Cecil Harvey
Cecil Harvey (died 1985[1]) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland.
Harvey was a founding elder of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, in 1951. The following year, he suggested the congregation's move from Crossgar to Whiteabbey.[2] He was also active in the Orange Order[3] and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was elected as a councillor.[4] He became disillusioned with the UUP as it came to support the idea of power-sharing, and joined the rival Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party.[4] Under this banner, he was elected from South Down to the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973, where he was the party's chief whip,[5] then the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention.[6]
In 1974, Harvey argued for the Orange Order to pay compensation to loyalists interned around the Ulster Workers' Council strike.[3] By 1975, Harvey was calling for the Order to found an entirely new united unionist party; this was moved by Robert Overend but was defeated.[7] Undeterred, Harvey became a founder member of the United Ulster Unionist Party, becoming the party chairman,[8] and remaining loyal until its collapse in 1984. He then joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP),[4] for which he stood unsuccessfully in South Down at the 1983 general election.[9]
References
- Paisley, Ian (May 1985). "Councillor Cecil Harvey - a tribute". The Revivalist. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
- Steve Bruce, Paisley: religion and politics in Northern Ireland, p.35
- Henry Patterson and Eric P. Kaufmann, Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945, p.204
- Steve Bruce, Paisley: religion and politics in Northern Ireland, p.179
- Ted Nealon, Ireland: a parliamentary directory, 1973โ1974
- South Down 1973โ85, Northern Ireland Elections
- Eric P. Kaufmann, The Orange Order: a contemporary Northern Irish history, p.99
- "Austere surroundings for first UUUP conference", Belfast News Letter, 30 December 2009 [first published 1979]
- South Down, 1983โ1992
- "DUP announce Harry Harvey as MLA replacing Simon Hamilton". Belfast Telegraph. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.