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Terence O’Neill 1940.
Terence Marne O’Neill was born in London on 10th September 1914. Less than two months later, his father was killed in action at Ypres, the first MP to be killed in the Great War. Educated at Winchester and Eton, he then travelled on the continent and worked in Australia before returning to enlist on the outbreak of war. Commissioned from Sandhurst into the Irish Guards, he served with the 6th Guards Armoured Brigade. Both of his brothers were killed in action during the war.
O’Neill settled in Northern Ireland in 1945 and was elected MP for Bannside in 1946. As was the trend at the time, he kept his rank and was always known as Captain O’Neill. After holding several minor parliamentary posts, he became minister of home affairs in 1956, then finance minister. In 1963, he succeeded fellow Sandhurst alumnus Viscount Brookeborough as the fourth prime minister of Northern Ireland. Setting out on a road of reform, O’Neill strived to end sectarianism and improve relations with the Catholic community. His visit to a convent and talks with the unions proved unpopular with hard-line Unionists, who were further incensed when, in January 1965, he invited the Irish Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, to Belfast for talks. Outside the venue, Ian Paisley and his supporters pelted the Irish cars with snowballs. The following month, O’Neill visited Dublin, marking the first meaningful high-level cooperation since Irish partition in 1922. However, Protestant opposition was rife
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