Editing Ulster Unionist Party (section)

=== The Stormont era: linked with the Conservative Party ===

==== 1920–1963 ====
Until almost the very end of its period of power in [[Northern Ireland]], the UUP was led by a combination of [[landed gentry]] ([[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|The 1st Viscount Brookeborough]], [[Hugh MacDowell Pollock]] and [[James Chichester-Clark]]), [[aristocracy]] ([[Terence O'Neill]]) and gentrified industrial magnates ([[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|The 1st Viscount Craigavon]] and [[J. M. Andrews]] – nephew of [[William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie|The 1st Viscount Pirrie]]). Only its last [[Prime Minister of Northern Ireland|Prime Minister]], [[Brian Faulkner]], was from a middle-class background. During this era, all but 11 of the 149 UUP Stormont MPs were members of the Orange Order, as were all Prime Ministers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sneps.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1-Dominant-Ethnicity-demography-and-conflict_revision-Dec2010.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=11 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093305/http://www.sneps.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1-Dominant-Ethnicity-demography-and-conflict_revision-Dec2010.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sir James Craig, who in 1927 was created [[Viscount Craigavon]], led the government of Northern Ireland from its inception until his death in November 1940 and is buried with his wife by the east wing of [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]] at [[Stormont Estate|Stormont]]. His successor, J. M. Andrews, was heavily criticised for appointing octogenarian veterans of Lord Craigavon's administration to [[Andrews ministry (Northern Ireland)|his cabinet]]. His government was also believed to be more interested in protecting the statue of Carson at the Stormont Estate than the citizens of Belfast during the [[Belfast Blitz]]. A backbench revolt in 1943 resulted in his resignation and replacement by [[Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Sir Basil Brooke]] (later [[Viscount Brookeborough]]), although Andrews was recognised as leader of the party until 1946.

Lord Brookeborough, despite having felt that Craigavon had held on to power for too long, was Prime Minister for one year longer. During this time he was on more than one occasion called to meetings of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland to explain his actions, most notably following the 1947 Education Act which made the government responsible for the payment of [[National Insurance]] contributions of teachers in Catholic Church-controlled schools. [[Ian Paisley]] called for Brookeborough's resignation in 1953 when he refused to sack [[Brian Maginess]] and [[Clarence Graham]], who had given speeches supporting re-admitting Catholics to the UUP.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuTC9ZiZZf0C&q=brian+maginess+catholic+membership+uup&pg=PA158|title=A Tragedy of Errors|isbn=9781846310645|last1=Bloomfield|first1=Ken|year=2007|publisher=Liverpool University Press }}</ref> He retired in 1963 and was replaced by [[Terence O'Neill]], who emerged ahead of other candidates, [[Jack Andrews]] and Faulkner.

==== 1963–1972 ====
In the 1960s, identifying with the [[civil rights movement]] of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and encouraged by attempts at reform under O'Neill, various organisations campaigned for civil rights, calling for changes to the system for allocating public housing and the voting system for the local government franchise, which was restricted to (disproportionately Protestant) [[Rates (tax)|rate payers]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/conflict/civil.html |title=Archived copy |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=17 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903122308/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/conflict/civil.html |archive-date=3 September 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3eDHAwAAQBAJ&q=local+elections+northern+ireland+ratepayers+mostly+protestant&pg=PA39|title=Human Rights as War by Other Means|isbn=9780812246193|last1=Curtis|first1=Jennifer|date=28 July 2014|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6hFEAgAAQBAJ&q=local+elections+northern+ireland+ratepayers+mostly+protestant&pg=PA21|title=Northern Ireland|isbn=9781317875185|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215202807/https://books.google.com/books?id=6hFEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=local+elections+northern+ireland+ratepayers+mostly+protestant&source=bl&ots=24iaVcqTg7&sig=H8GzulOAx4FCb4yN2CLispufVho&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBGoVChMIjPv3y5LYxwIVa-9yCh2jkwdy#v=onepage&q=local%20elections%20northern%20ireland%20ratepayers%20mostly%20protestant&f=false|archive-date=15 December 2019|url-status=live|last1=Tonge|first1=Jonathan|date=2 December 2013|publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/troubles/the_troubles_article_01.shtml|title=BBC – History – The Troubles, 1963 to 1985|access-date=25 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003201812/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/troubles/the_troubles_article_01.shtml|archive-date=3 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> O'Neill had pushed through some reforms but in the process the Ulster Unionists became strongly divided. At the [[1969 Northern Ireland general election|1969 Stormont general election]] UUP candidates stood on both pro- and anti-O'Neill platforms. Several independent pro-O'Neill unionists challenging his critics, while the [[Protestant Unionist Party]] of Ian Paisley mounted a hard-line challenge. The result proved inconclusive for O'Neill, who resigned a short time later. His resignation was probably caused by a speech of [[James Chichester-Clark]] who stated that he disagreed with the timing, but not the principle, of universal suffrage at local elections.

Chichester-Clark won the [[1969 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election|leadership election to replace O'Neill]] and swiftly moved to implement many of O'Neill's reforms. Civil disorder continued to mount, culminating in August 1969 when Catholic [[Bogside]] residents clashed with the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] in [[Derry]] because of an [[Apprentice Boys of Derry]] march, sparking days of riots. Early in 1971, Chichester-Clark flew to London to request further military aid following the [[1971 Scottish soldiers' killings]].{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} When this was all but refused, he resigned to be [[1971 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election|replaced by Brian Faulkner]].

Faulkner's government struggled though 1971 and into 1972. After [[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday]], the British Government threatened to remove control of the security forces from the devolved government. Faulkner reacted by resigning with his entire cabinet, and the British Government suspended, and eventually abolished, the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland|Northern Ireland Parliament]], replacing it with [[Direct rule (Northern Ireland)|Direct Rule]].

The liberal unionist group, the [[New Ulster Movement]], which had advocated the policies of Terence O'Neill, left and formed the [[Alliance Party of Northern Ireland]] in April 1970, while the emergence of Ian Paisley's Protestant Unionist Party continued to draw off some working-class and more [[Ulster loyalism| loyalist]] support.