Lancelot Curran

Major '''Sir Lancelot Ernest Curran''' (8 March 1899 – 20 October 1984<ref name="Privy Counsellors of Ireland">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080607022603/http://leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncilI.htm Privy Counsellors of Ireland]}}, leighrayment.com; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref>) was a Northern Ireland High Court judge and parliamentarian.

He was elected as Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for Carrick in the Stormont Parliament serving from 1945 to 1949,<ref name="The Belfast Telegraph">[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/part-two-murder-mystery-coverup-13493858.html Mystery coverup (part 2)], BelfastTelegraph.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref> and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance (Chief Whip) (17 July 1945 – 12 June 1947).<ref name="The Belfast Telegraph"/><ref>[http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/administration.html The Government of Northern Ireland], election.demon.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref>

Curran was Attorney General for Northern Ireland (6 June 1947 – 4 November 1949), the youngest in the history of that parliament.<ref name="The Belfast Telegraph"/><ref>[http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/stormontpapers/context.html?listRole=26 The Stormont Papers]</ref> He was a member of the Orange Order and became a member of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland.<ref name="Privy Counsellors of Ireland"/><ref name="The Independent">[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/denied-justice-by-a-form-of-words-1170074.html Denied justice by a form of words], independent.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref>

==Murder of Patricia Curran== Lancelot and Doris Curran had three children: Michael, Patricia and Desmond. Desmond became a barrister and latterly a Roman Catholic convert and missionary in South Africa.<ref name="The Belfast Telegraph"/><ref name="The Independent"/>

On 12 November 1952 Patricia, aged 19, and a student at Queen's University, Belfast, was murdered. Her body was found in the driveway of the Curran home, Glen House, Whiteabbey, County Antrim. She had been stabbed thirty-seven times.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/987140.stm BBC News info about Patricia Curran murder], bbc.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref>

A 20 year old RAF technician, Iain Hay Gordon, who had met Patricia at the Presbyterian church they both attended, was convicted of her murder. His sentence was overturned in 2000 after the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal found it to be unsafe.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scotsman-who-became-nonperson-is-cleared-of-killing-after-47-years-626717.html Scotsman who became 'non-person' is cleared of killing after 47 years]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, independent.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref>

''Scapegoat'', a BBC Northern Ireland drama about the conviction of Hay Gordon, was broadcast in 2009.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8321185.stm Scapegoat found for high society murder], bbc.co.uk; accessed 26 September 2017.</ref>

==Famous trials== Curran presided over the trial of Robert McGladdery for the murder of 19-year-old Pearl Gamble, near Newry, in 1961. McGladdery protested his innocence but was found guilty and hanged at Crumlin Road jail in Belfast on 20 December 1961; it was the last hanging in Northern Ireland.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

A fictionalized account of the trial and execution of McGladdery, ''Orchid Blue'', was written by Eoin McNamee and published in 2010 (McNamee had previously written a Booker Prize-nominated novel, ''Blue Tango'', about the murder of Patricia Curran).

Another McNamee novel, ''Blue Is The Night'' (published in 2014), deals with Curran's involvement in a murder trial in the Northern Ireland of the late 1940s.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

==Later years and death== Sir Lancelot's first wife, Lady Doris Curran, died on 29 May 1975. He remarried, to Margaret Pearce a year later. He died in Sussex in 1984.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{S-start}} {{S-par|ni}} {{Succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Carrick |before = John Dermot Campbell | after = Alexander Hunter | years = 1945–1950}} {{S-ppo}} {{Succession box | title = Unionist Chief Whip |before = Sir Wilson Hungerford | after = Walter Topping | years = 1945–1947}} {{S-off}} {{Succession box | title = Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance |before = Sir Wilson Hungerford | after = Walter Topping | years = 1945–1947}} {{Succession box | title = Attorney General for Northern Ireland |before = William Lowry | after = Edmond Warnock | years = 1947–1949}} {{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Lancelot}} Category:1899 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Attorneys general for Northern Ireland Category:British Army General List officers Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:High Court judges of Northern Ireland Category:Lords Justice of Appeal of Northern Ireland Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1938–1945 Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1945–1949 Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1949–1953 Category:Members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland Category:Northern Ireland junior government ministers (Parliament of Northern Ireland) Category:Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for County Antrim constituencies