William Lowry
Encyclopedia
William Lowry PC KC (19 March 1884–14 December 1949) was an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

, judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

, Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 and Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...


Career

Born in Limavady
Limavady
Limavady is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. It lies east of Derry and south west of Coleraine. It had a population of 12,135 people in the 2001 Census, an increase of some 17% compared to 1991...

, he was educated at Foyle College
Foyle and Londonderry College
Foyle College, which is also known by its former name Foyle and Londonderry College or FALC, is a co-educational voluntary grammar school in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. In 1976, two local schools, Foyle College and Londonderry High School, merged under the Foyle and Londonderry College Act...

, Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, and Queen's University Belfast. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1907 and was appointed as King's Counsel in 1926. In 1939, he was elected to the Northern Ireland House of Commons as a Unionist
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 member for Londonderry, City, which he represented until 1947. Conor Cruise O'Brien
Conor Cruise O'Brien
Conor Cruise O'Brien often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic. Although his opinion on the role of Britain in Northern Ireland changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, he always acknowledge values of, as he saw, the two irreconcilable traditions...

 described him as a "unionist of a rather fiercer description." He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs
Minister of Home Affairs (Northern Ireland)
The Minister of Home Affairs was a member of the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in the Parliament of Northern Ireland which governed Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972...

 from 1940–1943 and Minister of Home Affairs
Minister of Home Affairs (Northern Ireland)
The Minister of Home Affairs was a member of the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in the Parliament of Northern Ireland which governed Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972...

 from 1943-1944. In February 1944, Lowry allegedly commentated while Parliament was in session that a local Orange Order Meeting Hall, which had been used by Catholics of the US Army after he had arranged it, would have to be fumigated. His remarks, recorded in the minutes of the day, attracted immediate criticism from fellow ministers and Lowry was forced to write an apology to Bishop Farren of Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 two days later, though he was adamant that he had misunderstood the situation. O'Brien, however, maintained that Lowry's comments were meant as an ironic and sarcastic response to anti-Catholic extremists on the benches who had objected to the use of the Orange Hall, and he maintained a respect for Lowry throughout his life.

Lowry later went on to serve as Attorney General for Northern Ireland
Attorney General for Northern Ireland
The Attorney General for Northern Ireland is the chief legal adviser to the Northern Ireland Executive for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Northern Ireland Assembly....

 from 1944-1947. He resigned from the Government and from Parliament upon appointment as a Judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland in 1949, as which he served until his death. He was appointed to the Privy Council for Northern Ireland in 1943, entitling him to be called "The Right Honourable". His son, Lord Lowry
Robert Lowry, Baron Lowry
Sir Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry, Baron Lowry PC , often known as Robbie Lowry, was a Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary...

 was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the House of Lords of the United Kingdom in order to exercise its judicial functions, which included acting as the highest court of appeal for most domestic matters...

.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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