Leslie Morrell (born 26 December 1931) is a former unionist

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, 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 ...

. Morrell was a farmer from near

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

, and was active in the

Ulster Unionist Party 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 ...

(UUP). He was elected to Coleraine

Rural District Council Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the Ad ...

in 1962, then Londonderry County Council in 1969. He was on several committees, on Coleraine Harbour Board and Coleraine Hospital Management Board as well as Tourism and Water until the 1973 Reorganisation. In 1973, he was elected to Coleraine District Council and during his service on the Council was successful in expanding housing in Articlave and getting a swimming pool, seafront promenade, bowling green and community hall for Castlerock. He was elected on first preference to the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...

from the Londonderry constituency.Biographies of Prominent People – 'M'
CAIN Web Service Although he was a supporter of UUP leader

Brian Faulkner Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive ...

, Morrell refused to sign a pledge to support a relevant White Paper, as asked., but became Deputy-leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, under Brian Faulkner, his wife becoming Vice President of Ulster Women's Unionist Association under Lucy Faulkner. He was a member of the team that met SDLP and Alliance for talks that led to the NI Executive and he was at the Sunningdale Conference where he negotiated the Council of Ireland with Garret Fitzgerald. He introduced the Shannon-Erne Waterway as a cross-border initiative, giving it further encouragement when on the NI Water Council! Faulkner appointed Morrell as

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

when the

Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the ter ...

was created. After Sunningdale when Faulkner resigned after losing a vote on the Agreement in the Unionist Council, and Morrell was expelled from the UUP by the North Londonderry Constituency Association, he joined Faulkner's new

Unionist Party of Northern Ireland The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974. Formation The party emerged following splits in the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973 and 1974 over the British government's white paper ''Nor ...

, becoming deputy leader of the party. The Executive fell as a result of the Ulster Workers' Strike in May 1974. However, Morrell lost his seat in Londonderry in the 1975 elections to the

Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of Northern Ireland. For ...

.Londonderry 1973–1982
Northern Ireland Elections Morrell did not defend his seat in the 1977 Northern Ireland local elections, and resigned as deputy leader of the party in 1978, to focus on farming and developing the Voluntary Housing Movement in Northern Ireland He had attended the Corrymeela Conference on Housing in December 1974 and was elected as a member of the Steering Group to develop Voluntary ( Social ) Housing. When the Federation of Housing associations was set up in 1976 he represented Ulster Provident Housing and was founder-chair of James Butcher Housing NI in February 1976. He was the second Chair of NIFHA in 1981/2 and vacated Chair of James Butcher in 1982 to become Honorary Secretary instead. He retained this office after James Butcher and NIH merged to form Oaklee Housing Association and later when Choice Housing Ireland Ltd. was formed by the merger of Oaklee, Trinity and Ulidia HA's. He retired on 31 March 2016 but was elected as the first Honorary President of Choice Housing. In 2015 the UK Institute of Housing recognised his contribution to the development of Social housing in Northern Ireland with a Lifetime Achievement Award He helped launch Oaklee Housing Trust, now re-named Oaklee Housing, in the Republic of Ireland with funds from Oaklee, later being elected to its Board where he served until 2018 when tenure ended under the Rules. He founded and chaired the Virus-tested Seed Potato Growers Association, formed from those who produced the basic healthy seed for the industry in NI., and was a founder member of the NI Institute of Agricultural Science. Before his election to the Assembly, he was an active member of the Ulster Farmers Union, became Chair of its Potato Committee, on the Executive, and was appointed to the NI Agricultural Council, which elected him as Chairman for several years until it was superseded÷ by the NI Assembly in 1973. In 1982, during Direct Rule, he was invited to Chair the NI Water Council, a post he held for 10 years, receiving the OBE in 1986 for his services to Water.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrell, Leslie 1931 births Living people Members of Coleraine Borough Council Farmers from Northern Ireland Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1973–1974 Ulster Unionist Party councillors Unionist Party of Northern Ireland politicians Executive ministers of the 1974 Northern Ireland Assembly