James Godfrey MacManaway, MBE (22 April 1898 – 3 November 1951) was a British Unionist politician and

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cleric, notable for being disqualified as a

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, owing to his status as a priest.

Early life

James Godfrey MacManaway was born in

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

in 1898, the youngest son of the Rt. Rev. James MacManaway, Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher. He was educated at

Campbell College Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a ...

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, and Trinity College, Dublin. He served in the Royal Flying Corps during the

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, having enlisted at the age of 17. In 1925 MacManaway was ordained as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

of the

by the

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. He married Catherine Anne Swetenham Trench (née Lecky), in 1926. He was

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of Christ Church, Derry from 1930 to 1947. He served as Chaplain to Forces during the

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. In 1945, he was awarded an MBE.

Political career

In June 1947 MacManaway was elected to the

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, as Unionist member for the City of Londonderry. He then set his sights on

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, although, as a man of the cloth, there was some doubt as to his eligibility, owing to various historical statutes debarring clergymen of both the Established Church and the

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from sitting as MPs in the British House of Commons. MacManaway sought legal advice from the

Attorney General for Northern Ireland The Attorney General for Northern Ireland is the chief legal adviser to the Northern Ireland Executive for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Attorney General for Northern Ire ...

Edmund Warnock John Edmond Warnock PC(NI) KC (1887–19 December 1971Ian McAllister and Richard Rose, ''United Kingdom Facts'', p.60) was an Irish barrister and politician. Born in Belfast, he was educated at Methodist College Belfast and Trinity College, D ...

. Warnock advised him that since the Church of Ireland had been disestablished in 1869, the statutory bars would not apply to MacManaway. MacManaway was selected by the Unionist party to contest Belfast West in the 1950 General Election. As a precaution, he resigned from his offices in the Church of Ireland. He won the election, defeating the sitting

Irish Labour Party The Labour Party ( ga, Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, literally "Party of the Working People") is a centre-left and social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, ...

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by 3,378 votes. Among the activists working on this campaign was a young Ian Paisley.

Political career terminated

As the first priest to take his seat in the House of Commons for 150 years, MacManaway was put under scrutiny by a Select committee of the House. They were unable to come to firm conclusions and, with some disquiet, recommended urgent legislation to clarify the law. The

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, James Chuter Ede, instead referred the matter to the

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. Their judgement, in essence, identified a ''

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'' in the existing legislation, which would disqualify MacManaway. While the

Irish Church Act 1869 The Irish Church Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 42) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which separated the Church of Ireland from the Church of England and disestablished the former, a body that commanded the adherence of a small min ...

did disestablish the Church of Ireland, since there was no express provision in that Act permitting its clergy to sit as MPs and MacManaway was still be subject to the strictures of the House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act 1801, which debarred any person "ordained to the office of priest or deacon" from sitting or voting in the House of Commons. Modern scholars have questioned the rationale of this decision but, nonetheless, the House of Commons resolved on 19 October 1950 that MacManaway was disqualified from sitting. The House did, however, indemnify him (by the Reverend J. G. MacManaway's Indemnity Act 1951) from the £500-a-time fines that he had incurred for voting in parliamentary divisions while ineligible. MacManaway had voted on five occasions. MacManaway bitterly protested at what he perceived as an unjust anachronism bringing his career to an abrupt end, but did not contest the ensuing

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, which was held for the Unionists by Thomas Teevan. His House of Commons career had lasted all of 238 days.

Death

Shortly after his leaving the Commons, MacManaway's wife died in January 1951. He resigned his seat at Stormont and died soon after, in November 1951, as the result of a fall.Unholy muddle over an unlikely martyr
, telegraph.co.uk, 12 March 2001. He was 53.

Subsequent change in the law

In the aftermath of the MacManaway case, in 1951 another select committee examined the possibility of a change in the law. However, while acknowledging the anomalous and anachronistic nature of the ancient legislation, and taking soundings from various Christian denominations, the Committee recommended no specific change to the law. The law did not, however apply to churches such as the

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and ministers such as

Martin Smyth William Martin Smyth (born 15 June 1931) is a Northern Irish unionist politician, who served as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Belfast South from 1982 to 2005. He was a vice-president of the Conservative Monday ...

successfully served as MPs. There the matter lay for almost 50 years, until David Cairns was selected to fight the safe Labour seat of Greenock and Inverclyde. Cairns was a former

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priest, and a re-run of the MacManaway ''imbroglio'' loomed. The Labour government introduced a bill removing almost all restrictions on clergy of whatever denomination from sitting in the House of Commons. The only exception would be

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bishops, because of their reserved status as members of the

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. The bill came into law as the

House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001 The House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001 (c.13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the Act was to remove the disqualifications for clergy in standing for election as Members of Parliamen ...

in time for David Cairns to take his seat in the Commons.

Arms

References

Sources

* ''Who's Who of British MPs: Volume IV, 1945–1979'' by Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees (Harvester, Brighton, 1979);

External links

*
''£500 a Day''
contemporary article in

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dated 30 October 1950, outlining the case.
''House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Bill''
UK Parliament research paper exploring the legal issues of the case. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macmanaway, James Godfrey 1898 births 1951 deaths Anglicans from Northern Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Belfast constituencies (since 1922) People educated at Campbell College Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland UK MPs 1950–1951 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1945–1949 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1949–1953 Royal Army Chaplains' Department officers British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War II 20th-century Irish Anglican priests Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of the Order of the British Empire World War II chaplains Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for County Londonderry constituencies Christian clergy from County Tyrone Politicians from County Tyrone Irish personnel of the Royal Flying Corps Military personnel from County Tyrone