Raymond Ferguson
Raymond Ferguson | |
|---|---|
| Member of Fermanagh District Council | |
| In office 15 May 1985 – 5 May 2005 | |
| Preceded by | District created |
| Succeeded by | Arlene Foster |
| Constituency | Enniskillen |
| In office 18 May 1977 – 15 May 1985 | |
| Preceded by | George Cathcart |
| Succeeded by | District abolished |
| Constituency | Fermanagh Area E |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone | |
| In office 20 October 1982 – 1986 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 February 1941 County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland |
| Political 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
[edit]Part of a well established Ulster Unionist family in his native County Fermanagh, Ferguson represented his province at rugby.[1] 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.[2]
Politics
[edit]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.[3] He served as Council Chairman from 1981 to 1983.[1] 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.[1] Ferguson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982 for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.[1]
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.[1] The suggestion was labelled a "Lundy-like attack on the leadership" of the party by fellow Fermanagh delegate Sammy Foster.[4]
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.[1] 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.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g W.D. Flackes & Sydney Elliott, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1993, The Blackstaff Press, 1994, p. 159
- ^ Fergusons Solicitors - The Legal Teams
- ^ Fermanagh District Council Elections 1993-2005
- ^ Feargal Cochrane, Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism Since the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Cork University Press, 2001, p. 254