{{for|the Jamaican cricketer|Raymond Ferguson (cricketer)}} {{short description|Irish rugby union player}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}} {{Use Irish English|date=February 2017}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Raymond Ferguson | office = Member of Fermanagh District Council | constituency = Enniskillen | term_start = 15 May 1985 | term_end = 5 May 2005 | predecessor = ''District created'' | successor = Arlene Foster | constituency1 = Fermanagh Area E | term_start1 = 18 May 1977 | term_end1 = 15 May 1985 | predecessor1 = George Cathcart | successor1 = ''District abolished'' | office2 = Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly <br> for Fermanagh and South Tyrone | term_start2 = 20 October 1982 | term_end2 = 1986 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1941|2|16}} | birth_place = County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland | death_date = | party = Ulster Unionist Party }} '''Raymond Ferguson''' (born 16 February 1941) is a Northern Irish former rugby union player with Ulster Rugby and a politician with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).
==Early life and career== Part of a well established Ulster Unionist family in his native County Fermanagh, Ferguson represented his province at rugby.<ref name="Directory">W.D. Flackes & Sydney Elliott, ''Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1993'', The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 159</ref> He studied law at Queen's University, Belfast and subsequently practised as a solicitor, initially in Belfast and then Coleraine before establishing his own still extant legal partnership in Enniskillen.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fergusons-solicitors.co.uk/OurTeam/TheLegalTeam/tabid/81/Default.aspx |title=Fergusons Solicitors - The Legal Teams |access-date=7 September 2011 |archive-date=2 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402061131/http://www.fergusons-solicitors.co.uk/OurTeam/TheLegalTeam/tabid/81/Default.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Politics== Ferguson gained his first elected office in 1977 when he was elected to Fermanagh District Council. He held a seat on the body until 2005.<ref>[https://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/lgfermanagh.htm Fermanagh District Council Elections 1993-2005]</ref> He served as Council Chairman from 1981 to 1983.<ref name="Directory"/> He was chosen as UUP candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency for the 1979 general election although the seat was retained by sitting Independent Republican MP Frank Maguire.<ref name="Directory"/> Ferguson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982 for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.<ref name="Directory"/>
Following the collapse of the Assembly Ferguson became a leading voice in support of the restoration of devolution and in 1988 advocated the adoption by the UUP of a policy in favour of negotiation with constitutional Irish nationalists on both sides of the border. His views were rejected at the annual UUP conference however.<ref name="Directory"/> The suggestion was labelled a "Lundy-like attack on the leadership" of the party by fellow Fermanagh delegate Sammy Foster.<ref>Feargal Cochrane, ''Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism Since the Anglo-Irish Agreement'', Cork University Press, 2001, p. 254</ref>
However Ferguson's moderate views made him popular with the Republic of Ireland's political leaders and he was offered a seat in the Seanad Éireann. He declined the offer due to his opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.<ref name="Directory"/> Nonetheless his support for cross-community politics continued and in 1992 he publicly criticised colleagues on Fermanagh Council for their refusal to rotate the Council chairmanship with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party.<ref name="Directory"/>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{s-start}} {{s-par|ni/ass82}} {{s-new | Assembly }} {{s-ttl | title = MPA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone | years = 1982–1986 }} {{s-non | reason = Assembly abolished }} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Raymond}} Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Ulster Rugby players Category:Ulster Unionist Party councillors Category:Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986 Category:Members of Fermanagh District Council Category:Solicitors from Northern Ireland Category:Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Category:Lawyers from County Fermanagh