Florence Patricia Alice McLaughlin

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(née Aldwell; 23 June 1916 – 7 January 1997) was a unionist politician in

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 ...

and one of the earliest female

Members 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 ...

(MPs) from the region.

Early life

McLaughlin was educated at Ashleigh House and

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

before going on to join 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 ...

Career

Chosen to represent the party in the West Belfast constituency for the 1955 general election, she captured the seat from incumbent

Jack Beattie Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

and went on to successfully defend it at the 1959 election before retiring from politics. She made a surprise comeback in the 1970 general election as the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

candidate in Wandsworth Central, although she failed to win the seat. She was also a founding member of the Westminster women's Orange Lodge. On 13 January 1958 she visited Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast where Irish Republican Army (IRA) inmate Eamonn Boyce noted in Irish in his diary entry from that date that she was inside 'looking at the animals!'.

Awards

She was awarded the

in 1965.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Patricia 1916 births 1997 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Belfast constituencies (since 1922) UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Northern Irish constituencies Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century women politicians from Northern Ireland