Sir Oliver Napier (11 July 1935 – 2 July 2011
) was the first leader of the
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, ...
. In 1974 he served as the first and only Legal Minister and head of the Office of Legal Reform in the
Northern Ireland power-sharing executive set up by the
Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unioni ...
.
Early life
Napier was educated at
St. Malachy's College
St Malachy's College, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is the oldest Catholic diocesan college in Ulster. The college's alumni and students are known as Malachians.
History
The college, founded by Bishop William Crolly, opened on the feast of Sa ...
,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
and the
Queen's University of Belfast
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before starting work as a solicitor.
Political career
Napier joined the
Ulster Liberal Party
The Ulster Liberal Party was a liberal and non-sectarian political party in Northern Ireland linked to the British Liberal Party. The party was officially neutral on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. Members expressed different vi ...
, rising to become Vice President by 1969. That year, he led a group of four party members who joined the
New Ulster Movement
The New Ulster Movement (NUM) was a political pressure group in Northern Ireland which aimed to promote moderate and non-sectarian policies and to help candidates who supported Terence O'Neill, the Northern Ireland Prime Minister, in the electio ...
, accepting the post of joint Chairman of its political committee. The Liberal Party promptly expelled him, but, working with
Bob Cooper, he used his position to establish a new political party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, which sought to become a political force that could command support from across the divided communities of the province, but remaining pro-union. This aimed to offer an alternative to what Napier described as the sectarianism of 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 ...
. Despite his faith he was a supporter of the Union.
He served as the party's joint leader from 1970 until 1972, then as its sole leader from 1973 to 1984. Under his leadership Alliance participated in successive assemblies that sought to solve the debate on the province's position, including the
Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973
The Northern Ireland Assembly was a legislative assembly set up by the Government of the United Kingdom on 3 May 1973 to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland with the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive made up of unionists an ...
in which Napier was a
minister in the power-sharing Executive. In 1979 he came closer to winning a seat in the
Westminster Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...
than any other Alliance candidate up to that point when he was less than a thousand votes behind
Peter Robinson's winning total in
Belfast East in a tight three-way marginal.
This record was beaten in 2010, when
Naomi Long
Naomi Rachel Long MLA (née Johnston; born 13 December 1971) is a Northern Irish politician who served as Minister of Justice in the Northern Ireland Executive from January 2020 to October 2022. She has served as leader of the Alliance Party ...
ousted Robinson from the same seat. When Napier stepped down as leader in 1984 he received many plaudits for his work. The following year he was knighted and in 1989 he stood down from
Belfast City Council
Belfast City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhéal Feirste) is the local authority with responsibility for part of the city of Belfast, the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The Council serves an estimated population of (), the l ...
, seemingly to retire.
However, in 1995 he returned to the political fray when he contested the
North Down by-election for the Alliance, standing again in the
1997 general election.
In 1996 he was elected to the
Northern Ireland Peace Forum
The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...
for
North Down.
Prior to his death Oliver Napier was the last prominent member of the Ulster Liberal Party.
Public positions
Napier served on the Board of Governors of the first integrated school in Northern Ireland,
Lagan College
Lagan College is an integrated secondary school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It holds a total of around 1540 students. It was formed in 1981 as the first integrated school in Northern Ireland and contains students of mainly Roman Catholic and ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Napier, Oliver
1935 births
2011 deaths
Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
Knights Bachelor
Leaders of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Members of Belfast City Council
Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1973–1974
Members of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention
Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986
Members of the Northern Ireland Forum
Solicitors from Northern Ireland
Ulster Liberal Party politicians
People educated at St Malachy's College
Executive ministers of the 1974 Northern Ireland Assembly
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland councillors
Alliance Party parliamentary candidates