Terence Marne ONeill Baron ONeill of the Maine

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O'Neill, Terence (1914–90), Lord O'Neill of the Maine, prime minister of Northern Ireland 1963–9. A member of an Anglo‐Irish landed family with a protracted (if undistinguished) parliamentary record, O'Neill represented the seigniorial tradition of Unionist politics. He was returned to Stormont in November 1946, and was minister of finance 1956–63. As prime minister, he was anxious to revitalize the ailing Northern Irish economy, and embraced technological improvement and economic planning with a will. He was equally anxious to improve community relations within Northern Ireland: he was the first prime minister to visit a Catholic school (in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, Apr. 1964), and he hosted the visit of Sean Lemass to Stormont on 14 January 1965. But the rhetoric of consensus was not accompanied by any substantial reform initiative, so that Catholic expectations were raised but not satisfied. It was not until 1968 that the violence arising from the civil rights movement and loyalist counter‐demonstrations converted O'Neill to desperate legislative action. In December he announced a five‐point programme of reform designed to defuse communal tensions. However, he faced mounting criticism within his own, previously sympathetic, party. O'Neill sought to rout his critics through a general election, held in February 1969: but this merely consolidated Unionist division. He resigned from office on 28 April 1969.

O'Neill had political vision, but lacked the personal charm and strategic skill necessary to enact his ideals. He was closer in temperament to 18th‐century Irish Whiggery than to his Butskellite admirers in Britain. Called a technocrat, O'Neill can best be understood within the tradition of improving landlordism: he was paternalist, occasionally authoritarian, but ultimately detached from those whom he sought to benefit.

Alvin Jackson

Terence Marne O'Neill O'Neill of the Maine, Baron 1914–90, Ulster Unionist politician. A member of one of the oldest Protestant families in Ireland, he entered the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1946. He served as minister of finance (1956–63) and prime minister (1963–69). Regarded as one of the most liberal Unionists, he favored broadening Roman Catholic civil rights, although his party did not. His main concern was improving the economy of the province; his government stressed industrial expansion, training facilities for skilled trades, and the development of tourism, with considerable success. His formal meetings with Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch were regarded as too compromising by right-wing Unionists, and the gradual increase in prosperity, along with his limited civil-rights reform in 1968, did not satisfy Roman Catholic grievances. After failing to win a mandate for moderation in the 1969 elections, he resigned. He was created a life peer in 1970.

Bibliography: See his autobiography (1972).