This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Eddie McAteer" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

McAteer speaking in an interview to RTÉ in 1968

Eddie McAteer (25 June 1914 – 25 March 1986) was an Irish nationalist politician in Northern Ireland.

Born in Coatbridge, Scotland, McAteer's family moved to Derry in Northern Ireland while he was young. In 1930 he joined the Inland Revenue, where he worked until 1944. He then became an accountant and more actively involved in politics. While his brother, Hugh, became a prominent Irish republican, involved in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Sinn Féin, Eddie chose constitutional nationalist politics. He was elected as the Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland) Member of Parliament for Mid Londonderry in the 1945 Northern Ireland general election. He was a founder member of the Anti-Partition League of Ireland, and became its vice chairman in 1947, then its chairman in 1953.

In 1952, McAteer was elected to Londonderry Corporation, and the following year he switched to represent Foyle in the Northern Ireland House of Commons. He left the City Council in 1958, and became the Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party at Stormont. He became prominent in the campaign calling for the establishment of a university in Derry.[1]

In 1964, he became the leader of the Nationalist Party, and the following year accepted the post of Leader of the Opposition thereby conferring de facto recognition of the Northern Irish government (by Nationalists) for the first time.[2] Several years later he lost his seat in the 1969 Northern Ireland general election to John Hume. While in his early career, he had been a militant nationalist, publishing Irish Action – a call for civil disobedience – with the start of The Troubles, he repeatedly called for moderation.[3]

In the 1970 United Kingdom general election, McAteer stood in Londonderry on the Unity slate, taking 36.6% of the vote. He again contested Londonderry in the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973 election, taking only 3,712 votes and narrowly missing being elected. With the ascendancy of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the Nationalist Party was in disarray. McAteer took his remaining supporters into the Irish Independence Party in 1978, in which his son Fergus became prominent.

References

  1. ^ History – The Bogside Archived 25 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Phoenix, Eamon & Parkinson, Alan (2010), Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900-2000, Four Courts Press, Dublin, Pg 151, ISBN 978 1 84682 189 9
  3. ^ "BBC NI – Schools – GCSE Bitesize Revision – History – History Makers – Eddie McAteer". Archived from the original on 14 December 2003. Retrieved 9 October 2006.

Sources

Parliament of Northern Ireland Vacantno official opposition Leader of the Official Opposition 1965–1969 Vacantno official opposition Preceded byGeorge Leeke Member of Parliament for Mid Londonderry 1945–1953 Succeeded byPatrick Gormley Preceded byPaddy Maxwell Member of Parliament for Foyle 1953–1969 Succeeded byJohn Hume Party political offices Preceded byJames McSparran Chairman of the Irish Anti-Partition League 1953–1956 VacantLeague moribund.Formally dissolved 1958 Preceded byJoe Stewart Leader of the Nationalist Party at Stormont 1964–1969 Succeeded byRoderick O'Connor
Categories