David Wylie Bleakley CBE (11 January 1925 26 June 2017) was a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and peace campaigner in

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. North ...

. Born in the

Strandtown Strandtown is a district of Belfast. It is in the east of the city, in the BT4 postcode area, lying south of the City Airport and north of the Newtownards Road. The author C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) lived in the district as a child from 1905 to 1 ...

district of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

, Bleakley worked as an electrician in the

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the ...

dockyards while becoming increasingly active in his

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

. He studied economics at

Ruskin College Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, where he struck up a friendship with C. S. Lewis about whom he later wrote a centenary memoir. He later attended

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

. A committed Christian, he was a lifelong Anglican – a member of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second l ...

. Throughout his life, he was a lay preacher. Bleakley joined the

Northern Ireland Labour Party The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was a political party in Northern Ireland which operated from 1924 until 1987. Origins The roots of the NILP can be traced back to the formation of the Belfast Labour Party in 1892. William Walker stoo ...

(NILP) and contested the Northern Ireland Parliament seat of Belfast Victoria in 1949 and 1953 before finally winning it in 1958. At Stormont, he was made the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, but he lost his seat in 1965. Bleakley was head of the department of economics and political studies at Methodist College Belfast from 1969 to 1979. Bleakley ran for the Westminster seat of Belfast East in 1970 (gaining 41% of the vote), February 1974 and October 1974 for the Northern Ireland Labour Party each time, but never enough to win the Westminster seat from the UUP. In 1971, Brian Faulkner appointed him as his Minister for Community Relations at Stormont, but as Bleakley was not an MP, he could only hold this post for six months. He resigned five days before his term expired in order to highlight his disagreement with government policy, specifically the failure to widen the government to include non-Unionist parties, and the decision to introduce internment. Bleakley wrote a respectful biography of Faulkner and his own memoir of the period. After the Parliament was abolished, Bleakley stood for, and was elected to, the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = ...

and its successor, the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention. He stood again for Belfast East in the February and October UK general elections, but won only 14% of the vote each time. Bleakley was appointed to a position as a visiting professor in the University of Bradford's Department of Peace Studies by Professor

Adam Curle Charles Thomas William Curle (4 July 1916 – 28 September 2006), better known as Adam Curle, was a British academic, known for his work in social psychology, pedagogy, development studies and peace studies. After holding posts at the Unive ...

soon after the Department's founding in 1973. By the late 1970s, the NILP was in disarray, and did not stand a candidate for the 1979 European Assembly election. Bleakley instead stood as an " Independent Community Candidate", but took only 1.6% of the votes cast. During the 1980s, Bleakley sat as a non-partisan member of various quangos. From 1980 to 1992 he was general secretary of the Irish Council of Churches. In 1992, he joined the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and was an advisor to the group during the all-party talks. For the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum election, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Partnership list and stood in Belfast East, but was not elected. In 1998, he joined the Labour Party of Northern Ireland and stood in Belfast East in the Assembly elections, receiving 369 first preference votes. He died on 26 June 2017 at the age of 92.

Honours

In 1984 received an CBE for his work as chairman of the Northern Ireland Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights.

Publications

*''Faulkner – Conflict and Consent in Irish Politics'', A R Mowbray, London 1974. *''Peace in Ulster'', A R Mowbray, London, 1972. *''C. S. Lewis, at Home in Ireland'', Strandtown Press, Bangor, Northern Ireland, 1998. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleakley, David 1925 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Anglicans 21st-century Anglicans Academics of the University of Bradford Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Ruskin College Anglicans from Northern Ireland Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Members of the Fabian Society 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 for Belfast constituencies Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1973–1974 Members of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention Members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Labour Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Politicians from Belfast Alliance Party of Northern Ireland politicians British human rights activists