Basil Brooke: Able and energetic, Northern Ireland's third prime minster was admired across unionism

Craig formally recognised his services by securing him a CBE and nominating him for membership of the Northern Ireland Senate. Brooke, who died 50 years ago on August 18 1973, accepted the Senate nomination but had to relinquish it because the appointment contravened the Government of Ireland Act (1920) since, as county commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary in Fermanagh, he held an office of profit under the crown.

In the general election of 1929 Brooke became Unionist MP for Lisnaskea in the Northern Ireland House of Commons.

In 1934, he had a townhouse built in Massey Avenue, adjacent to Stormont. This very substantial financial outlay was striking evidence of his commitment to a parliamentary career.

As an MP, Brooke frequently delivered speeches which were characterised by their moderation.

James Cooper, the Enniskillen solicitor and MP for Fermanagh and Tyrone between 1921 and 1929, was an ardent supporter of Brooke and played a significant role in securing Brooke the nomination for Lisnaskea. Usually Cooper never spoke of Brooke other than admiringly but in 1927 he criticised Brooke for his lack of involvement in the Orange Order. Brooke replied that his role in the USC did not permit him to play a more prominent part.

At the Twelfth demonstration at Newtownbutler in 1933 Brooke gave the most contentious speech of his entire political career.

On that occasion he was reported as saying: 'There was a great number of Protestants and Orangemen who employed Roman Catholics. He felt he could speak freely on this subject as he had not a Roman Catholic about his own place (cheers). He appreciated the great difficulty experienced by some of them in procuring suitable Protestant labour, but he would point out that the Roman Catholics were endeavouring to get in everywhere and were out with all their force and might to destroy the power and constitution of Ulster. ... He would appeal to loyalists, therefore, wherever possible to employ good Protestant lads and lassies.'

The speech ought to be seen in the context of the early 1930s and, in particular, as a response to the formation of the first Fianna Fáil government in the South in March 1932 and the Roman Catholic triumphalism surrounding the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in June 1932. Both developments alarmed and unsettled unionist opinion.

In 2018 Sam Logan, in a study of Brooke’s career, conceded that ‘in the 1920s and ‘30s the “atmosphere had been poisoned by the trouble that followed partition” and that unionists were suspicious of their Catholic neighbours, many of who failed to recognise the new regional parliament’.

In 2006 Professor Henry Patterson offered another layer of explanation: ‘Brooke was fixated on the twin threats of “infiltration” from the South and any potential weakening of Protestant unity by those prioritising economic grievances ahead of communal solidarity.’

However, the speech ought not to be regarded as a wholly reliable guide to Brooke's thinking. He was much more open-minded both as an employer and as a politician than this speech might suggest. As the Guardian revealed in August 1992, he did employ Roman Catholics and, despite their political differences, he maintained cordial relations with Cahir Healy, the Nationalist MP for South Fermanagh.

Furthermore, when, in his own words, he was ‘older and wiser’, he actually apologised for making the speech in later life, a rare occurrence in local political life. Yet, the Newtownbutler speech is recycled ad nauseam.

Perhaps the most striking evidence of Brooke’s ability to think outside the box and see the big picture occurred one Sunday morning in June 1940 as John Brooke, the 2nd Viscount Brookeborough, explained to Robert Fiske when he was researching ‘In Time of War’: ‘My father told me that there were pressures upon the Northern Ireland government. He said that if he were faced with the choice of losing our civilization or accepting the unification of Ireland, he would find it a very difficult decision. He regarded western civilization as of greater worth than anything else, being absolutely convinced of the menace of Nazi Germany. It was my impression that day that in these circumstances, he would have to do his best to ensure Irish unity.’

In 1933 Brooke succeeded Sir Edward Archdale as Minister of Agriculture. A portfolio in which he, like his predecessor, was keenly interested, he was closely associated with the regional implementation of the marketing schemes and other radical initiatives then being introduced at Westminster.

In December 1934 he said of Cahir Healy and his colleagues that they ‘had never put anything in the way of the various marketing acts. They have realised that these acts were only passed to help agriculturalists and were outside the realm of politics. I should like to say I am very grateful’.

Wilfrid Spender regarded Brooke as one of the two competent members of the Cabinet, the other being J M Andrews.

Able and energetic, he became Minister of Commerce and in 1943 he succeeded J M Andrews to become Northern Ireland’s third prime minister, a position he retained until 1963. He was raised to the peerage as Viscount Brookeborough in 1952.

In his history of the Ulster Unionist Party in 2004, Professor Graham Walker contended: ‘Brookeborough's achievements over twenty years were substantial: the Unionist Party maintained essential unity, the anti-partitionist project was thwarted, and a potentially difficult post-war relationship with Britain under Labour was managed to the long-term benefit of Northern Ireland's full participation in the welfare state and new educational opportunities …’ 

Professor Walker regarded Brookeborough as ‘perhaps the last Unionist leader to command respect, loyalty and affection across the social and political spectrum of the movement’.