“... And the North is full of tangled things, and texts, and aching eyes, And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise; And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room, And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom; And Christian hateth Mary, whom God kissed in Galilee....” G.K.Chesterton, Lepanto , 1915 Of the four Ulster Unionist Premiers between 1921 and 1969, two enjoyed a very long period in office, once they had secured their position. The third, Sir Basil Brooke, served from 1943-1963, and the first, Lord Craigavon, served from 1921-1940. The second and fourth are in that regard interesting, in the sense that they could not hold their positions for very long. In the case of JM Andrews (the second premier, between 1940 and 1943) this was because he was in fact very old, and had such a longstanding position in the north that he found it very difficult to fire the friends he had appointed to government. Given that they ...
This is a collection of personal and largely unedited observations covering the years from 2006 to now; I assert my copyright but am fine with links and footnotes. Some posts are obviously much more researched than others, and any errors are wholly mine except where I have innocently disseminated or linked to other bloggers or commentators.