Brian Maginess

Who was Brian Maginess?

William Brian Maginess, QC was a member of the Government of Northern Ireland, who was widely seen as a possible successor to Lord Brookeborough as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

Born in 1901, the son of a Lisburn solicitor, he was educated at The Wallace High School and Trinity College Dublin from where he graduated with a Law degree, and was called to the Northern Irish bar in 1923.

Having served in the Royal Corps of Artillery during the Second World War he entered the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1938 when he won the Lisburn centered seat of Iveagh. He entered the Cabinet of Sir Basil Brooke in 1945 when he became Minister of Labour and his stints as the Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance left him favorite to succeed Brooke as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

In the early 1950s however, Maginess became a hate figure for the Orange Institution when he banned marches through nationalist areas in Counties Down and Londonderry. Brooke, whilst sympathetic to his decisions, was forced to sacrifice Maginess to preserve progressive legislation, and he was demoted to the non Cabinet post of Attorney General in April 1956.