View source for Minister of Home Affairs (Northern Ireland)

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2024}}
{{Politics of Northern Ireland 1921-72}}
The '''Minister of Home Affairs''' was a member of the [[Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland]] ([[Cabinet (government)|Cabinet]]) in the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]] which governed [[Northern Ireland]] from 1921 to 1972. The Minister of Home Affairs was responsible for a range of non-economic domestic matters, although for a few months in 1953 the office was combined with that of the Minister of Finance.
Under the [[Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922]], the Minister was enabled to make any regulation necessary to preserve or re-establish law and order in Northern Ireland. The act specifically entitled him to ban parades, meetings, and publications, and to forbid inquests.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/spa1922.htm | title=CAIN: HMSO: Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland), 1922 }}</ref>
One of the position's more problematic duties was responsibility for [[parades in Northern Ireland]] under the Special Powers Act and from 1951 the [[Public Order Act (Northern Ireland) 1951|Public Order Act]]. Parading was (and is) extremely contentious in Northern Ireland, and so the Minister was bound to anger one community or other regardless of what decision he made. Ministers generally allowed parades by the [[Orange Order]] and other [[Protestant]] groups to go where they wanted, while restricting [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] parades to [[Catholic]] areas and banning [[Irish republicanism|republican]] or anti-partitionist parades. Communist and other far-left parades were also sometimes banned. From time to time ministers, for example [[Brian Maginess]], attempted to administer the parading issue more fairly, but usually suffered career damage as a result. The parading issue may be the reason why the Home Affairs portfolio changed hands more often than most other Ministerial positions.
In 1970, the office was combined with that of [[Prime Minister of Northern Ireland]] with [[John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney|John Taylor]] serving as a cabinet rank junior minister, and then abolished along with the rest of the Northern Irish government in 1973.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! #
! Name
! Took Office
! [[Prime Minister of Northern Ireland|Prime Minister]]
!colspan=2|Party
|-
| 1.
| [[Dawson Bates]]
| 7 June 1921
| [[Sir James Craig|Craig]], [[John Millar Andrews|Andrews]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 2.
| [[William Lowry]]
| 6 May 1943
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brooke]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 3.
| [[Edmond Warnock]]
| 3 November 1944
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brooke]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 4.
| [[Brian Maginess]]
| 21 June 1946
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brooke]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 5.
| [[Edmond Warnock]]
| 11 September 1946
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brooke]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 6.
| [[Brian Maginess]]
| 4 November 1949
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brooke]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 7.
| [[George Hanna (1906–1964)|George Hanna]]
| 26 October 1953
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brookeborough]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 8.
| [[Terence O'Neill]]
| 20 April 1956
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brookeborough]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 9.
| [[W. W. B. Topping]]
| 23 October 1956
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brookeborough]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 10.
| [[Brian Faulkner]]
| 15 December 1959
| [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Brookeborough]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 11.
| [[William Craig (Northern Ireland politician)|William Craig]]
| 29 April 1963
| [[Terence O'Neill|O'Neill]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 12.
| [[Brian McConnell, Baron McConnell|Brian McConnell]]
| 22 July 1964
| [[Terence O'Neill|O'Neill]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 13.
| [[William Craig (Northern Ireland politician)|William Craig]]
| 7 October 1966
| [[Terence O'Neill|O'Neill]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 14.
| [[William Long (UK politician)|William Long]]
| 11 December 1968
| [[Terence O'Neill|O'Neill]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 15.
| [[Robert Porter (Irish politician)|Robert Porter]]
| 12 March 1969
| [[Terence O'Neill|O'Neill]], [[James Chichester-Clark|Chichester-Clark]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 16.
| [[James Chichester-Clark]]
| 26 August 1970
| [[James Chichester-Clark|Chichester-Clark]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|-
| 17.
| [[Brian Faulkner]]
| 23 March 1971
| [[Brian Faulkner|Faulkner]]
| {{Party name with colour|Ulster Unionist Party}}
|}
==Ministers of State==
*1970–1972 [[John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney|John Taylor]]
==Senior Parliamentary Secretaries==
*1971–1972 [[Albert Anderson (politician)|Albert Anderson]]
==Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs==
*1921 – 1925 [[Robert Dick Megaw]]
*1925 – 1937 [[George Hanna (1877-1938)|George Boyle Hanna]]
*1937 – 1938 [[John Clarke Davison]]
*1938 – 1940 [[Edmond Warnock]]
*1940 – 1943 [[William Lowry]]
*1943 – 1944 [[Wilson Hungerford]]
*1944 – 1955 vacant
*1955 – 1956 [[Terence O'Neill]]
*1956 – 1963 vacant
*1963 – 1964 [[William Kennedy Fitzsimmons]]
*1964 – 1969 vacant
*1969 [[Robert Porter (Northern Ireland politician)|Robert Porter]]
*1969 – 1970 [[John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney|John Taylor]]
*1970 office abolished
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Northern Ireland ministerial positions 1921-72}}
[[Category:Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Law of Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:1921 establishments in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:1972 disestablishments in Northern Ireland]]