life.
Fifty representatives of trades unions and professional and business life formed the group.
In a plea to the Protestant population, they called for united community support for its aims as ‘only in this way can a community in peaceful partnership be established’.
Heath Warns Unionist Hardliners
THE British Prime Minister, Mr Edward Heath yesterday reminded the warring Unionist factions that his government held ‘the ultimate authority and responsibility for NI’.
His government would support any Stormont administration provided it cooperated in implementing policies approved by Westminster.
Mr Heath and the Opposition leader, Mr Harold Wilson made it clear that Britain’s two major parties agreed on a programme of reconciliation, equality and an end to violence and terrorism.
The PM assured Mr Wilson that the Conservatives are opposed to reconstituting the B Specials or rearming the RUC.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Clark’s failure to persuade Westminster to double troop numbers to counter the IRA campaign ensured the election of the suave, ambitious and Dublin-educated Brian Faulkner.
Within months Faulkner’s predictable resort to internment – directed exclusively at the minority – would trigger total Catholic alienation from the Northern Ireland state.)
On This Day – 24th March 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.