Kennedy Lindsay was a Northern Ireland politician and a leading advocate of Ulster nationalism.
15 Facts About Kennedy Lindsay
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Kennedy Lindsay took a leading role in the tendency within the Vanguard that supported a diminished role for the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland and produced the Dominion of Ulster, outlining his views, in 1972.
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Kennedy Lindsay subsequently led two political parties advocating his dominion idea but failed to gain much support.
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Kennedy Lindsay largely left active politics in his later life to concentrate on writing.
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Kennedy Lindsay was educated at Trinity College Dublin, Edinburgh University and in London, gaining a PhD in modern history, studying under Richard Pares and Sir Lewis Namier.
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Kennedy Lindsay eventually returned to Northern Ireland and lectured in the School of Humanities at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, County Londonderry.
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Kennedy Lindsay entered politics as a member of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly set up under the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement to represent that party in the South Antrim constituency.
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Kennedy Lindsay retained the seat for the Vanguard in the 1975 Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention election under the United Ulster Unionist Council banner.
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Deeply opposed to the Assembly, Lindsay had grown disillusioned with unionism, and began to call for implementation of the ideas of W F McCoy, who had earlier called for Northern Ireland to be granted Dominion status.
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Kennedy Lindsay felt that his plan, which he had intended to strengthen the Union, had been ignored and so moved to a more formal separation for Northern Ireland.
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Kennedy Lindsay underlined this newfound commitment when, in 1975, he set up the Ulster Dominion Group, which would emerge as the British Ulster Dominion Party in 1977.
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Kennedy Lindsay withdrew from politics after his new party failed to make any headway.
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Kennedy Lindsay then turned his attention to writing books about the British secret service operations in Northern Ireland, including Ambush at Tullywest and The British Intelligence Services in Action.
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Kennedy Lindsay briefly returned in 1982 to stand in an Assembly election in South Antrim as a candidate for the United Ulster Unionist Party; he and his running mate Samuel Larmour came bottom of the poll.
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In 1996 Kennedy Lindsay made an even briefer return when he formed the "British Ulster Unionist Party" with the intention of standing in elections to the Northern Ireland Forum, but in the event the party did not run any candidates.