Biographies of Prominent People - 'K'

Kelly, ('Gerry') Gerard (b. 1953)
Politician; Republican Activist; Sinn Féin MLA
[Entry to be included at a later date]

Kennedy, Jane (b. 21 March 1961)
Politician; Labour Party MP; Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) 2001-2004

Jane Kennedy was born in Whitehaven, Cumbria and educated at Haughton and Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form Colleges, Darlington; and Liverpool University. After leaving university Kennedy worked as a residential child care officer with Liverpool City Council (1979-83), as a care assistant for the City Council's Social Service Department (1983-88), and as a full-time trade union official (1988-92). In 1992 she was elected as a Labour MP for Liverpool Broadgreen (1992-97) and at the 1997 general election was returned for the constituency of Liverpool Wavertree (1997-present). After serving in a number of junior positions in June 2001 Kennedy was appointed to the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) as Minister of State with responsibilities for matters relating to Security, Policing and Prisons (2001-2004). Then following the move to suspend devolved government in October 2002 she was also made responsible for the Department of Education and the Department for Employment and Learning (2002-2004). In April 2004 following a government reshuffle she left the NIO to take up another junior ministerial position.

Web Sources:
http://www.nio.gov.uk/press/jkennedy.htm
http://www.politicallinks.co.uk/POLITICS2/BIOG/MP_BIOGS/bio.asp?id=378
[Entry written by B.Lynn - 26 November 2002; updated 9 June 2004]

King, Frank Douglas (General) (b. 9 March 1919)
British Army Soldier; General Officer Commanding (GOC) Northern Ireland 1973-75

After a distinguished career in the British Army in 1973 Frank King was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) Northern Ireland (1973-75). During his spell as GOC King had to try to deal with a difficult security situation given the rising number of attacks by both Loyalist and Republican paramilitary groups. In May 1974 King was responsible for dealing with the Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) strike which sought to bring down the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive and the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement. His subsequent reluctance to directly use troops to undermine the strike was to be condemned by some of the members of the Executive and other opponents of the stoppage. Later in reply to such criticism King justified his response by arguing that given the large numbers who supported the strike there was little effective option he could have taken.

Book References:
Elliott, Sydney. and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Hennessey, Thomas. (1997), A History of Northern Ireland 1920-1996. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
[Entry written by B.Lynn - 30 March 2003]

King, ('Tom') Thomas Jeremy (Life Peerage 2001) (b. 13 June 1933)
Politician; Conservative Party MP; Secretary of State for Northern Ireland September 1985- July 1989

First elected to the House of Commons in 1970 as the Conservative MP for Bridgewater (1970-2001) Tom King went onto hold a number of positions when his party was in opposition between 1974 and 1979, most notably as Shadow Energy Secretary. After the Conservatives returned to office following the 1979 general election he served as a junior minister before being promoted to the Cabinet in 1983, as Minister of the Environment (January-October 1983). Then October 1983 King became Employment Minister (1983-85) and he was to remain in this post until September 1985. As a result of a cabinet reshuffle he was then appointed as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1985-89). He arrived in his new post at a difficult time given the fact that the British and Irish governments were just about to conclude the negotiations which were to end with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) in November 1985. It was therefore to fall to King to try convince sceptical unionists about the merits of the AIA and given their level of opposition to it, this soon proved to be an impossible task. Not only did he fail to make any headway but some of the language he used in trying to achieve this goal, caused some anger amongst the authorities in Dublin.

In spite of these initial problems King took on the role as co-chairman of the ministerial conference established under the AIA and over the next four years was to be the senior British government minister responsible for its operation. As in other areas his achievements in this whole area was to be mixed. To begin with he was able to withstand the early unionist backlash against the AIA and refused to agree to their demands for it to be suspended as the price of them entering a new round of political talks. At the same time however King's ongoing attempts to win them round to the AIA failed and left a growing sense of alienation amongst many with this vacuum being filled by loyalist paramilitaries. As for nationalist opinion, both north and south, doubts remained about his fundamental support for the AIA. If anything this intensified as some of the grievances they had expected the AIA to address seemed to be effectively blocked by him and the British government. In 1989 King's term of office in Northern Ireland was to end when he was made Defence Minister (1989-92) and after the general election of 1992 he returned to the backbenches where he was to remain a loyal supporter of the Conservative government. He announced his intention to retire as an MP prior to the 2001 election and in June 2001 was awarded with a life peerage, taking his seat in the House of Lords as Lord King of Bridgewater.

Book References:
Elliott, Sydney and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-99. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Hennessey, Thomas. (1997), A History of Northern Ireland 1920-1996. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Ramsden, John. (ed.) (2002), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[Entry written by B.Lynn - 26 November 2002]

Kirk, Herbert Victor (b. 5 June 1912)
Politician; Unionist MP (Stormont); Northern Ireland Executive Minister January-May 1974

A graduate of Queen's University Herbert Kirk became a chartered accountant before entering politics when he was returned to the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1956 as the Unionist MP for the constituency of Windsor (1956-72). At Stormont he soon established himself and by 1962 had entered the cabinet as Minister of Labour and National Insurance (1962-64). This was subsequently followed by spells as Minister of Education (1964-65) and as Minister of Finance (1965-72). After the suspension of Stormont and the introduction of direct rule in March 1972, he supported the policies of Brian Faulkner, then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Kirk was to prove a close ally of Faulkner in the political discussions that were to lead to the subsequent moves to establish the power-sharing Executive and 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 as Head of the Department of Finance (January-May 1974). After its collapse in May 1974 Kirk decided to sever his ties with politics and returned to pursue his business interests.

Book References:
Elliott, Sydney. and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
[Entry written by B.Lynn - 24 March 2003]