Robert Law McCartney,
KC (born 24 April 1936) is a
Northern Irish barrister and Unionist politician who was the founder and leader of the
UK Unionist Party
The UK Unionist Party (UKUP) was a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008 that opposed the Good Friday Agreement. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, to contest the ...
(UKUP) from 1995 to 2008.
He was initially a member 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 ...
(UUP) but was expelled in June 1987 when he refused to withdraw from the
general election of that year. He stood against the incumbent Popular Unionist Party MP
Sir James Kilfedder in North Down as a "Real Unionist" but failed to win the seat.
In the
1995 by-election in
North Down after the death of Kilfedder he was elected as a "UK Unionist" defeating the Ulster Unionist Party candidate. He subsequently established the
United Kingdom Unionist Party to contest elections to the Northern Ireland Forum and the related talks which started
in 1996. The other party representatives to the Forum were Dr
Conor Cruise O'Brien
Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008), often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish diplomat, politician, writer, historian and academic, who served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1973 ...
and
Cedric Wilson
Cedric Wilson (born 6 June 1948) is a Northern Irish Unionist politician who served as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Strangford from 1998 to 2003.
Elected as a UK Unionist Party (UKUP) candidate to the Assembly, Wilson ...
, a former low-level DUP member in the 1980s. McCartney retained his Westminster seat in the
1997 election.
He opposed the subsequent
Belfast Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
in the May 1998 referendum and his party won five seats in the Assembly elections later that year (McCartney himself in North Down, Cedric Wilson in Strangford,
Patrick Roche in Lagan Valley,
Norman Boyd
Norman Boyd (born 16 October 1961) is a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland who served as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Antrim from 1998 to 2003.
Boyd was born in Belfast and attended Belfast High School and ...
in South Antrim and
Roger Hutchinson in East Antrim).
However, Wilson, Roche, Boyd and Hutchinson parted company with McCartney in December 1998 because of their leader's so-called 'exit strategy' from the Northern Ireland Assembly in the event of Sinn Féin being allowed seats in the new Northern Ireland Government. McCartney denounced them, saying all four were "famous in their own living rooms" and that their supporters could "fit into a telephone box". In 2008 both Wilson and Boyd attended meetings of
Jim Allister
James Hugh Allister (born 2 April 1953) is a British Unionist politician and barrister in Northern Ireland. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) political party in 2007, leading the party since its formation.
Allister has served as ...
's
Traditional Unionist Voice
The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place ...
.
In 1999, McCartney ran for the party in
elections to the European Parliament
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Until ...
, winning 2.9% of the first preference vote. He lost his Westminster seat in the
2001 election to the UUP candidate Lady
Sylvia Hermon.
He was committed to a policy of integration for
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 ...
, whereby legislative devolution for Northern Ireland would no longer be Westminster's abiding policy, there would be no Stormont legislative assembly and the province would be a fully participating part of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
; at the same time, the three main British political parties would fully organise in Northern Ireland. He was the president of the
Campaign for Equal Citizenship in 1986, and led it in its four years of prominence after the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.
McCartney resigned as head of the Campaign for Equal Citizenship in 1988 over a dispute with its executive.
These integrationist policies, once popular in some sections of Unionism, receded with the introduction of devolution to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, and the creation of a functioning Northern Ireland Assembly. However it is the case that other parts of the United Kingdom with devolved assemblies are fully covered by the three main British political parties, but not Northern Ireland.
McCartney also strongly opposed the
St Andrews Agreement
The St Andrews Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Chill Rímhinn; Ulster Scots: ''St Andra's 'Greement'', ''St Andrew's Greeance'' or ''St Andrae's Greeance'') is an agreement between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's politica ...
and in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
stood on an anti-agreement ticket in six constituencies. He lost his own seat in
North Down, polling 1,806 first preference votes (5.9% of the total, and less than half the quota required to be elected). He also obtained 360 votes (1.2%) in
Belfast North, 388 votes (0.8%) in
Fermanagh and South Tyrone, 853 votes (2.0%) in
Lagan Valley
The Lagan Valley (, Ulster Scots: ''Glen Lagan'') is an area of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Lisburn. The River Lagan rises on Slieve Croob in County Down and flows generally northward discharging into Belfast Lough. For a section, the ...
, 893 votes (2.3%) in
South Antrim and 220 votes (0.5%) in
West Tyrone.
He claims to have retired from politics following the loss of his seat in the
2007 Assembly Election to
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...
of the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
. However, he still occasionally makes media appearances and writes newspaper articles. In October 2009, McCartney was guest speaker at the Traditional Unionist Voice party conference in Belfast, where he spoke on the situation surrounding the primary school transfer test, brought about by a Sinn Féin Education Minister.
Notes
External links
*
Maiden Speech : House of Commons – 5 July 1995
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCartney, Robert
1936 births
Living people
Leaders of political parties in Northern Ireland
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Down constituencies (since 1922)
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK Unionist Party MLAs
Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986
Members of the Northern Ireland Forum
Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003
Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007
People educated at Grosvenor Grammar School
Northern Ireland King's Counsel