William Frederick McCoy (19 January 1885 – 4 December 1976) was an

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 the

Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...

for South Tyrone who went on to become an early supporter of

Ulster nationalism Ulster nationalism is a minor school of thought in the politics of Northern Ireland that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without joining the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovere ...

. Born in

Fivemiletown Fivemiletown is a village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is 16 miles (26 km) east of Enniskillen and 26 miles (43 km) west-south-west of Dungannon, on the A4 Enniskillen-to-Dungannon road. Fivemiletown's populat ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

into a Methodist family, McCoy was the son of merchant William McCoy of Monaghan and Charlotte Murphy of Fermanagh. He was educated at

Clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

High School 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 ...

, where he studied law. After serving in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

McCoy became a barrister in 1920 and held a number of leading legal positions 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 ...

including Crown Prosecutor for

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 ...

(from 1926), Resident Magistrate for

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 Kingdom ...

(1937–1943) and Senior Crown Prosecutor for Belfast (1949–1967). Initially elected to the Parliament in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

on 12 April 1945 (following the death of Rowley Elliott the previous year), McCoy held the seat for the Ulster Unionists until his retirement in 1965. Whilst at first his political viewpoints were fairly typical of Unionism at the time, McCoy began to doubt how far the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

was safeguarded by the existing status of

as it was entirely determined by 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 European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, whom, he felt, could as easily vote it out of existence as retain it. As a result, McCoy called for Northern Ireland to be governed as a

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...

within the Commonwealth, along the lines of Australia and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, with the British monarch retained as Head of State, but with the Northern Irish Parliament otherwise free to govern. McCoy's ideas were generally rejected by the Unionist establishment, who were generally happy with the way things were, and he was sidelined, although he did serve as

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

of the

House of Commons of Northern Ireland The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the '' Government of Ireland Act 1920''. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished w ...

in 1956 during a brief period when the long-term Speaker

Sir Norman Stronge Sir Charles Norman Lockhart Stronge, 8th Baronet, MC, PC, JP (23 July 1894 – 21 January 1981) was a senior Ulster Unionist Party politician in Northern Ireland. Before his involvement in politics, he fought in the First World War as a junio ...

was forced to step aside. An office Stronge held was found to disqualify him, but he resigned it and a Bill was rushed through Parliament to indemnify him. McCoy stepped down from the Northern Ireland House of Commons in 1965, when his seat was won by John Taylor. McCoy continued to write in support of his Dominion plans until his death in 1976.

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