Lancelot Curran
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Major Sir Lancelot Ernest Curran (8 March 1899 - 20 October 1984[1]) was a High Court Judge, Senior Crown Prosecutor for County Down and later Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland.[2] He also served as an Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for Carrick in the Stormont Parliament from 1945 till 1949.[3] , Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance (Chief Whip) (17 July 1945 - 12 June 1947).[4][5] Sir Lancelot was the youngest ever Attorney General for Northern Ireland (6 June 1947 - 4 November 1949).[6] He was also a member of the Orange Order and a member of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland.[7] [8] Sir Lancelot, apparently, had a penchant for gambling at the Ulster Reform Club and was heavily in debt.[9]
His career in politics was damaged by his daughter's murder, with some Unionists refusing to have anything to do with Sir Lancelot, due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the case.[10]
[edit] Daughter's murder
In 1952 his daughter, Patricia, was murdered, being stabbed to death thirty seven times at their home The Glen, Whiteabbey, Belfast, she was nineteen and a student at the Queen's University, Belfast[11]. In 2000 Ian Hay Gordon, the man convicted of her murder had his sentence overturned after 47 years; he had originally confessed.[12]
Sir Lancelot's son, Desmond, once a prime suspect in the murder, was a barrister but became a Roman Catholic and worked as a priest in South Africa. During the investigation Judge Curran refused to allow his home to be searched and forbade his family making statements to the police, the RUC complied with his wishes.[13][14] Sir Ludovic Kennedy produced a documentary about the murder but this was allegedly surpressed by James Chichester-Clark's government.[15] The murder remains unsolved. Their house, The Glen, was to burn down during the 1960s.
A factual novel was written about the murder, "Blue Tango", by Eoin MacNamee, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
[edit] References
- ^ Privy Counsellors of Ireland
- ^ BBC News
- ^ The Belfast Telegraph
- ^ The Government of Northern Ireland
- ^ The Belfast Telegraph
- ^ The Stormont Papers
- ^ Privy Counsellors of Ireland
- ^ The Independent
- ^ The Independent
- ^ Walker, Graham, A History of the Ulster Unionist Party, p. 136
- ^ BBC News
- ^ The Ultimate Crime
- ^ The Scotsman
- ^ The Belfast Telegraph
- ^ The Belfast Telegraph
| Parliament of Northern Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Dermot Campbell |
Member of Parliament for Carrick 1945–1950 |
Succeeded by Alexander Hutton |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by William Lowry |
Attorney General for Northern Ireland 1947–1949 |
Succeeded by John Edmond Warnock |
