Desmond Boal

{{Short description|Politician and barrister from Northern Ireland}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = |name = Desmond Boal |honorific_suffix = QC |image = Desmond Boal.jpg |image_size = |office = Chairman of the Democratic Unionist Party |leader = Ian Paisley |term_start = 1971 |term_end = 1973 |predecessor = Office Created |successor = William Beattie |office2 = Member of Parliament for Belfast Shankill |term_start2 = 1960 |term_end2 = 1972 |predecessor2 = Henry Holmes |successor2 = Office abolished |birth_name = |birth_date = 8 August 1928<ref>Mr Desmond Boal; Birth Date: 6 Aug 1928 Death Date: 23 Apr 2015. ''Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2015''</ref> |birth_place = Derry, Northern Ireland |death_date = {{dda|2015|4|23|1928|8|8|df=y}} |death_place = Holywood, Northern Ireland |party = Independent Unionist <br> (from 1973) |other_party = DUP (1971 - 1973) <br/> Ulster Unionist Party (before 1971) |spouse = Annette Boal |children = 3 |alma_mater = Trinity College Dublin |occupation = Politician |profession = Barrister |website = }} '''Desmond Norman Orr Boal''' (8 August 1928 – 23 April 2015) was a Northern Irish unionist politician and barrister.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OvBUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ljwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1174,3212075&dq=desmond-boal&hl=en|title=New alliance starts in Ulster|date=18 August 1971|work=Leader-Post|publisher=AP|accessdate=19 December 2010|archive-date=25 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425110444/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OvBUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ljwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1174,3212075&dq=desmond-boal&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Background== Boal had a legal career before he entered politics in 1960. He was the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the Shankill constituency between 1960 and 1972. He was very critical of the leadership under Captain Terence O'Neill, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. 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 minority in Northern Ireland, along with many backbenchers.<ref>''Northern Ireland – A Political Directory, 1968–1999'', Sydney Elliott and W.D. Flackes (eds); Belfast: The Blackstaff Press; {{ISBN|0-85640-628-7}}</ref>

Discontented with James Chichester-Clark and Brian Faulkner 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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Desmond Boal, barrister - obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11603009/Desmond-Boal-barrister-obituary.html|accessdate=17 July 2017|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=13 May 2015|language=en|archive-date=19 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160719054645/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11603009/Desmond-Boal-barrister-obituary.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Ryder|first1=Chris|title=Desmond Boal obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/07/desmond-boal|accessdate=17 July 2017|work=The Guardian|date=7 May 2015|archive-date=23 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151023164904/http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/07/desmond-boal|url-status=live}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|ni}} {{s-bef | before = Henry Holmes }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Belfast Shankill | years = 1960–1973 }} {{s-non|reason=Parliament abolished}}

{{s-ppo}} {{s-new|party}} {{s-ttl | title = Chairman of the Democratic Unionist Party | years = 1971–1973 }} {{s-aft |after=William Beattie }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boal, Desmond}} Category:1928 births Category:2015 deaths Category:Lawyers from Derry (city) Category:Politicians from Derry (city) Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for Belfast constituencies Category:Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Category:Ulster Protestant Action members Category:Democratic Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1958–1962 Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1962–1965 Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1965–1969 Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1969–1973 Category:Northern Ireland King's Counsel