James Craig

Lord Janric Craig, 3rd Viscount Craigavon, the grandson of Northern Ireland's First Prime Minister, James Craig, holding one of his grandfather's maquettes. The bronze bust now stands proudly in the Octagon Room of Brownlow House, Lurgan. Photo: Ancre Somme Association 2025. This photograph shows Viscount Craigavon holding one of his grandfather's maquettes. The bronze bust stands proudly in the Octagon Room of Brownlow House.

Grandson of NI's first Prime Minister praised for decisiveness

Humanists UK have paid tribute to Viscount Craigavon, Janric Fraser Craig, the grandson of former UUP leader James Craig, who has passed away at 80 years of age.

Humanists UK pay tribute to champion of athiest and humanist values

One of the earliest News Letter editions dating to March 1749. Picture: News Letter archives/Darryl Armitage

Four left dead after Donegal railway disaster (1925)

Craigavon House was once a glorious mansion occupied by Sir James Craig, but now sits in a state of semi-dereliction off the Holywood Road in Belfast

Letter: Building is a truly sad reflection of unionism

The 1940 Ferguson System Demonstrator

85th anniversary of the plough for victory demonstration at Stormont

B W D Montgomery suggested James Craig look at the Scottish Covenant of 1581 to provide inspiration for the Ulster Covenant

The businessman who helped formulate the Ulster Covenant

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement is now 26 years ago. Tribal politics, however, is still alive and well in Northern Ireland, writes George Millar

Letter: ​Focus should be on party policies, not old tribal conflicts

Marthin Falck, Frederick Crawford and Andy Agnew on board Fanny on May 8, 1914.

​Recalling two victims of the gun smuggling escapade

Viscount Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, visiting Newry in 1927

Brian M Walker: Why this image from 1927 deserves to be appreciated

Former NI Prime Minister James Craig abolished PR in the 1920s. He succeeded in keeping Northern Ireland a virtually Labour Party free zone, writes Boyd Black

Letter: ​A strong Labour Party would be in NI’s best interests

In the early 1920s Sir James Craig adopted a conciliatory approach as NI’s prime minister. He expressed delight that a Falls nationalist became high sheriff and wanted other members of the minority to take their part in public life. But by the 1930s unionist-nationalist relations had deteriorated

Brian Walker: Craig might in fact have welcomed a nationalist first minister

Northern Ireland Parliament debates volumes - Ross's Auctions

Historically important parliamentary records from Belfast going under the hammer

Letters to editor

Letter from PUP leader: It is time that unionists put country before party

Ulster Unionist MP, first prime minister of Northern Ireland and 1st Viscount Craigavon James Craig (1871 - 1940) arrives at the House of Commons in London for the Irish Home Rule debate. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Sir James Craig: ‘There is no border question to discuss’ (1923)

May 1924: Prime Minister of the Irish Free State William Cosgrave (1880 - 1965) meeting with British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald (1866 - 1937) and the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland James Craig (1871 - 1937), at Chequers. (Photo by Firmin/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

‘Our enemies will have to trample on my grave’ – Ulster Premier’s defiant stand ...

A fully working assembly and government is the best way to promote Northern Ireland and the Union, writes Brian M Walker

Brian M Walker: Challenge is to keep showing voters importance of the Union

​​The current stalemate in Northern Ireland politics is both dispiriting and damaging. We no longer have a working assembly or government.

Brian M Walker

EU President Jean-Claude Juncker with then Prime Minister Theresa May at the EU Commission in Brussels on December 8 2017, the day of the EU-UK joint report. It baked in Northern Ireland aligning with EU rules, a major UK negotiating error

Godson & Bew: Windsor Framework is best way to get unionism’s ultimate objective

Basil Brooke was Northern Ireland’s prime minister from 1943 until 1963

Basil Brooke: Northern Ireland's third prime minster was admired across unionism

Bluebells in full bloom on Rademon Estate Crossgar

A very successful ploughing day is held at Rademon Estate (1917)

Presenter of a new BBC NI documentary on the Ards TT, Mark Thompson

Remembering the Ards TT: how tragedy brought a world famous road race to an end

From left: Simon Thomas, Irish Motor Racing historian and collector with former F1 Grand Prix driver, John Watson

Why the Ards TT of 1936 was a 'Race to Disaster'

The gate lodge used to be the residence of James Craig, the first prime minister of Northern Ireland

IN PICTURES: Former prime minister’s gate lodge in east Belfast gets makeover

Sir Richard Dawson Bates photographed with his wife Lady Muriel in 1937

Gordon Lucy: Hero to ordinary unionists, but Bates polarised opinion

The prime minister of Northern Ireland James Craig made clear that NI wished to stay in UK. The petition of the NI Parliament was taken by him personally to London on the evening of December7 1922

Celebrating the centenary of Northern Ireland today and its place in UK

1st February 1922: 1st Viscount Craigavon (1871 - 1940), Ulster politician, Unionist MP and the first prime minister of Northern Ireland James Craig, Colonel Spencer and Captain Nixon attend a conference with Michael Collins at City Hall, Dublin. (Photo by Walshe/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Great Glasgow meeting hears pledge from Sir James Craig (1922)

News Letter editorial

Unionists should not be complacent about census data, or panic either

Photographer and journalist Stephen Davison is fronting a new BBC ONE NI show called The Motorcycle Mavericks

TV show explores NI's passion for motorcycle racing

The photographer and journalist, who has been covering motorcycle road racing for 30 years, presents a new BBC One NI programme, The Motorcycle Mavericks. Here he tells us what racing fans can look forward to.

By The Newsroom

Michael Collins was deeply involved in the terrorism against the Protestants of Northern Ireland

Michael Collins was not opposed to sectarian killings, rather he unleashed them

Lord Trimble and Lord Bew in central London in 2018. Pic sent by David Taylor

Lord Bew: Disgraceful that David Trimble was never consulted about NI Protocol

The prime minister did not lie over Partygate, but the media have largely reported on the matter unfairly and often hysterically

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Boris has flaws but I still hope he’ll unlock protocol

Historian Dr Eamon Phoenix with Speaker of the Assembly and Chairperson of the Assembly Commission, Alex Maskey MLA, viewing the 'The Pope, the Prince and the Painting' at the launch of the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission new permanent display of items and images in Parliament Buildings

Portraits of de Valera and Collins back on show at Stormont but where is Queen?

TUV East Belfast candidate John Ross unveils the Northern Ireland century stone at Stormont. Picture: Peter Morrison/PressEye

Department confirms NI centenary stone removal as ‘no permission sought’

The seven signatories to the December 6 1921 Anglo Irish treaty. Clockwise from top left, David Lloyd George Austen Chamberlain, F.E.Smith, (Lord Birkenhead), Winston Churchill, Robert Barton, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith

The treaty to divide Ireland was signed 100 years ago

Auctioneer Karl Bennett holding a walking stick belonging to Nazi propagandist Lord Haw Haw. The stick is expected to sell for between £4,000 and £7,000 when it goes under the hammer at Bloomfield auction house in east Belfast on Tuesday

Walking stick of the Nazi Lord Haw Haw set to go under the hammer in Belfast

The Ulster Tower was unveiled on November 9 1921

Imposing Ulster Tower at Thiepval a fitting memorial to sacrifices of Somme

A member of the Bloomfield Auctions team in east Belfast, holds a walking stick once owned by Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister, James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, which sold for £10,000 to an online bidder. It was estimated that the blackthorn cane would sell for between £4,000 and £6,000.

James Craig walking stick sells for £10,000

Karl Bennett of Bloomfield Auctions with the walking stick once owned by James Craig

Iconic unionist’s walking stick going under the hammer

Letter to the editor

DUP should apologise for its role in the NI Protocol before criticising others

Peter Robinson, the former DUP leader and first minister of Northern Ireland, writes a column for the News Letter every other Friday

Peter Robinson: The party of Carson will now just ‘lobby’ against NI Protocol

The home of former Detective Inspector John Nixon on the 9 Ballygomartin Road in Belfast. Local DUP councillor Brian Kingston pictured at the house in September 2010. Picture: Jonathan Porter/Presseye.com

Bulldozers move in on Belfast home of controversial unionist (September 2010)

Craigavon House, from the Save Craigavon House Facebook page

Crumbling of Craigavon House symptom of unionist weakness

1st February 1922: 1st Viscount Craigavon (1871 - 1940), Ulster politician, Unionist MP and the first prime minister of Northern Ireland James Craig, Colonel Spencer and Captain Nixon attend a conference with Michael Collins at City Hall, Dublin. (Photo by Walshe/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Sir James Craig’s promise for the future as he leaves Lond...

Union Theological College

Presbyterian Church to mark links with NI’s parliament with online exhibition

The Ulster war contribution was epitomised by regiments such as the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, whose forerunners had their barracks in Enniskillen Castle

Northern Ireland centenary: Johnny Andrews on NI’s resilience and success

Stormont as it is in 2021, a century after the creation of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland centenary: Gordon Lucy on how NI was not expected to survive

King George V inspects a guard of honour during his short visit to Belfast on June 22 1921

NI centenary: King George V brought message of conciliation as he opened NI’s fi...

Dr Alan F Parkinson, lecturer, historian and author, has just published his latest book: A Difficult birth - The early years of Northern Ireland 1920-25.

Historian's warning from 1921 about recurring instability and violence

Alex Kane: Lots of questions, but no easy answers for unionism

The Cabinet of Northern Ireland in 1921 (from left) Dawson Bates, Marquess of Londonderry, James Craig, H M Pollock, E M Archdale and J M Andrews

Men who shaped Northern Ireland’s first government exactly a century ago

Sir James Craig got his wish for a strong and united unionist campaign in the 1921 election

The Union Jack swept the polls in Northern Ireland’s first-ever election

The royal procession as it rides from the docks past the Albert Clock through cheering crowds towards Belfast City Hall in June 1921. From Pathé film reel

Loyalist Belfast had been keenly awaiting arrival of royals in 1921

Leaders of unionism, Sir James Craig and Sir Edward Carson. In a letter to the widow of Mr William Waring, the caretaker of the Clifton Street Orange Hall, who had been killed by a Sinn Feiner in February 1922 the private secretary to the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, wrote: “Dear Mrs Waring – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland wishes me to convey to you his deepest sympathy in your terrible loss. He is inexpressibly shocked and distressed at the treacherous death of your dear husband at the hands of brutal assassins.”

THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Impressive funeral scenes as the toll of the gunmen rises

James Craig looked set for a place in the British Cabinet until he became Northern Ireland's first prime minister in 1921

James Craig, organisational genius behind Ulster’s determined resistance to Home...

The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Lord Craigavon speaking with Mr Robert Gransden the Secretary to the Cabinet in 1940

THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: From the News Letter of December 1925

James Craig died on November 24, 1940, and his grave is in the grounds of Parliament Buildings at Stormont

James Craig, implacable opponent of Home Rule who became NI’s first prime minist...

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