Politics

Brian Mawhinney: Belfast-born government minister was unlikely politician

Dr Brian Mawhinney pictured in Lurgan at the scene of a car bomb attack in 1992
Dr Brian Mawhinney pictured in Lurgan at the scene of a car bomb attack in 1992 Dr Brian Mawhinney pictured in Lurgan at the scene of a car bomb attack in 1992

BRIAN Mawhinney said there were four 'fulcrum moments' which shaped his life.

The first came in his teenage years and explained his lifelong sense of Christian purpose.

He grew up in a conservative Christian family on Belmont Road in east Belfast, attending church three times on a Sunday and being examined on his Bible reading.

Simply knowing the gospel was not enough, however - he said it had to be experienced personally.

"My life changed fundamentally when, as a teenager, I accepted that truth for myself."

Mawhinney would later become a prominent campaigner against pornography and wrote in his 2013 memoirs, Just a Simple Belfast Boy, how faith and family defined his adult life.

The second turning point was being accepted onto a graduate exchange scheme in the US.

After schooling at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Mawhinney studied physics at Queen's and secured a scholarship to study radiation biology at the University of Michigan.

This ultimately led to a PhD and lecturing posts at the University of Iowa and Royal Free Hospital in London.

The Michigan Christian Fellowship also provided the opportunity to meet Betty Oja, and their wedding two years later was described as a third defining moment.

The final fulcrum was a conversation with a Conservative Party organiser for the north of England while handing out leaflets for a church friend standing for election.

Although he had no political background whatsoever, Mawhinney was persuaded to stand for parliament himself and in 1979 was elected MP for Peterborough in the tide that brought Margaret Thatcher to power.

Brian Mawhinney died aged 79 after a long illness. Picture by Anthony Devlin/PA Wire
Brian Mawhinney died aged 79 after a long illness. Picture by Anthony Devlin/PA Wire Brian Mawhinney died aged 79 after a long illness. Picture by Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

He would serve as an MP for 26 years and a government minister for 11, later joining the House of Commons as a life peer and receiving a knighthood.

While he would become best known for his role as Conservative chairman for a beleaguered John Major in the mid-1990s, his first senior appointment was as under-secretary in the Northern Ireland Office in 1986, where he immediately felt the ire of unionists over the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

Mawhinney may have played a small part in this transformation of British-Irish relations, including an apparent change of heart from Margaret Thatcher.

Following her emphatic "out, out, out" dismissal of proposals by the New Ireland Forum in 1984, he agreed to travel to Dublin and listen to the arguments of nationalist leaders before reporting back.

A year later the prime minister would shock unionists by signing an historic agreement with Garret FitzGerald at Hillsborough Castle.

In 1990 Mawhinney was elevated to minister of state and was involved in bringing about early talks involving nationalist and unionist parties.

Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith would later claim he "prepared much of the groundwork for what eventually became the Northern Ireland peace process".

Brian Mawhinney with SDLP MP Eddie McGrady and Belfast Lord Mayor Dixie Gilmore in 1988
Brian Mawhinney with SDLP MP Eddie McGrady and Belfast Lord Mayor Dixie Gilmore in 1988 Brian Mawhinney with SDLP MP Eddie McGrady and Belfast Lord Mayor Dixie Gilmore in 1988

However, Mawhinney said he was most proud during this period of his role in putting integrated education into the mainstream.

The 1989 Education Reform Order for the first time placed a statutory duty on the Department of Education to "encourage and facilitate" shared schooling.

"I put those words in deliberately because, without them, I was not confident that the department would throw its weight behind facilitating those parents who wanted integrated education for their children," he said.

By 1992 Mawhinney had moved on to the Department of Health in London and two years later he took on the tricky cabinet post of transport secretary, taking responsibility for rail privatisation.

He was then appointed party chairman following the re-election of John Major as Tory leader.

Dr Mawhinney served as Conservative Party chairman for John Major in the mid-1990s
Dr Mawhinney served as Conservative Party chairman for John Major in the mid-1990s Dr Mawhinney served as Conservative Party chairman for John Major in the mid-1990s

The first British government minister from Northern Ireland for 59 years, Mawhinney found himself the most quoted person in UK media after the prime minister as the party tore itself apart over Europe.

He was known as a blunt talker and tough operator, as well as for consuming prodigious amounts of Lucozade.

However, it required more than a high-sugar diet to maintain morale and discipline in a bitterly divided party and the general election of 1997 delivered a crushing defeat at the hands of Tony Blair.

Brian Mawhinney was the first British government minister from Northern Ireland for 59 years. Picture by Michael Crabtree/PA Wire
Brian Mawhinney was the first British government minister from Northern Ireland for 59 years. Picture by Michael Crabtree/PA Wire Brian Mawhinney was the first British government minister from Northern Ireland for 59 years. Picture by Michael Crabtree/PA Wire

In his days at the NIO Mawhinney had accompanied the Northern Ireland team to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and in 2003 he reinvented himself as a football administrator, beginning a seven-year spell as chairman of the English Football League.

He was credited with a series of reforms, including English football's first 'fit and proper' test for club ownership and rebranding the divisions as The Championship, League One and League Two.

Looking back on his life, Mawhinney referenced the words he had written at the front of his diary: 'Doing your best is always good enough.'

His family said his death "brings an end to a life dedicated to public service and rooted in an unwavering Christian faith”.

Brian Stanley Mawhinney died aged 79 on November 9. He is survived by his wife and their three children.