Major Sir Lancelot Ernest Curran (8 March 1899 – 20 October 1984, leighrayment.com; accessed 26 September 2017.) was a

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

High Court

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

and parliamentarian. He was elected as

Ulster Unionist The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Carrick in the Stormont Parliament serving from 1945–49,Mystery coverup (part 2)
BelfastTelegraph.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017. and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance (

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

) (17 July 1945 - 12 June 1947). Curran was Attorney General for Northern Ireland (6 June 1947 – 4 November 1949), the youngest in the history of that parliament. He was a member of the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots heritage. It also ...

and became a member of the

Privy Council of Northern Ireland The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a formal body of advisors to the sovereign and was a vehicle for the monarch's prerogative powers in Northern Ireland. It was modelled on the Privy Council of Ireland. The council was created in 1922 as ...

.Denied justice by a form of words
independent.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.

Murder of Patricia Curran

Lancelot and Doris Curran had three children: Michael, Patricia and Desmond. Desmond became a barrister and latterly a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

convert and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. On 12 November 1952 Patricia, aged 19, and a student at

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

, was murdered. Her body was found in the driveway of the Curran home, Glen House,

Whiteabbey , translit_lang1 = , translit_lang1_type = Derivation: , translit_lang1_info = , translit_lang1_type1 = Meaning: , translit_lang1_info1 = , translit_lang2 = , translit_lang2_type = Derivation: , tra ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

. She had been stabbed thirty-seven times. A 20 year old

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

technician, Iain Hay Gordon, who had met Patricia at the Presbyterian church they both attended, was convicted of her murder. His sentence was overturned in 2000 after the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal found it to be unsafe. ''Scapegoat'', a

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''BBC Norlin Airlan'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ire ...

drama about the conviction of Hay Gordon, was broadcast in 2009.Scapegoat found for high society murder
bbc.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.

Famous Trials

Curran presided over the trial of

Robert McGladdery Robert Andrew McGladdery (18 October 193520 December 1961) was the last person to be executed in Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland. He was convicted of the murder of Pearl Gamble, aged 19, whom he had battered, strangled and stabbed ...

for the murder of 19-year-old Pearl Gamble, near

Newry Newry (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Clanrye river in counties Armagh and Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry was founded in 1144 alongside a Cistercian monastery, althoug ...

, in 1961. McGladdery protested his innocence but was found guilty and hanged at

Crumlin Road jail HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since 1996 it is the only remaining Victorian era former prison in Northern Ireland. It is colloquially known as ' ...

in Belfast on 20 December 1961; it was the last hanging in

. A fictionalized account of the trial and execution of McGladdery, ''Orchid Blue'', was written by

Eoin McNamee Eoin McNamee (b.1961) is an Irish writer from Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland who has written numerous novels and screenplays. He was awarded the Macauley Fellowship for Irish Literature in 1990. He lives in County Sligo. Career Novell ...

and published in 2010 (McNamee had previously written a

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

-nominated novel, ''Blue Tango'', about the murder of Patricia Curran). Another McNamee novel, ''Blue Is The Night'' (published in 2014), deals with Curran's involvement in a murder trial in the Northern Ireland of the late 1940s.

Later years and death

Sir Lancelot's first wife, Lady Doris Curran, died on 29 May 1975. He remarried, to Margaret Pearce a year later. He died in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in 1984.

References