| McIvor,
('William'), Basil |
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| Name:
McIvor, ('William'), Basil |
| Date
of Birth: 17 June 1928 |
| Roles / Positions:
Politician; Unionist Party (UP); UP (Stormont) MP; NI Executive Minister January-May 1974 |
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Brief
Biography:
Basil McIvor graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a law degree and pursued a legal career before being called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1950. McIvor first came to political prominence in 1969 when he was elected to the Stormont parliament as Unionist MP for the constituency of Larkfield (1969-72). Initially he was a firm supporter of Captain Terence O'Neill, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and supported O'Neill's attempts to address the concerns of the civil rights movement by introducing a package of reforms. After O'Neill's decision to resign in April 1969 McIvor continued to call for the Unionist leadership to seek to maintain this approach and late in 1971 entered the Northern Ireland cabinet as Minister of Community Relations (October 1971 - March 1972). After the imposition of direct rule in March 1972 he chose to refrain from attacking William Whitelaw, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and went onto support the line taken by Brian Faulkner, then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). As a result he accompanied Faulkner at the talks that were to lead to the establishment of a power-sharing Executive for Northern Ireland alongside the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement.
Elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 1973 for the constituency of South Belfast, he was appointed to the Executive (January-May 1974) and was to serve as Head of the Department of Education. His plans however to introduce a scheme whereby Protestant and Catholic pupils would be educated in the same schools failed to materialise with the collapse of the Executive in May 1974. This marked the end of his active involvement in politics and in 1976 he was appointed as a Resident Magistrate (1976-93). However McIvor maintained an interest in educational matters and in 1981 he was appointed the Chairman of Lagan College, the first integrated school in Northern Ireland.
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Book
References:
Elliott, Sydney. and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
McIvor, Basil. (1998), Hope Deferred: Experiences of an Irish Unionist. Belfast: Blackstaff.
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| [Entry written by B.Lynn - 24 March 2003]
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