34 Facts About Brian Faulkner

Brian Faulkner was the chief executive of the short-lived Northern Ireland Executive during the first half of 1974.

Brian Faulkner was born in Helen's Bay, County Down, Ireland, two months before the creation of Northern Ireland.

James Brian Faulkner owned the Belfast Collar Company which traded under the name Faulat.

Brian Faulkner was educated initially at Elm Park preparatory school, Killylea, County Armagh, but at 14 was sent to the Church of Ireland-affiliated St Columba's College at Rathfarnham in Dublin, although Faulkner was Presbyterian.

Brian Faulkner chose St Columba's, preferring to stay in Ireland rather than go to school in England.

Brian Faulkner was the only prime minister of Northern Ireland to have been educated in the Irish Free State and one of only two to have been educated in Ireland.

Brian Faulkner entered the Queen's University of Belfast in 1939 to study law but, with the advent of World War II, he quit his studies to work full-time in the family shirt-making business.

Brian Faulkner became involved in unionist politics, the first of his family to do so, and was elected to the Parliament of Northern Ireland as the Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament for the constituency of East Down in 1949.

Brian Faulkner was, at the time, the youngest ever MP in the Northern Irish Parliament.

Brian Faulkner was the first Chairman of the Ulster Young Unionist Council in 1949.

In 1956 Brian Faulkner was offered and accepted the job of Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, or Government Chief Whip.

Brian Faulkner resigned in 1969 over the technicalities of how and when to bring in the local government reforms which the British Labour government was pushing for.

Brian Faulkner came back into government as Minister of Development under Chichester-Clark and in a sharp turn-around, began the implementation of the political reforms that were the main cause of his resignation from O'Neill's cabinet.

In March 1971 Brian Faulkner was elected leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and thus became prime minister.

The political climate deteriorated further when, in response to the worsening security situation, and in a move without precedent in the United Kingdom in modern times, Brian Faulkner introduced internment on 9 August 1971.

David Bleakley resigned in September 1971 over internment and Faulkner appointed Dr G B Newe, a prominent Catholic, as Minister of State in the Cabinet Office.

Brian Faulkner's administration staggered on through the rest of 1971, insisting that security was the paramount issue.

In March 1972, Brian Faulkner refused to maintain a government without security powers which the British government under Edward Heath decided to take back.

Brian Faulkner became chief executive in a power-sharing executive with the SDLP and the centre-ground Alliance Party, a political alliance cemented at the Sunningdale Conference that year.

However, the prominence in the Sunningdale Agreement of the cross-border Council of Ireland suggested that Brian Faulkner had strayed too far ahead of his party.

In 1974, Brian Faulkner lost the leadership of the UUP to anti-Sunningdale elements led by Harry West.

Brian Faulkner subsequently resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party and formed the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

Whereas Brian Faulkner had topped the poll in South Down in 1973 with over 16,000 votes, he polled just 6,035 votes in 1975 and finished seventh, winning the final seat.

In 1976 Brian Faulkner announced that he was quitting active politics.

Brian Faulkner was elevated to the House of Lords in the New Year's Honours list of 1977, being created Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, of Downpatrick in the County of Down on 7 February 1977.

Brian Faulkner married Lucy Forsythe, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, in 1951.

Brian Faulkner was equally suited to a political partnership having had a career in journalism with the Belfast Telegraph and was secretary to the Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Sir Basil Brooke, when they met.

Michael Brian Faulkner died on 1 June 2024 at the age of 71.

Brian Faulkner was a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry but was expelled from the group in 1971.

Brian Faulkner considered himself to be both Irish and British, writing "the Northern Ireland citizen is Irish and British; it is a question of complement, not of conflict" and reacted to the Republic of Ireland Act by remarking "They have no right to the title Ireland, a name of which we are just as proud as they".

Brian Faulkner had been riding at full gallop along a narrow country road when his horse slipped.

Brian Faulkner was laid to rest at Magherahamlet Presbyterian Church near Spa in County Down where he had been a regular member of the congregation.

Lord Brian Faulkner had retired from active politics and was pursuing his interests in industry at the time of his death.

Brian Faulkner had recently become a European consultant for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, a company which he proved instrumental in attracting to Northern Ireland during his tenure as Minister of Commerce.