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 Assembl ...

. 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.

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 Kingdom ...

and the

Queen's University of Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

before starting work as a solicitor.

Political career

Napier joined the Ulster Liberal Party, rising to become Vice President by 1969. That year, he led a group of four party members who joined the New Ulster Movement, 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 m ...

. 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 in which Napier was a minister in the power-sharing Executive. In 1979 he came closer to winning a seat in the Westminster Parliament 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 ...

, 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