Desmond Norman Orr Boal (8 August 1928 – 23 April 2015) was a unionist politician and barrister from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Boal had a legal career before he entered politics in 1960. He was the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

(UUP) Member of the

Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...

for the Shankill constituency between 1960 and 1972. He was very critical of the leadership under Captain

Terence O'Neill Terence Marne O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of the Maine, PC (NI) (10 September 1914 – 12 June 1990), was the fourth prime minister of Northern Ireland and leader (1963–1969) of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). A moderate unionist, who sought ...

, then

Prime Minister of Northern Ireland The prime minister of Northern Ireland was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920; however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as with governo ...

. Boal opposed the manner, if not the substance, of O'Neill's attempts at improving relations with both the Irish government and the Roman Catholic/

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

minority in

, along with many

backbenchers In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of th ...

. Discontented with

James Chichester-Clark James Dawson Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, PC, DL (12 February 1923 – 17 May 2002) was the penultimate Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 1969 and March 1971. He was Member of the N ...

and

Brian Faulkner Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive ...

who came to government after O'Neill's 1969 fall from power, Boal resigned from the UUP in 1971 and joined Ian Paisley in establishing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in order to provide dissident unionist opinion with a viable political alternative. He worked as the first chairman and one of the first public representatives of the DUP and continued to sit in Stormont during the years of 1971–1972. He later resumed his practice as a barrister. Boal died in April 2015, aged 86.

References

1928 births 2015 deaths Democratic Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1958–1962 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1962–1965 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1965–1969 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1969–1973 People from County Londonderry Politicians from Northern Ireland Ulster Protestant Action members Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland King's Counsel Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for Belfast constituencies {{Parliament-of-Northern-Ireland-member-stub